I purchased the movie “Snowden” through Amazon.com, and the movie was delivered in a timely and professional manner.
As a published author who has a book for sale on Amazon.com, entitled “Revelations of the Great Spirit”, I am honored that Amazon has requested that I review the movie “Snowden”, particularly since my book was published in May of 2012 prior to the time that the Snowden revelations were first made public by the press in May of 2013, and many of the claims about the federal bureaucracy made by me in my book, as a person who had a top secret clearance in Vietnam, were confirmed by his revelations.
The details of his life, as accurately depicted in the movie by award winning Producer Oliver Stone, himself a Vietnam Veteran, are fascinating, particularly when he aced a computer programming test that usually took hours to complete in 38 minutes, leaving his bosses astounded and flabbergasted. And this in spite of the fact that he never completed high school. The influence of his girlfriend in raising his social consciousness is well depicted and deeply moving.
I was not surprised by his revelations as a highly competent professional computer expert who worked for and with the CIA, the NSA, and other government agencies that the US government pretty much has the entire world bugged, to include everyone’s phone, and all the emails in the world, to include the emails and phone conversations of foreign leaders, and this includes many of our allies. It is no surprise that President Trump, and Senator Rand Paul have lately claimed that the federal bureaucracy had tapped their phones, and I would not be surprised if every elected government official in the entire United States currently has their phones tapped and their emails monitored by our bureaucracy, since the bureaucracy is the real power of our government, and their goal is for our elected officials to be puppets on their string, much as their hero J. Edgar Hoover had all the politicians on his string as described in the book “Puppetmaster, the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover”, also for sale on Amazon.com.
Take for example the case of the impeachment, removal from office, prosecution and conviction of the sitting Governor of the State of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who was not convicted of stealing one single penny of government funds, but instead convicted entirely on the basis of recorded wiretaps played selectively, of offering the job of former Senator Obama’s Senate seat to those who might give him political support in his next campaign. In the meantime, the federal bureaucracy is stealing trillions of dollars from the taxpayers, and nobody is ever accused of any improprieties at the federal level, not even Dick Cheney, who is probably the most corrupt politician in the history of America. Blagojevich’s prosecution and conviction sent a clear message that elected officials are mere putty in the hands of our tyrannical federal bureaucracy.
Many, including myself consider Edward Snowden to be one of the great heroes in the history of the United States. His patriotism cannot be questioned, since he volunteered for hazardous training and duty in the military, but suffered medical problems which led to his discharge. His is often compared to Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press during the Vietnam and Nixon era, and has conducted joint press conferences with him, which can be viewed on YouTube.
And what is his reward for being a great patriot? He has been forced to flee his country to avoid prosecution. Many in our government have called him a criminal and want his head on a plate.
But the people of the world continue to admire him. Some ordinary people in New York put up a statue of him in a park, but the government tore it down. Other statutes and busts have been erected. He was given an award in Norway but he could not receive it in person since he had to worry about being extradited to the United States.
Finally, there is of course the controversy over whether the Russians influenced the 2016 election, but somehow, Snowden’s name never comes up when in reality, he is the controversy, since Putin has given him asylum, and as long as he stays in Russia, Putin is the real champion of human rights, and the almost unlimited power of the US federal bureaucracy is limited to some degree as a result. So the media, Obama, and other politicians do a lot of Putin and Russia bashing, while nobody remembers that Obama caved in to the US Federal Bureaucracy and AT&T by changing his position on telecom immunity right after he got the democratic nomination in 2008, so that he would be In Like Flynn on all the wiretapping and surveillance that took place during his tenure.

My husband and I watched this movie. Typically not my genre of movie , but was very interesting.

The Snowden chapter is a part of the contemporary American history and this movie does a good job at showing what the story is about. It has a very good cast and is also entertaining. Everybody should watch it.

Must see! Very informative of the technology gathering personal information along with business information all over the world

You are the man Edward, the man.

hard to watch how bad government can be.

All Americans should watch this..

Initially, I was a bit torn on my opinions about Edward Snowden. I don't think the movie was an absolute actual portrayal of what had happened. But it was a decent picture. About the mass surveillance in my opinion? After 09/11, I think the public whether you lean to the right or left wanted security a bit more than freedom. I definitely prefer a balance of the two, but high ranking government officials which include the executive office of the POTUS and other government entities will ultimately choose what is best for this country regardless of how much liberty most people crave for regardless of what is written into the Constitution. I'm a realist and know that this will always be closer to fact until whatever type of miracle happens and we learn to coexist and live peacefully among each other. But that will most likely not happen in the near future.

About the mass surveillance, it's unfortunate that many Americans are targeted by the government's mass surveillance tactics due to the "connect the dots" communications apps/programs implemented by many agencies. It's unfortunate that innocent people are constantly either directly or indirectly linked with other possibly targeted individuals or suspects looked upon for possible corruptive or disruptive things against my country (the USA), or even other 1st world countries throughout the world just because there was some type of link. In my opinion, mass surveillance is a problem when it is not managed ethically - provided that any human being actually understands true ethics and integrity. Especially from analysts from either the NSA or CIA or whatever agencies when they can monitor people through laptop cameras or smart phone devices without anyone realizing that. Who should they target? Of course, target primary suspects! But when you want to keep monitoring naked women and watching people engage in sensual activities through cameras when those individuals are innocent. Especially when those government employees are having a good time monitoring that and forgetting their mission, there's no integrity in that kind of work! High ranking and powerful influential individuals and officials in charge of those programs know that! Top ranked government officials most certainly would not want those surveillance tactics and practices monitoring their behind the scenes activities if it were possible. But then again, that's another discussion. I know for an absolute fact that high ranking individuals/officials in this country such as: President Donald Trump and his family and known associates, the Clintons, as well as high ranking members of the CIA, NSA, SS, and other gov't organizations are definitely exempted from those surveillance methods. In addition, I'm certain their families and close friends are also exempted from monitoring unlike most Americans in which their rights are most likely encroached upon without even knowing it. Again, if the surveillance program is to target criminals and people that have a high opinion or want to do harm against countries like the USA and other 1st world countries. Focus those cyber resources on criminal activities in order to maintain security. That's common sense! Gathering all American's phone numbers just because you can do it is not efficient. And on those specific areas, I most certainly agree with Edward Snowden. On the other hand, he did compromise national security. But I would want him to face possible charges from another entity other than federal officials and beaurocrats. Their hands are most likely very dirty as well. Overall, in my opinion, we have to place the right type of people to be in charge of those surveillance programs. Which is again, a very extremely and ugly convoluted topic.

In my other opinion about the PRISM program that Edward Snowden revealed to the world? Just because the US government through the Obama administration said that they shut down the program was completely absolute hogwash. The surveillance was definitely was still active and has been active to date despite the president saying that it had been shut down. It's impossible to shut something down that high which has been going on since the Bush administration. Again, when a messenger states they have done something like that. It is often a pacified statement to make the public feel good. I heard that the Trump administration has officially fired the same surveillance program back up. Not that it was ever shut down. Again, I would not exactly call Edward Snowden a hero, but I don't consider him a criminal either - it's difficult. In my opinion, a whole lot of high ranking officials also need to toe the line with Snowden on charges as well.

As for top secret security clearances, it's all mostly hogwash. As history has already stated like in this movie, a lot of people with top secret security clearances are often the same individuals who reveal classified information to the public, write books, and/or sell their stories to make a fortune after their secretive work. On the other hand, I know a friend who was dedicated while he was doing government work and had to wait for TWO MONTH's to get a basic security clearance! And he was way more trusted than some of these glorified individuals who tote around with top secret security clearances.

The one good thing about this Edward Snowden movie is that we all have to look into the mirror. And that definitely includes any high ranking individuals within top government whether they are in the Executive Department, the NSA, the CIA, CSS, FBI or wherever (i.e.,..Five Eyes..etc.) that think that they are above regular normal US Citizens and any other citizens throughout the world. Again, I believe in a balance of freedom and security. The main question is where do we draw that line.