This is an exploitation movie designed to spin a tale about the big bad brother watching everyone and working in nefarious ways. I don't think the story is made up but the tale is told in a way to prey on conspiracy theorists and anti-government anything and "gee I didn't know that" type. There is no balanced perspective. First, bamford has been writing about the nsa for I think 20 years and in his latest book he gives many details about programs that are supposed to be revelations in this movie by the prophet snowden. His book came out long before snowden so how is any of this relevant? How can so-called respected journalists and filmmakers not acknowledge that the nsa has been monitoring traffic, including US communication for some time and it's been common knowledge. Here's another shocker, we spy on our allies; put me in a movie. And why does snowden publicly put himself out into the media yet claim he doesn't want the attention? This movie is about him. The story has always been about snowden. It's claimed in the movie that he wants to be the target so his previous colleagues aren't harassed. That's extremely naive. Anyone who knows anything about computers and security should know that he could easily have left behind clues for investigators to find. And, despite his claims it's pretty naive to assume that they wouldn't go after other employees. I'm sure a lot of people were put thru a lot of lie detector tests and probably hundreds of non-disclosure documents were signed and each one came with a severe threat. If you've ever worked in the intelligence business then you know the govt can be very anal about security and I'm sure this movie has puckered things up to the extreme. I've met a lot of really smart people in IT and security and snowden comes off as a pretty insignificant twit talking with very gullible and ignorant media types. The cloak and dagger stuff at the beginning is laughable, and the bit about keys and hiding passwords is nothing but hogwash. Put things in perspective. Google is not the first search engine but it has evolved to be the one that most people use and it's an amazing tool. Nobody pays for this service so how do they make so much, much, much money? They make their money by data hawking which has been around since almost when modern computers were invented in the 50s. They sell data about you to advertisers and they sell to businesses to get search results to favor them. Facebook does the same thing. There are many large data repository companies that work in conjunction with companies like google to build market data. All these companies combine ore about you than anyone including the nsa and any other agency you can think of. When you are on the internet they are constantly collecting information about you. More and more now this data is being used against individuals. For example, if you're unfortunate to get yourself on the news, media agencies go to these companies to find information about you which all sorts of information like any arrest record, police reports, banking information, your kids and their birth dates and names. Information that is private is collected all the time from govt agencies and then sold. For example, if you have an arrest warrant, in almost all parts of the country that record (by city, county, state or fed) is private yet I guarantee that I can find a company that can pull up your record. I suspect it is true as bamford writes in his book that the govt has been twisting the arm of companies like google to get access to theirrecords but you're pretty ignorant if you think they have anything on the big data repository companies. And the idea that anyone at the nsa can tie into your laptop and spy on you is laughable. If you are that paranoid, it's time to see a psychiatrist. This documentary preys on that paranoia and tries to hype and hawk it which is irresponsible but typical of the media today.

-Citizenfour is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its U.S. premiere on October 10, 2014 at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014 at the BFI London Film Festival. The film features Glenn Greenwald and was co-produced by Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky, with Steven Soderbergh and others serving as executive producers. Citizenfour won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars.--Reception:-Citizenfour received widespread critical acclaim. It has a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 129 critics, with an average score of 8.3/10. Metacritic gave the film an 88 out of 100 based on a normalized rating of 38 reviews. -Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote "No amount of familiarity with whistleblower Edward Snowden and his shocking revelations of the U.S. government's wholesale spying on its own citizens can prepare one for the impact of Laura Poitras's extraordinary documentary Citizenfour... far from reconstructing or analyzing a fait accompli, the film tersely records the deed in real time, as Poitras and fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald meet Snowden over an eight-day period in a Hong Kong hotel room to plot how and when they will unleash the bombshell that shook the world. Adapting the cold language of data encryption to recount a dramatic saga of abuse of power and justified paranoia, Poitras brilliantly demonstrates that information is a weapon that cuts both ways." -Spencer Ackerman writes in The Guardian: "Citizenfour must have been a maddening documentary to film. Its subject is pervasive global surveillance, an enveloping digital act that spreads without visibility, so its scenes unfold in courtrooms, hearing chambers and hotels. Yet the virtuosity of Laura Poitras, its director and architect, makes its 114 minutes crackle with the nervous energy of revelation." -Time magazine rated the film #8 out of its top 10 movies of 2014 and called the film "This Halloween's Scariest Chiller". Vanity Fair rated it #4 out of its top 10 and Grantland rated it #3 of its top 10. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, former Defense Department intelligence analyst Alex Lyda penned a negative review, calling Snowden "more narcissist than patriot". David Edelstein reviewed the film mostly favorably, and jocularly advised viewers "don't buy your ticket online or with a credit card". -The film site Fandor has published an extensive survey of other articles and reviews about Citizenfour, updated through December 25, 2014. --Lawsuit:-In December 2014, retired naval officer and oil executive Horace Edwards of Kansas filed suit against the film's producers "on behalf of the American people" for aiding and abetting Snowden's leaks. The Hollywood Reporter provided some legal analysis, noting observers opining that Edwards may not have legal standing to pursue the lawsuit. Edwards also challenged the film's Oscar eligibility on the grounds that Poitras' 2013 short film showing Greenwald interviewing Snowden constituted a previous release of Citizenfour, rendering it ineligible under Oscar rules. The Academy rejected the claim, noting that "the Guardian interview appears in less than two minutes of the documentary", and ruled that Citizenfour was eligible for Oscar consideration. -In February 2015, the filmmakers asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to dismiss the lawsuit on standing and jurisdictional grounds, and on First Amendment grounds citing Bartnicki v. Vopper. The plaintiff officially dropped the case on April 3, 2015.

Edward Snowden, 29 years old former employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, the man who provided evidence for the existence of "PRISM" program, the National Security Agency contractor, an outlaw, a wanted person. For some, he is a hero, for others a traitor. What guided him, intrigues not only the whole world but also the director. Careful observation of a person with paranoia, who knows the ins and outs of the world's surveillance. CitizenFour with "My Land" and "The Oath" by Laura Poitras may be included in the political trilogy, presenting the US post 9/11 events. The first two films related to the war in Iraq. In a broader aspect, these films are a contribution to a commentary about the trauma of terrorism. Citizenfour is a documentary immortalizing eight Hong Kong's days in Edward Snowden's life. The movie was shot during journalist disclosure from The Guardian: Gleen Greene and Ewen MacAskill from The Washington Post, on US bugging systems. In January 2013 years, Laura Poitras began to receive emails from the user nicknamed"citizen four". Letters contented spokes of possession, evidence for the existence of the NSA surveillance program and were able to demonstrate the relationship between state agencies and private companies. Big Internet corporations like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Youtube were involved. They depended on the surveillance network and also stretched to a telecommunications company collects information used social networking sites, email accounts, VoIP gateway. What's more, the information also exposed the phone -hacking worldwide cooperation. In a face of those facts, she the director could not pass by. Contact was kept in a secret from the world, the price for recklessly was too high. After five months, Laura and journalists meet in Honk Kong. From that moment on, camera wanders, keeps an eye on them, record everything that happens around Edward, clings to the form. Most of the events take place at the hotel. Claustrophobic, cramped room, which becomes a metaphor for paranoia, in which Edward lives. The creators draw the viewer into a world of internal events. The interview is interrupted several times by telephone from the outside. Someone has information that in the hotel is a whistle blower and he wants to talk to him. Snowden full of suspicion lies the lady from reception drawls information all in defense of his life. In the end, they move to another room, where no one will bother them. We are in the center of events, don't know whom to trust and who not. We know when the characters disappear when hiding from the establishment. There is a threat. You feel the thrill and suspicion. Paranoia effectively granted heroes and spectators. CitizenFour focuses on the activist, what drove him, how he thinks, how behaves? It turns out that in the whirlpool of scandal, shocking information and facts is the man who had the civil courage to sacrifice his well-being, for larger, more important cause. The director creates a very private image of Edward. Locked in a small room, weighing his words, covers the notebook camera, hiding from technology. In the film, Edward is a balanced man, calm and aware of consequences. His common looks are significant, here is the boy who was brought up in the spirit of the American democratic consciousness. The logic of his statements and control what he says, how he thinks attracts the viewer. Will not find in him the desire of fame, the hero himself says explicitly that does not want to conceal the problem, about which informs. It is easy to oppose his character to Julian Assange. The Australian is determined hacktivist, uncompromising and anti-establishment. At all costs, he wants to share gained information. His data leading awareness, on the consequences in human life (disclosure of the names of agents on foreign territory) is distant to the American.Snowden opts for other solutions.Protagonists are accompanied by an aura of mystery and danger. These treatments reflect the circumstances of the world, which we will live in. Always in hiding, paranoia, network eavesdropping and constant uncertainty. There's no denying that the director turns up the atmosphere of threat. Citizenfour is an example of a film touching the interesting topic. This film is interesting not because of the form, but what undertakes.Read more on visualandwriting.com

I have to just say one thing, I created an IMDb account to just rate this movie, so stop what you are doing now, and watch this shocking movie. At the beginning I thought it is an ordinary boring movie that just talks about hackers, but when I saw the rating, I decided to just go and watch it. After watching this movie, you will feel shocked and fooled. I thank all of the movie creators and participants for being under a great risk in order to show us the truth of the global governments, and to show us that freedom is just a lie. This movie made me think about throwing away my electronic devices away. I do not want to write any spoilers, so go and watch it.