Snowden (film)
Snowden | |
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Directed by | Oliver Stone |
Screenplay by |
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Based on |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle |
Edited by |
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Music by | Craig Armstrong |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 134 minutes[3] |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $40 million[2][5] |
Box office | $37.3 million[2] |
Snowden is a 2016
Snowden screened at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2016, before premiering at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016. The film was theatrically released in the United States on September 16, 2016, by Open Road Films and on September 22 in Germany.[6] It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Gordon-Levitt's performance and said Stone's direction played it safe. It grossed $37.3 million worldwide against its $40 million budget.[2]
Plot
In 2013, Edward Snowden arranges a clandestine meeting in Hong Kong with documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald. They discuss releasing the classified information in the former's possession regarding illegal mass surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). Poitras later released a documentary about this meeting titled Citizenfour, this in turn was used in a scene within the film Snowden.
In 2004, Snowden is undergoing basic training, having enlisted in the
Snowden applies for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and subsequently undergoes the screening process. Initially, his answers to the screening questions are insufficient, but Deputy Director Corbin O'Brian decides to take a chance on him, given the demands of such extraordinary times. Snowden is then brought to "The Hill" where he is educated and tested on cyberwarfare. He learns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which circumvents the Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens by allowing warrant requests to be approved by a panel of judges that were appointed by the Chief Justice. Snowden and his peers are each tasked with building a covert communications network in their hometown, deleting it, and then rebuilding it in eight hours or less, with five hours being the average time taken. Snowden impresses O'Brian when he completes the exercise in 38 minutes.
Meanwhile, Snowden meets Lindsay Mills via a dating website. The two bond, despite sharply contrasting political ideologies. Snowden acquires his first post abroad working with diplomatic cover in Geneva in 2007, taking Mills with him. He meets Gabriel Sol, who has ample experience in electronic surveillance. Snowden begins questioning the ethical implications of their assignment. After his superior decides to set up their target on a DUI charge in order to coerce information from him, Snowden resigns from the CIA.
Snowden later takes a position with the NSA in Japan, initially under the pretense of building a program that would allow the government to back up all critical data from the Middle East in an emergency, a program which he names "Epic Shelter". Snowden learns of the practices the NSA and other U.S. government agencies are using not just in Japan, but in most countries which the U.S. is currently allied with, which include planting malware in different computers that manage government, infrastructure and financial sectors so that, in the event that any allies turn against the US, that country can effectively be shut down in retaliation. The stress associated with the job results in the end of his relationship with Mills, who moves back with her family in Maryland.
Three months later, Snowden has left his post with the NSA and returned to Maryland where he and Mills resume their relationship and he takes a position consulting for the CIA. During a hunting trip, O'Brian reveals an operation in
Snowden ultimately becomes disillusioned with what he is a part of. It culminates in Snowden smuggling a
With the help of journalist
Cast
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden
- Edward Snowden briefly portrays himself in a cameo
- Shailene Woodley as Lindsay Mills
- Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras
- Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald
- Tom Wilkinson as Ewen MacAskill
- Scott Eastwood as Trevor James
- Logan Marshall-Green as Drone Pilot/"Catfish"
- Timothy Olyphant as CIA officer Geneva
- Ben Schnetzer as Gabriel Sol
- LaKeith Lee Stanfieldas Patrick Haynes
- Rhys Ifans as Corbin O’Brian
- Nicolas Cage as Hank Forrester
- Joely Richardson as Janine Gibson
- Robert Firth as Dr. Stillwell
- Ben Chaplin as Robert Tibbo
Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's Russian attorney and the author of the novel Time of the Octopus, on which the screenplay is said to be partly based, plays a Russian diplomat in one of the Geneva scenes.
Production
Development
When
Stone began meeting with Snowden in January 2014.
On June 2, 2014, it was announced that Stone and
Pre-production
"It's a very strange thing to do [a story about] an American man, and not be able to finance this movie in America. And that's very disturbing, if you think about its implications on any subject that is not overtly pro-American. They say we have freedom of expression; but thought is financed, and thought is controlled, and the media is controlled. This country is very tight on that, and there's no criticism allowed at a certain level. You can make movies about civil rights leaders who are dead, but it's not easy to make one about a current man."
—Oliver Stone, director of Snowden, on the difficulty of making the film in the U.S.[7]
Before production began, Stone and Gordon-Levitt met Snowden in 2015 in Moscow, where he had been living in exile with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, since evading the U.S. government's attempts to arrest him for espionage. The U.S. government had revoked his passport while Snowden was trying to reach South America.[7] Gordon-Levitt described Snowden as a person who is akin to Philippe Petit, whom Gordon-Levitt played in the 2015 film The Walk.[16] Problems arose in Russia, however, as companies that were affiliated with the U.S. refused to become involved in the project,[7] and no studio was ready to support it. It became extremely difficult for Stone, who had to finance everything along with the producer.[7] Eventually, financing came through from France and Germany, and the film ended up being shot in Germany as a German production, with contracts being signed eight days before production began.[7][9] Since the budget was too tight, Stone had to miss the funeral of his mother, who had died in America while filming was occurring in Germany. Going back to America would have meant that Stone would have had to cut four days of work, which he said he could not afford to do.[8]
Casting
On September 21, 2014,
For his role as Snowden, Joseph Gordon-Levitt pledged to donate his entire salary from the film to "help facilitate the conversation" about the relationship between technology and democracy.[27]
Filming
Principal photography began on February 16, 2015, in Munich, Germany.[28] Shooting was underway in Washington, D.C. in early April,[29] and shooting in Hawaii began on April 15 and lasted until April 18. The house used to film is on the same street Snowden lived on. At the end of April, Hong Kong press reported that crews started filming in The Mira Hong Kong, followed by outdoor filming in some old buildings in To Kwa Wan.[30] Shooting lasted until mid-May.[24] Some exterior footage was also filmed in Tokyo.[31]
Due to fear of interference by the National Security Agency, Stone decided to shoot the film mostly outside of the United States.[7] "We felt like we were at risk here. We didn't know what the NSA might do, so we ended up in Munich, which was a beautiful experience," Stone said.[7] Due to fears of the film leaking, Stone employed self-described ethical hacker Ralph Echemendia as a technical supervisor, and made sure all cast and crew used a secure chat-and-file-sharing program.[32]
Music
Peter Gabriel wrote the song "The Veil" exclusively for the film. The track's video features photos and a cameo of Snowden as well as news coverage scenes and footage from the movie.[33]
Release
On February 20, 2015, Open Road Films set the film for a December 25, 2015 domestic release date.[24] Pathé would release the film in France on December 30, 2015, and Universum Film would release it in Germany on January 7, 2016.[24] However, in September 2015, Open Road moved the film from its December release date to 2016. The studio did not give reasons for the delay; however, The Hollywood Reporter reported that maybe it was because the film was not finished yet.[34] On October 7, 2015, the film was set for a May 13, 2016 release.[35] On February 19, 2016, the release date was again pushed back to September 16, at the forefront of awards season.[36] The official trailer was published on April 27, 2016.[37]
The film was invited to compete at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, as the festival's director, Thierry Frémaux, saw the film, and praised it, calling it a "really good film. It complements Citizenfour marvelously. It helps understand a lot of things". Frémaux said he wanted the film to screen at Cannes, but explained that the film's producers "want to aim for the Oscars, so for them a Cannes premiere was a little too early".[38] It was shown at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival,[39] and had its European premiere at the 64th San Sebastián Film Festival.[40]
Stone held a private screening of Snowden at the former home of
The film had an invitation-only screening at
Reception
Box office
Snowden grossed $21.6 million in the United States and Canada and $15.7 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $37.3 million, against a production budget of $40 million.[2]
The film was released on September 16, 2016, alongside Blair Witch, Bridget Jones's Baby and Hillsong: Let Hope Rise, and was projected to gross around $10 million from 2,443 theaters in its opening weekend.[43] It went on to open to $8 million, finishing 4th at the box office. It marked the lowest opening of Oliver Stone's career for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters.[44]
Critical response
Snowden received mixed reviews from critics, although Gordon-Levitt's performance garnered critical praise. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 61%, based on 257 reviews, with an average score of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Snowden boasts a thrilling fact-based tale and a solid lead performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, even if director Oliver Stone saps the story of some of its impact by playing it safe."[45] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[46] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[47][48][49]
Richard Roeper gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "Snowden works best when it's just Edward and the three journalists in that hotel room, sweating it out, or when we see the pattern of events that led him to commit acts that exposed the shocking practices of our own government that also quite possibly created serious security breaches."[50]
On November 19, 2016, during the Camerimage festival, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle received the Bronze Frog award for his work on this film.[51][52]
Accolades
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Camerimage | November 19, 2016 | Bronze Frog Award for Best Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle | Won | [53] |
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association | December 5, 2016 | Best Portrayal of Washington D.C. | Snowden | Nominated | [54] |
Women Film Critics Circle | December 19, 2016 | Best Male Image in a Movie | Snowden | Nominated | [55] |
Best Screen Couple | Snowden | Nominated | |||
Grammy Awards | February 12, 2017 | Best Song Written for Visual Media | Peter Gabriel For the song "The Veil" |
Nominated | [56] |
Satellite Awards | February 19, 2017 | Best Actor | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Nominated | [57] |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Oliver Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald | Won | |||
2017 Cinema for Peace Award for Justice | Oliver Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald | Won | |||
Golden Raspberry Awards | February 25, 2017 | Worst Supporting Actor | Nicolas Cage | Nominated | [58] |
See also
References
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- ^ Alter, Charlotte (November 10, 2014). "Joseph Gordon-Levitt Will Play Edward Snowden in New Movie". Time. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
- ^ Siegel, Tatiana (November 14, 2014). "Shailene Woodley in Talks to Star in Oliver Stone's Snowden Film (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
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Majority of ticket buyers were older females at 53% women/77% over 25.
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- ^ Unterberger, Andrew (December 6, 2016). "Here Is the Complete List of Nominees for the 2017 Grammys". Billboard. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
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External links
- Official website
- Snowden at IMDb
- Snowden at Box Office Mojo
- Snowden at AllMovie
- Fitzgerald, Kieran; Stone, Oliver (September 16, 2016). Snowden. Official Motion Picture Edition. Foreword by ISBN 978-1-51071971-2.