Watch: 'Snowden' trailer is exciting but seems too focused on thrill rather than reality

Anyone who has seen Argo will tell you how thrilling the last 15 to 20 minutes of the film are. However, there will also be some people who know that even though the film claims to be based on true events, the most significant parts of the last 15-20 minutes of Argo (which, in fact, serve as the climax of the film) never actually took place in reality. This is a crucial problem with films based on real events. Reality is often based on ordinary or boring events and cinema often ends up distorting that reality by trying to add spice to it. [caption id=“attachment_2754392” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Snowden. Screenshot from YouTube[/caption] This is an important fact to remember when you watch the trailer of Snowden, the movie based on the life of former CIA employee Edward Snowden, now one of the most well-known people in the world. Snowden made headlines when he leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, which exposed global surveillance programs run by the US. Let’s get something clear. The trailer is definitely exciting and we are all very eager to see the talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt play Edward Snowden. Moreover, the movie itself is based on some very interesting events which impacted the whole world. Having said that, there are moments in the trailer when you really begin to wonder whether what happened was part of reality or whether it was the same old spice being fed to us. For example, there is a scene in which Snowden is taking some test. An official says, “The average test time is five hours.” The trailer then cuts to Snowden saying, “I’m…done, Sir.” When the official points out that it has just been 40 minutes since the test began, Snowden says, “38 minutes.” When a trailer tries to present a real-life character who influenced the world as one of those school kids who smirked at other kids when he finished his exam long before others, you can’t help but feel a bit skeptical about the movie. Add to this facts that Snowden begins to nervously stare at the webcam of his computer in a sex scene in the movie and that the only time we see Nicolas Cage in the movie is when he dramatically says, “Find the terrorist in the internet haystack” and it’s almost certain that Snowden — like Argo or The Social Network — will be guilty of choosing entertainment over reality. Snowden is directed by Oliver Stone and will be released worldwide on 16 September this year. You can watch the full trailer here: