‘Snowden’ trailer: Can Oliver Stone make whistleblowing suspenseful?

Since Edward Snowden and Julian Assange came into the public eye and transformed the privacy and surveillance debate, there have been some good movies about the issue (Laura Poitras’ Snowden documentary, “Citizenfour”) and some not-so-good ones (Bill Condon’s Assange take, “The Fifth Estate”).

Where will “Snowden,” Oliver Stone’s entry into the burgeoning genre, fit on that spectrum?

On Wednesday, moviegoers received their fullest glimpse yet, as studio Open Road dropped a new trailer to the movie. In it, we get a chance to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the former NSA contractor, affecting glasses, pose and voice in a way that approximates (and will be closely compared to) footage of the real-life Snowden from “Citizenfour” and elsewhere.

Fittingly for Stone’s a-thrilling-conspiracy-behind-every-corner approach, the spot features much heightened tension. Exclamations like “We are running out of time” and “You’re looking at a possible death sentence” are uttered by various characters, the score ratchets up to a nerve-fraying level and even a (not-quite-related?) murderous explosion is shown. Phrases like “Run. Hide. Live. To Tell The Truth” run across the screen between scenes. It all contributes to a sense of grave danger and large consequences.

That, of course, is true; there may be few policy questions with as much import as the ones pertaining to privacy and government surveillance. The bigger issue is whether a movie about these policies can be interesting to watch. Essentially, can Stone turn what was the very non-cinematic act of downloading computer files — and the equally non-thriller-like activity of sitting and talking to reporters in a hotel room, as “Citizenfour” documents so closely — into suspenseful on-screen action?

And if he does, can he also hew closely enough to the facts to avoid the pitfalls that have dogged some of his previous efforts? (Certainly the more personal details — a few love scenes with girlfriend Lindsay Mills, played here by Shailene Woodley — and a backstory about a man who badly wanted to serve his country, a Stone staple, will be marshaled to help.)

The film, which also stars Zachary Quinto and Melissa Leo, was postponed from December, and then again from February. It’s now hitting theaters on Sept. 16, which means it won’t be at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival but likely will hit the late-summer confabs.

Snowden and Stone (the two have met numerous times in Snowden’s current hometown of Moscow), were in a sense tailor-made for each other—a real-life whistleblower and a man who for decades has been seeking to do versions of the same on-screen. Whether it’s a marriage that yields a fun moviegoing experience and/or meaningful social insight remains to be seen.

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT

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