Oliver Stone hopes his film Snowden will ‘wake people up.’
Film Snowden reveals a man of many layers
Oliver Stone likes to create controversies with his movies. His latest effort, Snowden, continues the trend.
The cinematic snapshot of Edward Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon- Levitt, follows the former National Security Agency contractor over a decade. The Stone profile defines him as a reluctant advocate rather than a deceitful traitor responsible for one of the biggest security breaches in United States intelligence.
After t he breach, t he U. S. Department of Justice filed two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property against Snowden who was subsequently granted temporary asylum in Russia. The movie opens with Snowden ( Gordon- Levitt) meeting with j ournalists ( Zachary Quinto and Tom Wilkinson) and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras ( Melissa Leo) at a Hong Kong hotel room as they prepare to expose the clandestine NSA operations.
What follows is Snowden’s side of the story. Flashbacks include Snowden’s brief stint training with a U. S. special forces unit, his undercover CIA efforts and his run as an NSA cyber expert.
Just as key to the real Snowden, and the film, is his relationship with girlfriend Lindsay Mills, played by Shailene Woodley. Despite the positive nature of the narrative, the development of the production turned out to be almost as complicated as the Snowden case.
In fact, Snowden was initially hesitant to surrender details to Stone when they met secretly multiple times in Moscow.
“We were wary of each other when we first met,” says the director during a Los Angeles interview. “I went nine times total to Moscow, and then the script itself was changed many times over the course of shooting and editing.” The filmmaker’s aim, he maintains, remained the same — “to make a thriller like Enemy of the State without the guns or violence.”
Stone also decided on a linear approach but with time-shifting elements to in- crease the suspense and the tension.
The sub- text, however, was a familiar one. “Snowden is l i ke Born on t he Fourth of July,” says Stone of hi s Oscar- honoured movie starring Tom Cruise who played a Vietnam veteran turned antiwar activist. “They both join the army and both men continue to be very patriotic and they really want to help the national i nterest, but they don’t define it the same way their leaders do.”
Like Born on the Fourth of July, casting the lead was key and fairly obvious to the director. If he couldn’t get Gordon- Levitt to play Snowden he wasn’t going to attempt to do the film. The addition of Woodley as Snowden’s girlfriend was an unexpected bonus. “I called ( Joe) and I said you’re perfect for us because you look like him and you feel like him,” Stone says. “There was no looking around.” Woodley was all about doing it old school to pursue the role. “Shailene wrote me a beautiful letter” and won Stone over.
“There isn’t really another filmmaker who would have done this so pointedly and as courageously as Oliver Stone did,” Gordon- Levitt says. “If you’re going to tell the Snowden story, he really is the only guy to do it properly.” Woodley says she admires Stone’s dedication to what he believes in whether it’s conventional wisdom or not. “We are quick to judge in our society, but so often we are only being fed one narrative,” Woodley says.
Filming Snowden was another difficult exercise that included locations in Hong Kong ( at the same Mira Hotel Snowden used as a hideout), Hawaii, and Washington D. C., Moscow ( where Snowden currently resides) and Munich sound stages.
So what does Stone think audiences will take away from the biopic?
“I’ve always been asked this question,” says Stone of his films. “
What’s the message of the film?
“Just watch ( Snowden) and learn from it, and see it again,” he adds. “You walk away and you decide if you are willing to surrender all your security to the government because they say they will protect you.”
The filmmaker’s question is this: “How do you wake people up? It’s a false contract because the government can’t protect you from life.” What Stone knows for sure “is that it’s harder and harder to become critical of America.”
Before Stone leaves the interview room, he’s asked by an inquiring mind whether Snowden has seen the film and if he has, does he like it? A smiling Stone pauses to give thumbs up before he exits.
IT’S HARDER AND HARDER TO BECOME CRITICAL OF AMERICA.