Randall Beach: You want new friends? Join this circle of movie critics

Members of the Silver Screen Movie Club last Wednesday night at the North Haven Parks and Recreation building. Front row, from left: Lee Fermo, Marge Quinn, Rich Ziemba, Dyann Zusi and Linda Kiely. Back row: Paula Schneider, Cathy Conklin, Kathy Tenedine, Ellen Hansen, Chris Zusi and Tom Tenedine. Contributed photo — Brianna Cipollini

Rich Ziemba had an idea: why not get a group of people together, after they’ve all agreed to see the same movie, and have them talk about why they liked it or hated it?

And so Ziemba, a retired North Havener who loves movies and has plenty of opinions which he’s not shy about sharing, put a small ad in the town newspaper and recruited a base of about 15 members.

The Silver Screen Movie Club was off and running.

After six months, the group is stable enough to attract 10 to 15 people to most of its sessions. They meet on the second Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the North Haven Parks and Recreation building. Most of the members are from North Haven or Hamden.

There are no dues. All you pay for is the movie that’s selected. The participants go out to whichever local theater is showing that film.

See, it’s like a book club except it takes less time to take in a movie than to read a book that’s several hundred pages long.

“I have a strong interest in movies and I wanted to share my interest,” said Ziemba, who at one time had his own advertising agency specializing in producing radio and TV commercials. “But the primary reason for the club is to bring people together and make new friends.”

If you want to be a member, he said, “Just show up and join.” (For information, you can call him at 203-494-3002).

Ziemba invited me to come out and sit in on a meeting. He recommended I see the selected movie of the month: “Sully,” the amazing true-life account of how Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III, a U.S. Airways pilot, managed to land a plane in the Hudson River after its engines were disabled by a flock of birds. All of the 155 people on board were saved. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—The Girl on the Train

by Peter J. O'Connell

The Girl on the Train. Released: Oct. 2016. Runtime: 112 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, sexual content, language and nudity. 

Every weekday Rachel (Emily Blunt), along with thousands of commuters, rides the train into New York City from the suburbs. The commuters reach Grand Central and go out to their jobs. Rachel doesn't. The attractive but sadfaced young woman sits in the terminal all day. Sometimes she sketches some kind of vague scene taking place in a dark tunnel. At the end of the day, Rachel rides back to the suburbs, where she is staying with a friend from her college days (Laura Prepon). 

On her train ride, Rachel tends to become animated only when she looks out the window at a certain two houses near each other and the railroad tracks. Why is Rachel sad? Why is she interested in these two houses? Why does she ride the train so much?

Rachel does these things because her life is, so to speak, a “trainwreck.” She is an alcoholic struggling to recover. And she is a depressed divorcee, whose ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), had criticized her for being infertile and placed blame for his loss of a job on her drinking. Now Tom and his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), and infant daughter live in the house near the tracks that used to be Tom and Rachel's home.

The second house that obsesses Rachel belongs to another couple, Scott (Luke Evans) and Megan (Haley Bennett). Rachel fantasizes that the couple is a very happy one, but then she believes that she sees something involving Megan that shocks her. When Megan is reported missing, Rachel seeks to become part of the investigation of her disappearance.   

                                                                                                                                                                         The investigation is led by Detective Riley (Allison Janney), who actually suspects that Rachel may have some role in whatever happened to Megan. Rachel had engaged in some stalking-type behavior toward Tom and Anna, and Megan was both a neighbor of that couple and a nanny for their daughter. Meanwhile, it begins to seem that if Rachel can figure out the significance of the tunnel scene that she draws, she may gain insight into Megan's fate.

The Girl on the Train develops as both a psychological thriller and a psychological drama of the type more often found in Continental European films than Anglo-American ones. The time frame is fractured; events are out of chronological sequence. There are flashbacks by several characters. The bond between reality and fantasy is sometimes tenuous. Some characters resemble each other. There are many closeups. Much of the film is visuals and dialogue rather than action—though the action is intense when it does occur. 

All of this makes Girl a motion-picture puzzle. The audience can work up a mental sweat trying to put the pieces together so as to learn what is going on or has gone on—just as Rachel struggles to understand the truth about her past and present and that of the other characters. But once the truth becomes known, the “exercising” audience can “cool down,” for the film's climax is chilling. 

Emily Blunt as Rachel is quite simply superb. Her expressive face, though often of a haunted mien, can movingly convey a range of emotions. Blessed in the choice of lead actress, director Tate Taylor's film also uses cinematography in creative and effective ways through changes of focus and lighting linked to plot points and character development. For an audience willing to “work out,” The Girl on the Train offers enjoyable exercise.

Movie Review—The Birth of a Nation

by Peter J. O'Connell

The Birth of a Nation. Released: Oct. 2016. Runtime: 120 mins. MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content, and some brief nudity.

D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915, is a landmark in cinema history. Watching this three-hour-long epic, we can see many of the basic techniques of motion pictures being used for the first time. The film is also a landmark in American history. Its depiction of the Reconstruction period after the Civil War as one in which rapacious blacks threatened white womanhood fed into the racism of the early 20^th century and played a role in the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, which became a powerful force nationally in the 1920s. The film's racism was so intense that many of the roles of blacks were played by white actors in blackface.   

Now African-American filmmaker Nate Parker has directed and co-written a film with the same title as Griffith's. As Parker says: “I've reclaimed this title and repurposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America., to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.”

Parker seeks to achieve this ambitious goal through a portrayal of the life of Nat Turner, a slave who led a rebellion in Virginia in 1831. We first see Nat as a highly intelligent child whose seemingly innate ability to read is fostered by Elizabeth Turner (Penelope Ann Miller), wife of the owner of the plantation where Nat lives and where he plays with Elizabeth's son, Samuel. 

Time passes, and adult Nat (now played by Nate Parker himself) is working in the cotton fields. One day adult Samuel (now played by Armie Hammer) and Nat witness a slave auction. Nat persuades Samuel to buy Cherry (Aja Naomi King), who becomes Nat's wife.

Nat's knowledge of the Bible from his reading leads to his being allowed to preach to the slaves of the plantation, provided that he preaches the sections of the Bible that counsel slaves to obey their masters. Eventually, a minister (Mark Boone, Jr.) suggests that the financially constrained Samuel take Nat around to neighboring plantations to preach the gospel of submission for a fee that Samuel will collect. Samuel agrees.

In his travels around the area, Nat sees the many cruelties that slaves are routinely subjected to. Atrocity strikes home when Cherry is gang-raped by some white men. Nat becomes more and more defiant and begins to preach from the parts of the Bible that call for struggle against oppression. For this Samuel has Nat flogged.

Nat decides that the time has come for the slaves to strike back, and he organizes a bloody revolt in which a number of white women, children and men (including Samuel) are killed. The retaliation by whites is even bloodier than the violence perpetrated by the slaves. Yet Nat Turner's rebellion sends shock waves around the country and becomes an inspiration to later black efforts for liberation.

Parker's Birth accurately shows that most plantations were relatively small-scale operations rather than lavish estates a la Gone With the Wind. It also depicts well the complex relationships that existed between masters and slaves and among different generations and groupings of slaves. The severe production constraints that Parker operated under—a minuscule (by Hollywood standards) budget of $10 million and a shooting schedule of only 27 days—prevent his film from being an epic such as Griffith's film. But Parker makes the most of what he has.

As an actor, Parker's portrayal of Nat is always adequate, sometimes compelling. The supporting performances range from merely “generic” ones to fine ones. Does Parker fully achieve the goal stated earlier? Each viewer will have to decide that for himself or herself. But Parker deserves much credit for bringing a momentous, though often neglected, episode of American history to light.

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) Griffith's Birth featured the attempted rape of a white woman by a black man. Parker's Birth presents Nat Turner's rebellion as sparked by the rape of Turner's wife by white men. Yet according to “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” compiled by a white attorney in 1831, Turner stated that his revolt was inspired by religious visions. Nate Parker, lauded during the “Oscars so white” controversy earlier this year, has since come under attack because he was charged with rape in 1999. At trial, however, he was acquitted. (2) Burn! (1969), by Italian leftist director Gillo Pontecorvo, is a powerful, but unjustly neglected, epic film about a slave revolt in the Caribbean. It stars Marlon Brando, Evaristo Marquez and Renato Salvatori.   

Movie Review—Deepwater Horizon

by Peter J. O'Connell                                                                                                                                                    

Deepwater Horizon. Released: Sept. 2016. Runtime: 107 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for prolonged intense disaster sequences and related disturbing images, and brief strong language. 

Near the beginning of Deepwater Horizon, a seabird flies into the rotor of a helicopter. Luckily, the copter survives the encounter; the bird doesn't. This incident can be seen as both a foreshadowing and a salute. The copter is taking workers to the huge Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana. This fact-based movie will depict the disaster that destroyed the rig, killed 11 workers and caused months of ecological devastation over a wide area. That is what is foreshadowed. 

The salute may be to Sully, a film playing in many of the same multiplexes as Deepwater Horizon. Both films deal with how seasoned professionals showed better judgment than corporate or bureaucratic “elites.” Sully depicts how a looming disaster caused by birds flying into an airplane's engines was averted and how second-guessing by bureaucrats was refuted. Deepwater Horizon shows how the advice of working professionals was ignored, with catastrophic results.

The working professionals aboard that helicopter headed for the Deepwater Horizon are crew chief Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell), a weathered veteran of many rigs, and a younger man, electronics expert Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg). Once on the rig, Harrell and Williams are urged by Donald Vidrine, a “ragin' Cajun” representing British Petroleum, owner of the rig, to speed up the current drilling, which is occurring more than a mile below the surface of the Gulf, so that a new area can be tapped. Harrell and Williams advise against this but are overruled. Not long after this confrontation, the seabed, weakened by the speeded-up drilling, gives way, and a massive upshoot of oil begins—and doesn't stop.  

The oil spews all over the rig, causing catastrophic fires and explosions. The movie at this point becomes a spectacular, very convincing pyrotechnic display. The computer-generated imagery (CGI) is superb, some of the best ever created. The fine cinematography and editing add to the powerful effect.

Harrell and Williams are heroic in the midst of the holocaust, helping to save some of the 100-plus crew, though, tragically, some workers are killed. Eventually, rescuers arrive on the scene, but the ecological disaster has begun—as symbolized by, again, a seabird, an oil-covered pelican that goes berserk on the rig. 

Deepwater Horizon is an exciting and moving tribute to the “everyday heroes” who do the hard work that keeps the economy going—despite dangers that may be involved, especially when greed, arrogance and ignorance rule instead of experience. The heroes of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy are excellently embodied by Wahlberg and, especially, Russell. Malkovich is effective in his role, but it is the kind of role familiar to him from other films. Peter Berg's direction deserves a salute for his equally effective handling of both the dramatic and spectacle scenes.     

           

How to Make Better Than the Box Macaroni and Cheese

At home, I almost always make macaroni and cheese from scratch — or I did until a few years ago. Somehow, it fell out of the rotation and on the rare occasion macaroni and cheese did appear in our house, I resorted to a box.

I’m not very fond of the box, but sometimes it hits the spot.

After that long not making my own, the muscle memory that made me able to whip up homemade macaroni and cheese almost on autopilot faded. I started to forget why it mattered to me in the first place. It wasn’t a priority anymore. I couldn’t even tell you why that happened — I just wasn’t making it and was taking the easiest route on the rare occasion I did.

It’s weird how that sometimes happens: something that mattered so much — like cooking from scratch being a priority for me — falls by the wayside and we start to forget why we did it in the first place. Click here to continue reading.

How to Choose the Right Medicare Plans

Many beneficiaries make costly mistakes, says this author

You think Social Security’s rules for claiming benefits are complicated? They’re nothing compared to Medicare, says Philip Moeller, author of the massively helpful new book, Get What’s Yours for Medicare.  

“I think Medicare is easily as hard as Social Security and perhaps harder, to the extent that once you make your Social Security benefit choice, you’re by and large done,” said Moeller. “But once you’ve picked your Medicare plans, you’re not done at all. Not only do you need to learn how to use them, but you should evaluate them on a regular basis to ensure you have the best coverage year in and year out.”

With Medicare Open Enrollment starting this Saturday (and lasting through Dec. 7), this is an especially opportune time to get wise about Medicare. That’s true whether you’re 65 and about to enroll for the first time; you’re a current Medicare beneficiary and want to make smart decisions for 2017; you’re in your late 50s or early 60s and need to begin learning how Medicare works or you want to help your parents make the best decisions for their Medicare coverage. All of these types of people would find Moeller’s book extremely useul, I think. Click here to continue reading.

Westport Police warn of suspicious people going door to door

WESTPORT — Police are warning residents that there have been reports of suspicious people knocking on doors in town, and that an arrest has been made in connection with recent burglaries in the Greens Farms and Easton Road sections.

“While these burglaries remain under investigation, we have received additional reports from residents in these areas that suspicious people have knocked on their doors,’’ Lt. David Farrell said in a prepared statement Thursday. 

“When the resident answers the door, the individuals come up with a fabricated story about an internet posting or a broken down vehicle,’’ Farrell said. “These encounters end with the suspicious men leaving the area and police being notified. Police believe this is a tactic for the suspects to identify an unoccupied residence.’’ Click here to continue reading.

Cut Salt Intake Without Flavor Loss — Family Caregiver Quick Tip

Bland, boring and tasteless food is something none of us enjoy eating.

That’s especially true of our seniors who may have waning appetites.

Seniors are at even more at risk for bad appetites, as some of their medications may be causing unpleasant taste sensations in their mouth, inhibiting their meal consumption.

Many seniors also have been told for years, and maybe with even more insistence lately, they need to lower their salt (sodium chloride) intake to control their blood pressure or fluid retention.

Some of our seniors have been salting their food their entire lives and don’t want to stop now.

The bad part is that it isn’t just about the salt from the shaker, as some of the food choices we make out of convenience and availability are adding more sodium than most of us need for the whole day. Many foods we all eat add sodium to our menus which could surprise us once we read the labels.

How can our seniors still enjoy the foods they eat and cut down on sodium? It can be done!

Why Should We Lower The Sodium?

A new study published in Stroke confirms a direct link between salt intake and stroke.

It is estimated that 100,000 deaths each year could be prevented with sodium restrictions.

We know that lowering our sodium intake will help us manage our blood pressure, even if the exact number we need is in question.

The average American consumes 3,400 mgs of sodium a day but our senior loved ones (and us) should use closer to 2,300 mgs a day and, if we have hypertension, should be looking toward consuming only 1,500 mgs a day.

Tips for Lowering Sodium Without Losing Taste

Since taste is important and often why we eat a certain food, here are some tips to cut the salt while keeping the taste:

1. Keep it fresh, using fresh or minimally processed ingredients so your senior can prepare it and season it themselves and be in control of the sodium they are getting. This can be as much as half the sodium in their meals.
2. Add zest with healthy seasonings such as citrus, fresh and dried herbs, chili peppers, vinegars, ginger, onion, and spices instead of adding salt. Click here o continue reading.

The Shingles Vaccine Is Not for Everyone

DEAR DOCTOR K: You've written about who should get the shingles vaccine, and why. Are there any groups of people who should not get the shingles vaccine?

DEAR READER: I'm glad you asked because, yes, there are groups of people who should not get the vaccine.

Shingles is a painful skin rash, often with blisters, that lasts from two to four weeks. Its main symptom is pain, which can be quite severe. For some people, the severe pain of shingles continues long after the rash clears up. Called post-herpetic neuralgia, this condition can last for months, or even years. It can be quite debilitating.

Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox. VZV quietly remains in your body after you recover from chickenpox, but it can reactivate and cause shingles many years later.

Most adults age 60 years and older should get a vaccine called Zostavax. The vaccine helps prevent shingles -- and it decreases the risk of post-herpetic neuralgia if shingles does occur. The vaccine is also approved for people 50 and over. People generally should get the shingles vaccine even if they have already had shingles: The vaccine will reduce the risk of getting shingles again. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—The Magnificent Seven

by Peter J. O'Connell                                                                                                                                      

The Magnificent Seven. Released: Sept. 23, 2016. Runtime: 133 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material.

The summer of 2016 saw movie screens filled by an array of sequels, prequels, remakes and reboots to/of earlier hit films and TV series. Some of these second-generation works were big hits; some were big flops. The week that summer transitioned to fall saw the reappearance of the classic (OK, semi-classic) Western The Magnificent Seven, in a reimagining directed by Antoine Fuqua. Actually, John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven in 1960 was itself a reimagining of the 1954 Japanese classic (definitely a classic) Seven Samurai, directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa. 

The current TMS has the basic set-up of the 1954 and 1960 films. A band of more-or-less desperadoes is brought together to defend a village against attack by badder guys. In the current film, it's 1879; the village is Rose Creek; and Rose Creek is menaced by Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), an evil industrialist—boo! hiss!--and his hired thugs. Making the villain explicitly an exponent of capitalism is apparently a nod to today's social attitudes (at least as Hollywood sees them). (The attackers of the village in 1960's TSM were simply bandits.) 

For defense of Rose Creek against Bogue's threatened attack, widow Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) seeks the aid of Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington), a lawman who has come to a nearby town to execute a warrant—and, in the course of doing so, executes, in another sense, several nogoodniks. Chisholm turns down Cullen until he learns that it is Bartholomew Bogue who is the threat. Then Chisholm rounds up six varied tough guys as his cohort of defenders. 

Whereas in 1960 “the seven” were all white males, in 2016 the diversity imperative is operative. In addition, to African-American Denzel Washington as Chisholm, there are: Korean Byung-hun Lee  as Billy Rocks, a knife-wielding assassin; Martin Sensmeier as Red Harvest, a Comanche warrior who prefers a bow-and-arrow to a gun; Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Vasquez, a Mexican outlaw; and three white males—Ethan Hawke as Goodnight Robicheaux, a Confederate vet with PTSD; Vincent D'Onofrio as topnotch tracker Jack Horne; and Chris Pratt as gambler Josh Faraday. In addition, Haley Bennett's character, Emma Cullen, learns marksmanship and becomes, in effect, an eighth member of Chisholm's crew. 

When Bogue's forces attack the village, the action is fast and furious, even involving a Gatling gun and dynamite. Eventually, Chisholm and Bogue go mano-a-mano. It turns out that there was actually something grimly personal from the past between them. The outcome of the fight is resolved in an unexpected way.

This “updated” Western is interesting and exciting throughout but not as “magnificent” as the 1960 version. Denzel Washington, as the leader of “the seven,” is perhaps—or perhaps not—as compelling as Yul Brynner was. Chris Pratt is adequate, but no Steve McQueen. Vincent D'Onofrio, however, steals scenes with the same skill that he displayed in his debut in 1987 in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and in all those seasons on TV's Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Peter Sarsgaard tries hard to be the kind of villain that audiences “love to hate,” but he doesn't seem physically right for his part.

And the current TMS lacks the truly magnificent kind of score that Elmer Bernstein composed for the 1960 version. 

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) The 1960 TMS starred: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Horst Bucholz, James Coburn, Brad Dexter and Robert Vaughn. (2) Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke both appeared in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day (2001). Washington received an Oscar for his role in it as a corrupt and brutal L.A. cop. In TMS Washington's character several times cites his credentials, including “peace officer in Los Angeles.” (3) Director Antoine Fuqua has said that he always has loved classic Westerns. Some of the scenes in TSM will remind classics fans of Duel in the Sun (1946), High Noon (1952) and Shane (1953) as well as the 1960 TMS. (4) The fact that dramatic actor Denzel Washington has apparently now joined dramatic actor Liam Neeson as a popular action hero who is over 60 has been mentioned by a number of movie reviewers.   

   

Time for New Thinking for the Age of Longevity

The bleak narrative about aging is bogus, this author says

Rosalind Barnett, co-author of the new book The Age of Longevity, has a bone to pick — with pretty much all of us.

She writes that “the bleak mainstream narrative about aging, centering on decay, decline, burden and costs, is becoming increasingly less true” but “it has not yet been replaced by a story that reflects present reality.”

Barnett is hoping her new book (and articles like this one) will help correct the record about people in what she calls “late adulthood” — age 55 to 80. I hope so, too. I recently interviewed her about, as the book’s subtitle says, “reimagining tomorrow for our new long lives.”

When you’re older, you have a lot of life experience and you’re not afraid of failing as much.

— Rosalind Barnett, co-author 'The Age of Longevity'

Since Barnett — a senior scientist at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University — is a leading researcher on workplace issues and family life, we talked a lot about the implications of today’s longer lives for employers and for workers in their 50s and 60s. Click here to continue reading.

Remembering Raisin, the Goat That Led Two Lives

A pet goat named Raisin, who lived in Chilmark a town on Martha's Vineyard died of pneumonia last Wednesday.

Raisin was a local and national celebrity, admired both by his owner, Tom Ashe, and the Island community, and a much wider audience, after he was featured on the Late Show with David Letterman. Seth Meyers, who is married to Mr. Ashe’s daughter, Alexi, gushed about the pet goat when he was Letterman’s guest in 2009 and again in 2010. “Working in show business I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many goats. But none stole my heart quite like Raisin,” Mr. Meyers told the Gazette this week.

Raisin singing along with his one and only: owner Tom Ashe. — Courtesy Ashe family 

As a kid, Raisin faced an uncertain future. Chris Fischer, who owns and operates Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark, had been given Raisin by his cousin Emily Fischer of Flat Point Farm. Mr. Fischer attached Raisin to his property, hoping that the animal would mow his land. A friend of Mr. Fischer’s suspected he planned to slaughter and cook Raisin, and stole the goat. Mr. Fischer recovered the goat from a home on North Road with Mr. Ashe’s son Tolya, a private chef, and returned him to the Ashe family home.

Mr. Ashe insisted that they adopt the goat as a member of the family. “He fell in love with it and why wouldn’t you?” Mr. Meyers said on Letterman. Mr. Letterman flashed a picture of Mr. Ashe and Raisin making eyes at each other on a livingroom couch, and another of the pair in the front row of a car.

Raisin’s summers were as active and fun-filled as any Vineyard kid’s, making him a familiar face to many up-Islanders. Mr. Ashe and Raisin were frequently seen at Lucy Vincent and Philbin beaches, where he bypassed the “No Dogs” policy. Raisin was also a regular at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market, where his charm and friendliness endeared him to the local community. He was as much a fixture on the porch of the Chilmark Store as any human, and if the Ashe family went boating, Raisin would go too. “He was such a big part of summer,” Mr. Ashe’s daughter Ariel told the Gazette.  lick here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Snowden

Snowden

by Peter J. O'Connell                                                                                                                                                       

Snowden. Released: Sept. 2016. Runtime: 134 mins. MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexuality/nudity.

Edward Snowden is one of the most enigmatic figures in recent American history. His removal of National Security Agency (NSA) classified files and release of them to journalists in 2013 revealed the sweeping extent of illegal surveillance by that agency (and other agencies and organizations)--but also may have created some serious security breaches. So, was Snowden a patriotic and courageous whistleblower or a traitor with links to China and Russia? Or something different from either of these possibilities?

Snowden, directed by and with a screenplay co-written by Oliver Stone, leans strongly to the first description—even adding something to it as the movie goes on. We first encounter Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a hotel room in Hong Kong, where he is discussing his intention to release the files to the British publication the Guardian. Listening to him are documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and reporter Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto). Later these two will be joined by another figure from the Guardian, Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson). As Snowden relates his background and what he plans to release, his listeners attempt to evaluate him and decide whether to disseminate his information.

The movie cuts back and forth between Snowden's past and the present in that Hong Kong hotel room. Snowden, from a family of military and political figures, joined the Army as a Special Forces candidate in 2004 but was let go because of leg injuries received during basic training. Snowden then joined the CIA and, although not a college graduate, soon received promotions because of his computer wizardry. At the CIA the movie shows him as mentored by a sepulchral-voiced spymaster type (Rhys Ifans) and a high-tech fellow (Nicolas Cage), who presides over a collection of historic and/or antiquated cryptographic and computer equipment.

After some undercover work in Geneva, Snowden resigns from the CIA in 2009 and begins work as a contractor for corporations that manage computer systems for government agencies, including the NSA. Along the way, Snowden acquires a girlfriend, Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). The loving couple is seen in picture-postcardy scenes and also spats sparked by Lindsay's complaints about Edward's secrecy regarding his work.

Along the way, Snowden also becomes concerned about the extent and unconstitutional nature of the surveillance that he observes taking place and feels guilty about his part in it. The movie depicts him as particularly disturbed by the fact that the NSA in the course of its work can access views of women nude, including Lindsay. Here Stone , as mentioned earlier, adds another adjective to his portrayal of Snowden as courageous and patriotic—saintly.

Eventually, Saint Snowden, in a suspensful sequence, makes his way from his NSA post in Hawaii to Hong Kong with the classified files. The Guardian does decide to release his revelations, and the world is shocked!, shocked! Seeking to go from Kong Kong to asylum in Ecuador, Snowden is only able to get as far as Russia, where he settles in with Lindsay.

A principle of reviewing is that one reviews the work at hand rather than one that one might prefer to have been created. The film at hand contains a solid performance by Gordon-Levitt, with Leo, Quinto and Wilkinson providing equally solid support. If Lindsay Mills is actually a rather shallow person, Shailene Woodley has portrayed her well; if not, well . . . . The Rhys Ifans composite character is of a type often found in “spy thrillers”--one given to darkly oracular sayings about “what is needed for victory.” Oliver Stone's direction embodies commitment to his hagiographic thesis but lacks the “over-the-top” qualities that made the Stone works of the 1980s and 1990s so compelling.

Despite the principle referred to above, let's conclude with at least a mention of a more compelling film about Edward Snowden that might have been made: one that would take a look at Snowden's childhood and family relationships for clues to his later actions; one that would depict the good resulting from the information developed from NSA spying as well as pointing out its illegality; one that would point out the potential harm done by Snowden's revelations, not only for American security but also for that of the entire civilized world; one that would make audiences feel, really feel, the difficult dilemmas involved in striking the necessary balance between security and liberty.

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) Laura Poitras' documentary about Snowden, Citizenfour, came out in 2014. (2) Edward Snowden himself appears in some of the concluding scenes of Snowden.