I went tonite to a small "art house" movie theater in downtown Phoenix called The Film Bar. An intimate venue that I didn't previously know existed,...where unlike most multiplexes, you can have a stiff drink as you watch the film of your choosing.

And if you choose to go see CITIZENFOUR,...you very well may need good belt of liquor to mellow out the sharpness of the message peril. If you ain't got a buzz afterward from drinking, your head will buzz from the implications of what you watch.

We all pretty much know Edward Snowden's story. Or at least we think we do. We recognize his face. We know who he is. But we've all seen him AFTER this thing went down. In watching CITIZENFOUR, we get to witness Snowden's initial meeting with Greenwald and Poitras (and other journalists) in Hong Kong. Before, we have seen only snippets of this. But here, we now get to be intimately there in the room. We can more fully sense the awareness of risk that not only Snowden has, but the journalists too, about smacking this bee hive and what will result.

These sessions in Snowden's hotel room took place over the course of 8 days. We get to see how, day by day, they each recognize the mass and gravity of what they are doing. We get to sit in on conversations between Ed and his girlfriend as she reveals people are looking for him and survielance vehicles set up on the street of his residence he shall never visit again. We also get to see the pressures the journalists come under in the aftermath of the breaking of the news, and some of the encrypted message traffic between them and Snowden in the months that pass. We get to visit Ed as his residence in Moscow this year as Greenwald updates him on what some other whistleblowers are revealing, apparently inspired by Snowden.

Is there anything new here? Well, no,...not in the sense of what he revealed or why. But this is the ultimate in "living history". There is no doubt that this was/is a pivotal point in our nation's history, and even that of the world. For some, being able to view CITIZENFOUR and to sit in on history as it transpires and is as significant as going to the Berlin Wall as it was being torn down so as to witness it,...or standing there in the parking garage with Woodward and Bernstein as they meet Deep Throat and learn about Watergate. Yes,...we did learn about these events and what they meant. Oh, but to have BEEN there!

With CITIZENFOUR, you get about as close to it all as anyone ever will other than those who were there. When your grandchildren one day ask you about Ed Snowden and what all that was back then,...you can almost literally say you were there.