Blu-ray Movie Reviews

After 9-11, the National Security Agency developed a top-secret surveillance program called Stellar Wind, in which the NSA could arbitrarily and without restriction, monitor and record all citizens’ communications. In early 2013, a curious correspondence of encrypted e-mails began between a documentary filmmaker and an anonymous source known only as Citizenfour. Documentarian Laura Poitras was already under government scrutiny after making films about the U.S. war in Iraq and Guantanamo. Her mysterious correspondent turned out to be none other than Edward Snowden, the senior government employee in the intelligence community and future alleged traitor to the United States.

Citizenfour documents the evolvement of that highly sensitive correspondence between Snowden, Poitras, and journalist Glenn Greenwald, and the fallout of Snowden’s revelations to the global media. From his Hong Kong hotel room, Snowden details the minutiae and lengths to which the NSA goes to observe and record our communications from e-mails to texts to Google searches and so on. When that incendiary piece of information goes public and the shit hits the proverbial fan, we get a firsthand look at how Snowden’s life begins to rapidly constrict and become more precarious by the hour. Poitras herself was under such hostile persecution from the NSA that she was forced to move to Berlin to protect her film footage from being confiscated at the U.S. border.

Citizenfour was shot on high-grade digital video, and the HD picture sports the appropriate visual quality with grain and image blur. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since it enhances the overall mood of paranoia and gives the proceedings a definite sense of immediacy. Nothing about this feels fake or dramatized, but this is a documentary, after all. The sound is rendered for DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, but it never tries to be flashy. Still, every time the telephone rings or a fire alarm goes off, it’s legitimately spooky, specifically because it isn’t overstated for dramatic effect. Voice-overs and music interludes are effective but used sparingly.

Public opinion seems decisively spilt on Snowden and his actions, and if you’re one of those people who still side with the government’s assessment that he is indeed a traitor and should be punished accordingly, I would challenge you to watch this film with an open mind, if you can.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Anchor Bay, 2015
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 113 mins.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Laura Poitras
Starring: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney