Snowden: Hero or traitor?: Citizenfour

Laura Poitras's Citizenfour, her documentary account of Edward Snowden and how he unleashed the story of NSA grabbing millions of phone and email records and spying on millions of Americans without authorization, and how American officials repeatedly lied about the operation and its scope, will provoke you into asking the basic question: Is Snowden a hero or a traitor? It's a free country and we Americans have the right to speak our minds, but did he betray a trust in doing so? Though Poitras is no doubt in the hero camp, I am really torn by this - in some ways I see him as heroic (and brave in all ways, putting his life on the line for his beliefs), much like the war resisters of the Vietnam era, deciding on their own that the U.S. government was wrong and that the war was immoral and acting on their beliefs at great risk and sacrifice. But in this case - are we willing to give up our privacy for the protection against terrorism? We say we hate the government snooping, but weren't we glad at how quickly investigators nailed the Tsarnaevs? Or the London subway bombers? I guess it comes down to the checks and balances; there should have been a more clear pathway of authorization, reporting, and accountability in setting up these surveillance programs - and though I truly think the Obama admin used the information only to combat terrorism, we can only imagine the potential future uses of this kind of capability, data, and info - use against political opponents, activist movements, for 2 examples. This film is our first and maybe only look ever at Snowden the person, and it was kind of cool to see him, on film, give literally introduce himself to a small set of investigative journalists and slowly and meticulously, in his pleasantly dorkish manner, explaining the information he has and its import. On the downside, other than the Snowden interviews in a Hong Kong hotel room where he was in hiding for eight days as the story was told and revealed to the world, there isn't a lot for Poitras to actually film, so too much of the film is made up of news clips of the coverage of the unfolding story. So it's not a great documentary from a cinematic standpoint, but it does give real insight into this complex issue and at least a glimpse of the personality of the man who made it happen.