He The People

24. Oct, 2014 1 Comment

Citizenfour
The Patriot Act
Official WebsiteÂ | Trailers & Mo
R | 114 min

You know that one photo of Edward Snowden, right?

It wasn’t taken at a Sears portrait studio. It came from an interview he gave abroad, right as he was about to drop a bombshell of information on an unsuspecting world, implicating the US government of spying on its citizens at home, and zillions others across the globe

Well, if you ever wanted a behind the scenes tour of that photo, then Citizenfour is the doc for you. And why wouldn’t you want to know what’s going on in the background? The info he leaked is only half of the story. Why he leaked the info is 1/4 of the rest of the story, and how he went about going public is the other 1/4 – and it’s 100% captivating!

Snowden knew what he was doing, and what the fallout from it would be. He stealthily got in touch with two rabble-rousers who could assist in his cause – filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald. He got them both to meet him at a hotel in Hong Kong, where they set up shop and laid out the plans to spring his leak. He didn’t want the story to be about him, but about the bad that the US gov’mint was doing, and he knew that once the info got out there, that they’d try to turn the narrative into nuttin but Snowden

So the three leak the leaks, and watch the plumbers come streaming in. At first, Snowden held his identify back, but before he could be outed, he outed himself, with the help of Poitras and Greenwald, and naturally, he became the story. What starts as soft jitters in a quiet hotel room quickly escalates into full-scale paranoia, both for the players onscreen, and for us. It is truly a privilege to be able to sit and watch the events unfold, for something so mammoth, and historic. Could you imagine if footage existed of Deep Throat meeting Woodward and Bernstein in a garage??? It’s juss plain crazy that we get to see Snowden try to remain calm, while his name and face are splashed all over the TV’s news broadcasts, and knowing that he’d never be able to go home again

The info Snowden divulged is the story, but who Snowden is, why he did what he did, and what he had to do next is juss as important as the info itself. I mean, why not tell a story from all sides? If only the US government believed in such transparency

Verdictgo: Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers

get on all Fours, in limited release today

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…