The ever-expanding society of movie-lovers in America often sits down to enjoy a film, whether new or often rewatched, without thinking about the effort that went into its making.

I recently attended a showing of director Oliver Stone’s “Snowden,” released in mid-September. Upon seeing it, I was intrigued by what lengths its creators went through in bringing such a jaw-dropping cinematic concept to the silver screen.

“Snowden” is a biographical drama that illustrates the events leading up to the 2013 data breach of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The film chronicles the discoveries of high school dropout Edward Joseph Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as he works his way through a chain of national intelligence positions in the NSA, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

As he rises the ranks, Snowden realizes the extent to which the government goes to collect private information worldwide, and he decides to reveal the confidential secret to the public, even if it makes him a criminal.

Stone commits to telling this story in the face of scrutiny from our current government, which still considers Snowden a traitor for fleeing to Russia after exposing the duplicity. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the majority of the film was shot in Munich, Germany. Stone believed, as he expressed during a speech at Idaho’s Sun Valley Film Festival, that minimal presence in the U.S. was best to avoid NSA interference with the project’s development.

With a 62 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.4/10 on IMDb, “Snowden” proves to be a thought-provoking political odyssey that conveys themes of freedom versus security, true patriotism and the presence of federal government in our lives.