Edward Snowden Makes For a Compelling Cinematic Character in Citizenfour

Director Laura Poitras, an American-born living in Germany due to feeling self-described pressure from the U.S. government, relays the correspondence between her and the mysterious Citizenfour. Citizenfour details that the information he is giving Poitras is completely top secret, dangerous, and requires the utmost caution. While narrating their first conversation, her camera follows the fluorescent, ceiling lights of the dark tunnel her car is traveling through, leading the way towards cloak-and-dagger information and paranoia. When Poitras' automobile finally exits the underpass, we are blinded by the bright lights of daylight and Hong Kong. America's National Security Agency (NSA) pulled a shadow over the whole world as to how they were collecting their data and who they were watching, but their methods would soon come to light.

Citizenfour is, for those who have been living under a rock, former system administrator and NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Snowden secretly wrote to Poitras, due to her previous statements on government surveillance and filmic criticism on the US government, and Glenn Greenwald, lawyer and then Guardian journalist. After months of covert messages, Snowden invites Greenwald and Poitras to meet in Hong Kong, where Snowden gives his interview and the numerous files that details the NSA's domestic and foreign surveillance programs. It is here, in a Hong Kong hotel room, where we finally meet Snowden and where most of Citizenfour takes place.

The surprising thing about these jargon-filled interviews, and the rest of the film as a whole, is that there is little extra information given out. If you've paid attention to the Snowden case on a regular but not a consuming basis, then you pretty much know all the intriguing facts that Poitras puts on the screen. Instead, she has made Citizenfour one part computer-thriller, one part human interest story. Snowden states in the film that he didn't want to be the focus, that the data is story, but the film does change tones when his face does show up about thirty minutes into the film. He does make a compelling, complicated character for cinema. While Poitras does have her bias government surveillance, she doesn't present Snowden in any specific light. Hero, whistleblower, dissident, and traitor are all labels that can be used by both sides of the argument to describe Snowden. 

Here's what we do learn about the man. He's very smart. This shouldn't be a surprise, given his occupation and the way he copied thousands, maybe millions, of government files without anyone noticing. He's meticulous and thoughtful. He is someone who always has a plan, and his fear of constant surveillance shows up when his plans don't work. During an interview, the hotel's irregular fire alarm worries Snowden, as he figures the timing of such alarm may be the beginning of an attack of some sort. He's overly suspicious, almost annoyingly so. He's the man-who-knows-too-much. After viewing all the "Breaking News" CNN reports about "Leaker Edward Snowden", and after a nerving negotiating for a safe haven in China, Snowden rest his head on his hotel bed. Poitres shoots an extreme close-up of Snowden's forehead, exposing every pore. It's as if Snowden is holding the world on his head, or Poitres is trying the crack the information that is hiding in his cranium.

Snowden is Poitres' muse, and the film seems lacking when he's not around. She shows scenes of James Clapper lying to to Congress about NSA's programs, or Occupy protesters concerned over their privacy. While scenes like this create a mood, they're not completely convincing for those who aren't already convinced. This is kind of the film's problem. In a way, the film should have came out earlier, when the Snowden fever was high, or later, when the revelations become more poignant. The film is in a limbo, just like its protagonist. Citizenfour works better as a historical document that will gain weight in the future, as either a start to a revolution, or as a time when we ignored the warning signs.