In June, 2013, it came out that the National Security Agency had a massive espionage network in place. Within a few days, the source of the information revealed himself. Edward Snowden was a computer professional who had been working first for the CIA, and then switched to the NSA. Before long, his conscience started bothering him, and so he downloaded evidence of the espionage network, flew to Hong Kong, and revealed it to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, while director Laura Poitras filmed the interview. Without a doubt it was the biggest story of 2013.

This story got told in Poitras's Oscar-winning documentary "Citizenfour". Oliver Stone's "Snowden" tells the story, but also looks at the years leading up to Snowden's employment by the NSA: his military service, his stationing in Geneva, and then Japan, and finally his employment with the NSA outlet in Hawaii.

I don't know if I would go so far as to call this a masterpiece, but what's mind-blowing is the sheer scope of not just the espionage network, but everything else that it comprised. Without a doubt, the most important scene is the worldwide revelation of Snowden's leaks, and Snowden's subsequent flight to Russia, where he remains to this day.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a fine job as Snowden, as do Shailene Woodley as his lover Lindsay Mills. The rest of the cast includes Zachary Quinto (Spock in the "Star Trek" reboot) as Greenwald, Melissa Leo (Alice in "The Fighter") as Poitras, and an assortment of other people, including some surprise cast members.

All in all, I recommend the movie. Even though the viewer knows the plot, it's still a suspenseful story.

It's a great Oliver stone movie, seems right up his alley to do a film About a conspiracy and about questioning the government.

It's weird when people do movies about such recent events but hey that's how fast the media works these days.

It's a great ensemble cast as Stone tells the story of Edward Snowden who discovered that the government was spying on us weather we did anything wrong or not and decides to let us all know.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Snowden as a very likable guy, even if he was a Bush supporter, but most importantly he was a dude who loves his country and felt what they were doing to its citizens was wrong.

As Snowden, Levitt had the biggest chunk of screen time in a film filled with well know actors taking small, but important roles, like Zachary Quinto who played the guardian journalist chosen to tell Snowden's story and Nicolas Cage who's character acted like a mentor for Snowden's at the CIA.

Stone's fairness to the whole situation is painting a lovely portrait of the whistle blower himself

It's 2013. Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is holed up with Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) in a HongKong hotel room. They convince Guardian editor Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson) to print sensitive documents stolen by Snowden that implicates the US government in the widespread spying on the American public. Snowden was discharged from the military for medical reasons. He was an Ayn Rand loving Republican who served in the CIA. The highly skilled programmer has a long winding successful career but the unchecked intrusion starts to concern him. His stress affects his relationship with liberal girlfriend Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). Eventually, he copied the files and smuggled them out of NSA.

There are some good information but Oliver Stone fails to make me root for Snowden no matter how hard he tries. And he tries very hard. JGL creates a naive true-believer who grows to hate the corruption of his work. Obviously, Stone has a point of view and is pushing a narrative from Snowden's side. I don't have a problem with that but he has to recruit my sympathies. In the end, a couple of his arguments rang hollow. JGL's mimicry of Snowden does not help. He has a flat speaking voice with some minor autistic tendencies. It's not like the general public knows his voice so it's not really necessary. The information is good but public affairs have overtaken his story. It's almost quaint at this point.