The 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

When the Edward Snowden story came out in 2013, my first thought was, why is this such a big deal? Of course, the CIA and the NSA are spying on everyone in the entire world. We had a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and because of this, the world had changed. After September 2001 the world now included a group of people who want to do nothing more than murder all Americans and other free people around the world. They are willing to do this in any way possible, including blowing themselves up to kill themselves and many other innocent people.  In fact, these terrorists not only do not fear death, they want to die because they believe that they will go to paradise if they kill people for their cause. Our only real defense against this level of evil is to prevent it from ever happening in the first place. The only way to prevent terrorism is to spend massive amounts of money on surveillance counterterrorism and spying. At the time all of this made sense to me, but what didn’t make sense was why was Edward Snowden was such a big story and now being called a traitor? To me, all Snowden did was point out what we already must have known was happening; that there were massive levels of spying and surveillance going on for all cell phones, emails social media and all other forms of communication between all people in the entire world. The reason for this was simple; we had to stop large numbers of people from being killed by terrorists. One line that really stood out for me in this movie is that with the connections of people around the world if you go three people deep into a series of links, that this can be a total number of people as high as 2.5 million.

What the new Oliver Stone movie “Snowden” points out is that this story is not simple at all and is fundamentally very complicated because when does massive spying to save lives go too far? Is it possible to save lives and at the same time not infringe on the basic constitutional rights of all Americans? Is it even feasible to regulate what the NSA and CIA are allowed to see, or hear and at the same time still be able to do their jobs of protecting American lives? If someone finds out that major Government Agencies are blatantly violating the 4th Amendment, is it a crime to report them as breaking the law? Clearly, the United States thought that what Snowden did was a crime, and because of this if he ever returns to this country he will be put in jail, possibly for life. To escape this, both he and his girlfriend will be living in Moscow for the rest of their lives and as Americans, this must be rather unbearable for them.

The story of Edward Snowden, played very well by Joseph Gorden Levitt is a highly unusual one. He was a poor young man, born in 1983 who had to drop out of high school to make money to help his parents who divorced and then found himself in Army Bootcamp and then managed to break both of this legs. Despite his lack of education, he was a self-taught genius of software development and because of his impressive skills he was recruited by the NSA and very soon was found to be a programming superstar. One wonders how many great and very gifted geniuses in this country are working for the NSA and CIA doing nothing more that creating complex software to spy on the entire world or building weapons.

During his early years in the NSA Snowden met two mentors played by Nicholas Cage and Rhys Ifans, both of whom guide this gifted employee towards the top of the NSA. It was unusual to see Nicholas Cage in a very small part in a major motion picture but I thought he did a very effective job in his role. Edward meets a woman played very well by Shailene Woodley who very quickly becomes his girlfriend.  Over time, Snowden realizes that the NSA is not only spying on terrorists and other countries like Iran and Russia but pretty much everyone in the United States, including even his girlfriend.  Once Snowden finds out how pervasive the spying in the NSA was, both his anger and conscience gets the better of him and eventually he seeks out members of the press, one of them played by Zachary Quinto. What is important at this point is that you realize that Snowden knew that going to the press would doom his life as a United States citizen for life and despite all of this, he did it anyway. Right after going to the press, Snowden’s life was never the same and he had to take asylum in Russia and was eventually joined by his girlfriend. At the end of the movie, Edward Snowden himself makes an appearance at the end of this movie and he makes no apologies for as he put it, “doing the right thing”, to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans. As far as the question as to whether Snowden is in fact, a criminal and a traitor to the Unites States, each person has to reach his own decision about this. For me, my honest answer is that I think he was wrong to actually steal data evidence from the NSA, but he was not wrong in reporting that our fourth Amendment rights were being violated. Perhaps the only solution was to not come forward himself, but instead, he should have sent the evidence to the press anonymously​ but not steal data from the NSA. In the end, Snowden could not resolve this conflict without resolving to spend the rest of his life in asylum​.

It’s was unusual to see an Oliver Stone movie like this one, given that his last major release was as far back as the year 2010 with the release of the Wall Street sequel “Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps”, which probably proves how hard it is to get a movie produced in Hollywood, even for someone with the clout of Oliver Stone. I highly recommend this movie which does a great job documenting an important event in American history.

There is a movie formula that most of us know about and it involves a series of the same black actors and an idea that goes about like this. A character comes off as very normal and nice in the beginning and then slowly over the course of the film the audience finds out that they are both evil and insane. So there are a series of conflicts during the movie that both create and increase tension which eventually results in some kind of a violent battle inside someone’s house, where the evil person is killed in some over the top kind of way. The movie “When the Bough Breaks” is exactly the same kind of movie once again, the only difference here is that the producers tried to throw in some stupid and strange and convoluted twists in this ridiculous movie to make it seem like its a new idea when it’s not.

This movie is stupid and another rehash of the same old formula, mainly because we have already seen this same story about 20 times already.  This movie also steals an idea from the original formula movie that started this entire idea in 1987, Fatal Attraction with the horrific killing of a family pet. You would think that someone in some conference room during a production meeting would recognize the idiotic rip off this movie is of so many other movies and suggested a new and original idea. That sure did not happen with this mess of two hours.

This movie is too dumb to recommend, and it should be avoided.

There are certain professions in life that we all know you have to have a calling for. Jobs like Doctor, Nurse, Dentist, Grief Counselor and I also think that Airline Pilot should be included in this list. When you think about the profession of Airline Pilot you realize that their life is about almost never living in your own house, living for months a year out of a hotel room, sitting for many long hours in a cockpit that over the years has to become very boring and through all of this, in the back of your mind the possibility of a horrible life-ending tragedy is always there, and always something that you have to be prepared for. Then add the awesome responsibility of the hundreds of lives that you are responsible for that has to cause long term stress and worry. Then add the precarious financial life of an Airline Pilot and the Airline Industry, which for decades has been considered one of the worst businesses in the world. Stories of Airline Pilots losing their pensions, getting huge pay cuts and in some cases not even getting paid have been stories about the profession of Airline Pilot for years now. Only recently, due to the reduction of oil prices, the consolidation of Airline companies and creating more revenue from luggage and other sources somewhat improved the industry. Fundamentally, if you want to spend your life being an Airline Pilot, your love of flying has to be greater than the many downsides that come with this very difficult profession. I for one have no idea why anyone would want to work in this industry either as a pilot or a stewardess. However, all of the people in this profession are vitally important to the entire economy of the world.

The movie Sully, is about the Miracle on the Hudson – Flight 1549 when a US Airways Airbus landed in the Hudson River after a bird strike where a flock of geese completely destroyed both engines. What happened after this is a miracle of pilot instinct and correct decisions under the incredible stress and pressure where the Captain, Chesley Sullenberger saved the lives of 155 people by landing on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009 – is the most significant part of this story. At first, Sullenberger was considered a National Hero and was even honored by President George W. Bush and Barrack Obama, but what is great about this movie is that it tells the complete story of the Miracle on The Hudson and not the story that we all hear on the news that slowly fades from public attention. As with every incident involving any aircraft the Government Agency NTSB (National Transportation Saftey Board) steps in and investigates what happened in the hopes of preventing such an incident from happening again. All of this makes sense, but what didn’t make sense in this case is the way the NTSB turned the investigation of flight 1549 into a witch hunt almost as if they wanted to find that Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles were guilty of making the wrong decision even though they saved 155 lives after a massive bird strike. I found the condescending attitude of many of the NTSB members during their questioning infuriating as all of them were probably never pilots themselves and none of them were on the plane experiencing the impossible events that Sullenberger and his co-pilot had to deal with. I found the attitude of these agents trying desperately to trap both men and prove that Sullenberger made the wrong decisions despite the miracle they pulled off saving 155 lives an outrage. During the NTSB investigations which took over 1 year, Sullenberger was not able to fly again which jeopardized his financial future mainly because the investigation was poorly handled by the NTSB and after a certain point largely unnecessary. Considering both men needed to work again, you would think that the NTSB would have at least increased the speed of the investigation so they could work again, but this did not happen.

This movie shows the 209 seconds of the flight several times during the film from different perspectives and angles and the computer graphics that show the airplane hitting the water and being hit by the geese is outstanding. One scene I thought was in very poor taste was the daydream nightmares that Sullenberger had after the incident where he imagined another possible scenario that included the Jet flying into a building. Considering that this movie is coming out during the 15 year anniversary of 911 I thought that this scene, which was shown more than once during this film should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Tom Hanks plays Sullenberger in this role, along with Aaron Eckhart as his co-pilot Jeff Skiles and both are very well cast and outstanding in their roles. Clint Eastwood also does a great job directing this film which was told in unusual ways using different points of time and previous incidents throughout the film.  This movie is outstanding and a long overdue story about one of the most heroic events in aviation history. I highly recommend this film.

Sully: My Search for What Really Matters

Brace for Impact: Miracle on the Hudson Survivors Share Their Stories of Near Death and Hope for New Life