Citizenfour plays like a John Le Carre thriller and also may be thought of as a sort of horror film considering the implications deriving from the courageous actions of Edward Snowden. This fact-based documentary is densely packed with facts and provides an alarming picture of the threats to democracy and freedoms of speech and expression arising from the overly zealous activities of the American security agencies. So big questions emerge here with regard to personal freedom and safety. Of course, it's likely that there will be an ongoing debate about Snowden and his motivations ie, is he a traitor, is he a fool or is he a hero? Incidentally, it's likely that his identifying handle of Citizenfour references three previous whistleblowers going back to Daniel Ellsberg (1971) through to a man named Binney and recently a chap named Manning who uploaded classified documents to Wikileaks (and is now serving a 35 year sentence in a military prison) Winner of the 2015 Oscar for Best Documentary. During the ceremony MC Neil Patrick Harris wryly commented that," Edward Snowden could not be here for certain 'treasons' (sic) " A must see film.
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