As an assignment for one of her university classes my daughter was required to research Edward Snowden. We ended up watching this documentary and Snowden's interview with Brian Williams, reading some books of critical essays, collections of various articles written before and after his information release, etc. This documentary was a wake-up call and made our family ashamed that we hadn't known who Edward Snowden was before the assignment. (We had thought he was involved with WikiLeaks.)

Our family all came to the conclusion that Snowden is a patriot / whistle blower. If you haven’t researched Snowden, you should. He was protecting our freedoms and is now stuck in Russia because the US revoked his passport. His efforts caused Congress shut down a program doing bulk collection of information on US citizens (and others); a federal judge said the NSA phone surveillance program is unconstitutional, etc. Well, it's a long list...

Pretty world-shattering things...

Whatever your opinion on the subject of Edward Snowden and his revelation of details on US government surveillance, you should view this video. There is no question that Snowden committed a federal crime when he revealed this information, and that he knew he was committing a crime. He also knew that this would destroy his career and probably result in a long prison sentence.
Exactly what motivated Snowden and why he did this, knowing the consequences, has never before been completely explained.The responses from the US government, while not being exactly lies, have been misleading and incomplete.
What is sure is that most people, including the officials that held hearings on this have only a vestigial understanding of what metadata is and how it can be used. Every American should view this video to see more clearly both sides of this issue in order to make a fully informed judgement.
In spite of the government's accusations, Snowden was very careful that he did not release any information that would compromise any agent or reveal information on US government surveillance except reveal that it was being done. He gave this information to American journalists, not any foreign country and not for any benefit to himself. The tragedy is that while the US government says that he will receive fair due process of law if he comes to the US, the crimes he is charged with are under a law from world war I, long before today's electronic data communication. This law was intended for spies acting for foreign countries and presumes Snowden is such a spy. There is no legal defense against this law, even if the actions of the government he released are judged to be illegal.
Persons buying this video should make sure that it is rated for their region. Region 0 is nowhere and wilt not play on any DVD machine.
Benjamin Franklin said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

I purchased through iTunes as I saw it for sale there first. This is the side of the story we were unable to see initially. I was quite saddened to hear President Obama's remark that what Ed did was illegal and that we should have a dialogue,etc. We know how dialogues goes in Washington, especially when money is involved. We should have a dialogue though --- on why the US Government isn't arresting those in places of power for abusing their power. What Ed did was blow the whistle on unconstitutional spying of US Citizens, and the people and governments of this planet. This revelation should be served with investigations and arrests of those committing these acts but instead an old law is used to ensure Ed has no ability to defend himself. Ed is a hero. And his revelations should be a warning to us all that while we spend our days worrying about the latest reality star, the next game on FB, the next selfie or the next tweet from our favorite celeb or sports star, our privacy was being stripped away by our own government. I am thankful to those who took huge risks to bring us this information, this documentary and for those who broke the stories around the world.

This review is not my opinion of Snowden or the NSA but my thoughts on the quality of the documentary. I am surprised by the dozens of one-word "boring" reviews here. Since CitizenFour is a documentary, I wasn't expecting a car-chase pace.

Perhaps it is because I immersed myself in an isolated environment with laptop with headphones that I found the slow pacing and long silences to be so tense. The words left unsaid often seemed more sinister than those articulated. And despite Snowden wanting to come forward, I could really begin to feel his terror as the comfort of his anonymity and in-charge interviews gave way to the encroaching "oh crap" moments as he began preparing for the next steps.

The brief scene of him staring out the hotel window was chilling in its simplicity. It reminded me of films where prisoners of war are dragged outside to the firing squad and the prisoner looks up at the sky, knowing it will be the last time. Ever. When the Chinese human rights lawyer said they didn't have a car, and Snowden made eye contact with the filmmaker, I could almost feel his stomach plummet. I enjoy horror movies, but this quiet documentary really disturbed me.