Snowden

One of the things that make long flights bearable, given my inability to sleep sitting up, is the little TV screen that lets me watch whatever I want. I remember when it was a novelty that there was a single big screen at the front of the cabin and you could watch a single film. Now there are scores of films and TV shows.

On the way over I watched an Irish rom-com called A Date For Mad Mary plus several Irish short films (I’m flying Aer Lingus after all). On the way back I watched more shorts (one called South was particularly good) and the film Snowden about Edward Snowden’s handover to The Guardian of a trove of NSA data. Given that my MacBook has a camera, I take it that the NSA can watch me as I work (Hi!). And my phone has a camera and microphone, so the NSA can eavesdrop on everything I do. The creepiest was the U.S. embedding software in allies’ mainframes so that it can shut down a country if it is so inclined. I guess a spy would tell you they’re doing this to us too.

It’s a tough film to watch and I thought Joseph Gordon Leavitt did an amazing job.
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