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CITIZENFOUR – The Blu Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Blu-Ray Review

CITIZENFOUR – The Blu Review

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“The subject of CITIZENFOUR, Edward Snowden, could not be here for some treason.”Neil Patrick Harris at The Oscars

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The feature film SNOWDEN is currently in post-production and will be released in the US on Christmas day. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Edward Snowden in the film directed by Oliver Stone, so don’t expect subtlety. If you want to find out more about Snowden, be sure to check out the Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR, which will be released on Blu-ray August 25th.

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Few documentaries have cameras rolling as history is being made. But director Laura Poitras found herself in the middle of momentous times while making CITIZENFOUR, which took us behind the scenes as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden worked with (among others) journalist Glenn Greenwald to expose the organization’s systematic surveillance of everyday Americans. From the worried initial meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room to the later fallout across the globe, CITIZENFOUR had the vibe of a good thriller. We could feel the tension building when we hear the news coverage on the TV the day after the story of Snowden’s expose is published and Poitras did a great job in completing the movie using strong footage from all around the globe. We hear Snowden explain how he was offended by the NSA’s spying system. (The word “spying” is used as often as the more neutral “surveillance.”) and, with ominous music in the background, we watch government representatives apparently lie to congress. They’re clearly defined as the enemy, like Big Tobacco was. The names of Obama and Pelosi are brought up in a context suggesting hypocrisy. It’s a government program that covers all Americans, not just suspects. CITIZENFOUR and Snowden’s actions will all feed into the national paranoia (especially after Oliver Stone’s film comes out) and some will swallow the documentary as the whole truth but some may wonder if the protection from NSA surveillance that may follow Snowden’s actions is more than the damage he has done to national security.

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CITIZENFOUR will be released on Blu-ray and DVD August 25th from Starz/Anchor Bay and We Are Movie Geeks has had a sneak peak.

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CITIZENFOUR is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The many interview and talking head segments are by and large shot without much in the way of lighting or other equipment, and offer an accurate if not especially well detailed view of the participants’ faces. The many TV clips look exactly as you would expect though I doubt many will purchase CITIZENFOUR as a way of testing their home entertainment systems.

CITIZENFOUR has a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that provides an adequate soundscape for the spoken word and occasional sound effect and low-key music cue. Fidelity is fine and there are no issues of any kind to report.

The extras are fairly generous:

  • Deleted Scenes – 17 minutes of scenes that ended up cut: Methods Can’t Be Questioned, The Strength of Your Beliefs, and A Scandal Is What It Is.
  • Film Society of Lincoln Center Q&A with Laura Poitras and Dennis Lim (1080i, 28:22): is 30-minutes of an on-stage interview with Poitras, the director of CITIZENFOURmoderated by Lim, director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
  • “The Program” — A New York Times Op-Doc by Laura Poitras – is a 9-minute featurette concerning government spying with William Binney, a former highly placed intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency turned whistleblower.
  • New York Times Talks with Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, and David Carr – is a detailed, one-hour interview with the filmmaker, interviewer, and subjects.