Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour isn’t going to shed too much new light when it comes to the information disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden for those familiar with his bombshell revelations having to do with the NSA’s abuse of power and widespread surveillance programs. However, it does turn Snowden into more of a human rather than a headline, gives even more legitimacy to his words and gave me a new respect for Glenn Greenwald and his reporting, not to mention Poitras and her involvement in the story.
Beyond respect and legitimacy, Citizenfour is about as close to a real life procedural thriller as you’re going to get. Paranoia reigns as the film begins with encrypted emails, ends with conversations broken up so someone can scribble their next words on a notepad and even includes a fear the hotel phones have been tapped causing Snowden to unplug them entirely… only to have to plug them back in thinking the hotel fire alarm may have been triggered as a result of the disconnection. It’s almost laughable it’s so cliche, then you realize the truth to Snowden’s paranoia and suddenly it isn’t so funny.
The film almost plays like one of today’s blockbusters where the big CG creature you’ve plunked down your money to see is kept in the shadows as Poitras bides her time before fully revealing that which you came to see. It’s once the curtain is dropped that you fully realize Edward Snowden is simply another human being like you and me… To be fair, a human being with a massive amount of intelligence and government secrets floating around in his big brain, but nevertheless, his intentions come across as 100% pure and in the interest of the United States public, that is if you ever had any doubt.
It’s fascinating to first see Snowden. A white t-shirt, a little disheveled, sitting on his hotel bed in Hong Kong preparing to relay all he has to tell to Greenwald and Poitras. There’s a slight bit of a nervousness about him, but not much. More of the nervousness may in fact be on Greenwald’s shoulders as he snaps a pen in half as Snowden begins to speak. Even Snowden gets a broken chuckle out of the moment, but once he begins revealing information he’s all business. When asked if he’s afraid he almost seems to have accepted his future, accepting the fact this may land him in prison for life or even worse. He didn’t tell his family or girlfriend where he was going, but when they are mentioned we start to see even more of the human side of Snowden, and once the secrets are out in the open and the news agencies begin with the headlines and breaking news stingers we see even deeper.
Considering how political everything is these days I’m sure a lot of people will approach this movie with an agenda, but what I think comes out of it most is how much this isn’t a political issue, it’s a human rights issue. Perhaps that’s why it’s an issue that doesn’t seem to continue to generate buzz, because there’s nothing to necessarily disagree about when it comes to the NSA’s abusive practices, so there’s nothing for the 24-hour cable news stations to argue about. Arguing and disagreements lead to ratings, even if that which is being argued isn’t actually newsworthy.
That said, walking out of the theater all I could think of is “No one is going to see this” or, at least, “Those that should see this won’t even know it exists.” As Citizenfour alludes to, people just don’t care. People are giving away their right to privacy at every turn, only a couple days ago I wanted to vote for a friend’s food truck in a local competition, but to do so I would have had to give the company access to my Twitter profile, ability to update my profile, phone number, email, etc. Just to vote for someone’s food truck!
In another example, just as the recent school shooting north of Seattle was taking place, you didn’t have to turn on the news to get your information, just head on over to Twitter where the name of not only the shooter but his victims were revealed, and not just their names, but their Facebook page, Twitter page and YouTube videos. There is no privacy nowadays and we all seem to have accepted that, or at least are too bored to care.
If there was one thing I took away from Citizenfour, however, beyond an increased level of cynicism, it’s that some day in the near future there will be a dramatic court ruling when it comes to whistleblowers. There will come a day when someone’s decision to point out a wrong that is affecting the whole of society or even a small group of people won’t be looked at as bad, criminal or a threat to our national security, but instead heroic. People will no longer be afraid to come out of the shadows and reveal wrong-doing. Edward Snowden wasn’t the first person to ever risk his livelihood for the sake of the greater good and he won’t be the last, but he just might be the start of something truly major down the line and the more people that see Citizenfour, the more likely that time is to come sooner rather than later.
