'Citizenfour' moves like a master spy novel
<b>Mini-review: 'Citizenfour'</b>
In Laura Poitras' conscience-shaking documentary "Citizenfour," President Obama explains that CIA whistle-blower Edward Snowden can't be a patriot because he endangered American lives (and interests) by releasing thousands of classified documents and emails to the London newspaper The Guardian.
The president tells the press he wishes that Snowden had been part of an intelligent discussion about U.S. domestic surveillance policy before resorting to such drastic actions.
What "Citizenfour" doesn't do (does it really need to?) is point out that the Obama administration had presumably already conducted reasoned discussions about spying on U.S. citizens and then gone ahead and approved the massive collection of metadata from phone calls, emails, text messages and every form of electronic communications known to American citizens and key figures around the world.
"Citizenfour" is yet another scary movie released on Halloween day, this one guaranteed to frighten anyone worried about privacy issues.
Poitras, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service, was already making a film about post-9/11 surveillance when she received encrypted emails from a source identified only as "citizen four."
He turned out to be Snowden, a mild-mannered young man in T-shirt and glasses, someone so concerned with the magnitude of the NSA's surveillance program that he tells Poitras and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald he's willing to accept whatever consequences come from his decision to expose what he deems to be a danger to privacy and intellectual discourse.
"Citizenfour" lacks the drama infused into docs by filmmakers such as Michael Moore, yet, the issues and revelations here are jaw-dropping bombshells delivered with Poitras' cool, journalistic reserve.
"Citizenfour" moves like a master spy novel as the reporters, realizing that they will become targets of the NSA, become de facto espionage counter agents, doing what they can to hide Snowden and keep below the proverbial radar.
One scary fact revealed: Any telephone on a cradle or in the "off" position can still be used as a listening device by the NSA. This prompts one key figure in the movie to point out that "All the President's Men" reporter Bob Woodward had it right when he met with the whistle-blower "Deep Throat" in the basement of a Washington parking garage, no devices allowed.
Sometimes, the old ways are still best.
<b>"Citizenfour" opens at the Century Centre in Chicago. Rated R for language. 114 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ★ </b>