Greetings Steemians!

I hope you all had a magical & restorative Equinox (I certainly did), and are ready to dive into the next chapter of your lives!

Today, I'm here with the second episode of my new weekly series: *Sunday Cinema Reflections*.

### <center>Previous Episodes</center>
<center>[Episode 1: K-PAX](https://steempeak.com/sundaycinema/@kennyskitchen/every-being-in-the-universe-knows-right-from-wrong-sunday-cinema-reflections-k-pax)</center>

<center>**Be warned, while I do not plan to spell out the whole story of any of these movies, there will most likely be at least some spoilers in every episode.**</center>

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# <center>Episode 2: Snowden</center>

<center>https://theknockturnal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/snowden-movie.jpg
*[Image Source](https://theknockturnal.com/film-review-snowden/)*</center>

## <center>The Movie</center>

*Snowden* is the movie adaptation of the story of [Edward Joseph Snowden](https://edwardsnowden.com/), one of the biggest whistle-blowers in the history of America, and potentially of the world.

The movie was directed by [Oliver Stone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Stone), one of the few people in Hollywood consistently willing to question the "official narrative", and who you may know from some of his other films like: *Platoon*, *JFK*, *Wall Street*, *The Doors*, *Nixon*, et al.

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## <center>The Story</center>

The movie starts off in Hong Kong, 2013, when Snowden was meeting with Glenn Greenwald of *The Guardian* and Laura Poitras (a documentarian), sharing what he had learned about the NSA's surveillance programs, and preparing them for telling the story.

Throughout the film, the story shifts between that point and Snowden's history, until finally the past timeline catches up with the publishing of the first story.

Along the way, we get to see Ed's time in basic training, and the injury which led him to be discharged from the Army, his joining the CIA and heading off the "The Hill" (CIA training facility), and having his first glimpses into the immoral things his government was doing.

Ed was in the CIA for some time before he resigned after seeing (and being involved in) some things he just couldn't reconcile, then he joined the revolving door of intelligence "contractors".

From Japan to Hawaii, from Virginia to Switzerland, the movie does a great job at giving many little glimpses into the life of a modern "spy", and is honestly the most in-depth breakdown of what the government has been up to that most Americans will ever get.

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## <center>Some Quotes (from the movie)</center>

> __Edward Snowden:__ *You ever hear about the Nuremberg trials, Trev? They weren't that long ago. Yeah, well, the big shots were the first trial, but then the next trial were just the judges, and lawyers, and policemen, and guards, and ordinary people just doing their jobs, following orders. That's where we got the Nuremberg principles, which then the UN made into international law, just in case ordinary jobs become criminal again.*

> __Corbin O'Brian:__ *In 20 years, Iraq will be a hellhole nobody cares about. Terrorism's a short-term threat. The real threats will come from China, Russia, Iran. and they'll come as SQL injections and malware. Without minds like yours, this country will be torn apart in cyberspace.*

> __NSA Intel Tech:__ *In Vegas, looking at Afghanistan. We all knew that it was a kid. Poof. He's gone. But same village, two, three days later. We see the funeral party. We knew it was a kid that they were burying. Moms and dads wailing. And then the order comes down. Hit 'em. Poof. And they are gone in a cloud of dust.*

> __Edward Snowden:__ *How is this all possible?*
> __Gabriel Sol:__ *Think of it as a Google search except instead of searching only what people make public we’re also looking at everything they don’t. emails, chats, SMS, whatever.*
> __Edward Snowden:__ *Yeah, but which people?*
> __Gabriel Sol:__ *The whole kingdom, Snow White.*

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## <center>Some Quotes (from the man, not in the movie)</center>

> *Every person remembers some moment in their life where they witnessed some injustice, big or small, and looked away because the consequences of intervening seemed too intimidating. But there's a limit to the amount of incivility and inequality and inhumanity that each individual can tolerate. I crossed that line. And I'm no longer alone.*

> *I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal.*

> *Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.*

> *These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power.*

> *Study after study has shown that human behavior changes when we know we’re being watched. Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively *are* less free.*

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## <center>Why I Wanted to Share *Snowden*</center>

The point of this series, to me, is to share movies that in some way question the common understanding of reality, that show another way of being, that are eye-opening, and that hopefully will change someone's life by watching them. When we sat down to pick which movie to watch last night, @TheLynx had only a vague awareness of who Edward Snowden is (which is unfortunately the norm), so after narrowing down to a few choices and rolling a die to decide which one, I immediately became clear that I wanted to watch this rather than *The Peaceful Warrior* (next week's choice!)

This movie does a pretty fantastic job of giving the basic rundown of what the life of a CIA/NSA agent is like, gives all sorts of little hints and clues as to some of the horrendous things the US is doing around the world, and makes the reality of the surveillance state much more concrete for most people.

I definitely have some issues with the way it's all presented, since Stone obviously never goes near the fact that government is inherently wrong, and really doesn't even question the mythology of America as a whole. To some extent, I acknowledge that he can't really do much of that without losing his ability to create these movies, so I just take it for what it is.

One of the best parts of watching the movie last night was that whenever something came up that needed a lot more unpacking, we'd pause it and @TheLynx would ask her questions and I would go a little deeper down the rabbit hole that the movie had just briefly pointed at.

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## <center>Here's the first big interview Snowden did in 2013:</center>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs

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#### <center>Thanks for tuning in for another episode of *Sunday Cinema Reflections*, and please be sure to [follow my blog](www.steemit.com/@kennyskitchen) to catch the next one, plus all my other content (I publish daily, on a wide range of topics)</center>

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<center>[![TSU](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQtHhHeZ1pwvujvZkYdpYwgNGb8WAp791cpWmjuQ21kX5/image.png)](https://steemit.com/@tribesteemup)

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## <center>If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy some of these highlights of my blog:</center>
<center>["Greatest Hits/Table of Contents" of my first 2 years on Steemit](https://steemit.com/life/@kennyskitchen/9-hours-from-my-30th-birthday-and-quickly-approaching-my-2-year-anniversary-with-steemit-it-seems-like-a-good-time-to-do-a)</center>
<center>[You've Created Your Steemit Account and You're Ready to Get Started... What Now? [New Steemians Start-Up Guide]](https://steemit.com/welcometosteemit/@kennyskitchen/you-ve-created-your-steemit-account-and-you-re-ready-to-get-started-what-now-new-steemians-start-up-guide)</center>
<center>[The 8 Pillars of @TribeSteemUp: Clarification, Refinement, and Re-Casting the Spell](https://steemit.com/tribesteemup/@kennyskitchen/the-8-pillars-of-tribesteemup-clarification-refinement-and-re-casting-the-spell)</center>
<center>[The Status, Vision, and Needs of *Real Life: The Role-Playing Game*](https://steemit.com/realliferpg/@kennyskitchen/the-status-vision-and-needs-of-real-life-the-role-playing-game)</center>

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