Parts of this film felt oddly personality-driven: How will Edward Snowden dress today? What are his facial expressions while watching the news? But really it is an exploration of what we're willing to sacrifice for our principles...and for our freedoms. For all its faults, watching this story unfold in real time is compelling and worthwhile.

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.

Nobody likes being spy on. If you do, then there is something wrong with you. For some of us, hearing the news that the US government has been spying on its citizens in the Americas and its allies for years from an ex-National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, is shocking and disturbing. For others, it was not that surprising, seeing how many have lived under the fear of government infiltration since the days where the Patriot Act was created in 2001. For me, while, the documentary didn't bring much of anything new to the table, that I haven't known for years, because of William Binney, Chelsea Manning, Wikileaks, Anonymous, and other underground websites. I thought, no matter what, Snowden's actions on June 2013 did make big news around the world, as it spark a sense of public awareness of the illegal wiretapping practices of the NSA and other intelligence agencies. This documentary really does captured those moments, with the black computer coded texting narrative in the beginning, and how director Laura Poitras, along with investigative journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewan MacAskill of 'the Guardian', a British newspaper, agree to meet with Edward Snowden AKA "Citizenfour" in a Hong Kong hotel room in order to spill the beans. While, it perfectly capture the paranoia days before, during and after Snowden's revelations became the world's top news story with intense scenes of suspicious 'hot mic' phones calls, weird arrivals of repairs vans and downright disturbing coincidence like a fire alarm going off, while the group is in the hotel for over eight days to discuss the data and how best to reveal it to the world, and the repercussions of doing so. A bit, of me, thinks, some of it was a bit played off, for dramatic effects. After all, the NSA didn't know for days, who did it, until Snowden put out his name out, there. Plus, it took the US government, a few more weeks to finally requests the Hong Kong government extradite Snowden. So, in short, I don't think, Snowden was in danger, as the film portray, he was. Added to that, the film does feel a bit one-sided to the point, that certain shots, seem staged, like the ripping of the papers, and the close up of author Cory Doctorow's novel 'Homeland', which focus on a technologically clued-in young person, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. It didn't felt like real raw footage. It felt theatrics and an bit propaganda. Another problem with the film is that, it didn't feature much of 'Washington Post' journalist, Barton Gellman's coverage of the U.S. National Security Agency. He too, was provided with top secret documents by Snowden like the 'Black Budget' file. I would love to see, his story, showcase as well. Furthermore, the disclosures made by other publications including 'Der Spiegel' and 'The New York Times' should also be explore. Another problem for the film is, the fact that it didn't explain much in layman's terms, the majority of the vast hundreds of pages of classified NSA documents that he was giving to the public, such as examples, 'Tempora' 'Blackpearl' and 'Xkeyscore'. Because of that, some people couldn't comprehend, what they were seeing on screen. There was one scene that really bug me, in which Snowden felt compelled to put a blanket over his head, while typing on a laptop. I think, he was blocking his face from the laptop webcam as NSA is known to spy through there, but I wish the movie was a little more, clear with that. I also wish the movie used more visuals numbers, charts, and graphs as it is the only thing, that I can think, could had made people understand how much government was intruding on our privacies. Even with visuals, some narrative was needed, as images such as "Google Cloud Exploitation" from NSA MUSCULAR program was hard to understanding. Another problem is that, it didn't follow up, with later leaks by Snowden being put out there, such as 'MonsterMind' & 'Turbine'. Despite that, this documentary indeed shows some of the dark side of where society is heading into the digital age. It did shows the extent to which the U.S. and other governments seek to punish Snowden, Poitras, and Greenwald for their shocking revealed, weeks later. However, it fell to mention the problems in details, when Snowden try to get asylum, such as the infamous Evo Morales grounding incident, or the reasons, why Snowden is trapped in Russia. Despite that, I just surprised, this movie was even released, seeing how the director had to flee to Germany from Hong Kong, in order to edit the film, before the FBI shown up with a search warrant for her hard drives. I guess, the government later decide, that there was no way to stop the film from coming out, so they let it go, and move on, to tightening their own security. Regardless of the so-calls, threats, Poitras was able to release the documentary to the public in late 2014. In my opinion, the world is better, because of it. Overall: This documentary really does deserve the Academy Award win for Best Documentary, that year, despite some flaws, as it show exciting investigative journalism. It's a must watch for sure.

Everyone who believes in the freedom of speech and the protection of individual privacy should make the viewing of this documentary a number one priority. Snowden has shown exceptional courage and foresight in doing what he did, which this footage amply displays. In addition all others involved (journalists etc.) should be commended on their contributions and courage.The conclusions that one is forced to draw about government surveillance after watching this are so chilling that I almost feel guilty writing what I am right now. But, if nothing else, this documentary will make you realise how important it is to stand up for your basic human rights.