Syriana

[Corlyss_D]

What an exceptional movie this is! I've seen it twice in the last 2 days and may go again. It's without a doubt the truest political thriller I have ever seen. The screenwriter, producer, and editor have constructed an exquisitely detailed movie, compelling in its understatement and its grasp the small coincidences and intersections that characterize inexorable events. It rewards close attention to the details. It’s supported throughout by an anxious, evocative but unobtrusive score by Alexandre Desplat, a name unknown to me but who is definitely on my list along with that of Alberto Iglesias, creator of the equally understated and atmospheric score to The Constant Gardener.

Basically a movie about the global and corrupting influence of Big Oil, it weaves together four slices of lives seemingly unrelated to each other but all pointing to the corrosive nature of what Matt Damon's character calls "the most important natural resource in the history of the world."

The first story you see, emerging from the superheated haze of a desert sunrise, is that of the displaced and dispossessed foreigners who work the oil fields, pushing and shoving to get on the bus to take them to jobs their own corrupt and indifferent governments cannot or will not provide to their exploding under-30 populations. Three of these workers Pakistanis provide insight into what makes a jihadi. Two of them, Wasir and his father, are particularly poignant. Wasir understands the hopelessness of their situation; his father lives in a blithe fantasy world from which he reassures Wasir that "soon we will buy a house and bring your mother here," said against a heart-breaking shot of endless pre-fab trailers that house the immigrant male workers in pigeon holes stacked one upon another resembling Nazi labor camp barracks.

The second story is that of George Clooney's character, Bob Barnes, loosely based on Bob Baer, a former CIA agent who resigned in frustration at the fecklessness of the CIA and whose book See No Evil is the basis for this segment of the movie. We see Clooney setting up and doing a deal with two shady characters, the Imiri brothers, to sell them two missile guidance modules. Almost immediately the deal goes awry in that two even more shady characters, unknown to Barnes, take one of the missiles out the back door while the men he concluded the deal with walk out the front and load their missile in the trunk of their car. Throughout the movie, Barnes' driving concern is to find out what happened to the missing missile. His bosses couldn't care less. They should. The missile reappears at the end of the movie.

The third story is that of an ambitious and talented young lawyer, Bennett Holiday, played by Jeffery Wright, somewhere down the food chain in one of the lobbyist law firms that Washington knows so well. His boss, a senior partner, wants him to do some aggressive investigation into why their client, a big oil firm, lost the bid to develop the Kyrgyzstan oil fields to a tiny oil company. The only way for the big oil company to compensate for the loss is to buy the smaller firm, but it would help the negotiations if they knew exactly why the smaller firm won. The suspicion is that someone paid Kyrgyz officials a bribe, contrary to American law. "I have an office full of sheep who think they are lions," he tells Holiday. "Maybe you're a lion that everyone thinks is a sheep." Just how much of a lion Holiday will show himself to be is one of the high-points of the film.

The last story is that of Matt Damon's character, Brian Woodman, a petroleum analyst working for a Geneva investment firm. Through a personal tragedy, he becomes the economic adviser to the reform-minded son of an oil-rich Emir. Early on Woodman is invited to a posh weekend at a Spanish estate owned by the Emir. When they arrive there are TVs everywhere with a live feed of the Emir welcoming his guests "to my country." This is southern Spain, not the Middle East. The point was as chilling as it was telling. Also invited to the weekend was one of the founding partners of the lobbyist law firm that Holiday works for, played with steely ease and familiarity by Christopher Plummer. The firm has some ambiguous relationship with the Emir as well.

The stories of Woodman and the lobbying firm as told thru Holiday, his boss, and the senior partner, conjoin to carry most of the Big Oil portion of the drama. However all the stories begin or end with oil and they have been subtly interrelated in a phenomenal job of editing by Tim Squyres.

If you enjoy the genre of political thriller, or if you want to see how Washington works to protect US interests, by all means see this movie. I understand that Mr. Clooney thinks of it as an indictment of how the US goes about doing its job of securing prosperity for Americans and others. So be it. However, there is nothing sensationaized or hysterical or overstated about this film. It is so matter-of-fact, clinical, and unemotional that one expects to hear the voice of Will Lyman as narrator and to see the Frontline logo. It should be nominated for a bunch of awards.

[Ralph]

Ted and I saw the film the other night. It's a taut, well-paced thriller and it works. Of course no American intelligence agency engages in the activities depicted but that's what makes the movie fun - a short escape from the drab stupidity of contemporary foreign relations.

Christopher Plummer is superb as the senior partner of a law firm doing business with the Arabs. It's the finest portrayal of a dedicated lawyer since Al Pacino in "The Devil's Advocate."

I wonder what the special features on the DVD will be.

[operafan]

Great review CD. I hope you take up political writing as well. Time is tight so in lieu of a long piece, thanks for taking care of the board, I hope you and your family are well, and have a great set of holidays.

[Corlyss_D]

Of course no American intelligence agency engages in the activities depicted

Oh? I'm about halfway thru John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hitman. You'll never convince me of that, no matter how many years you spent in service. It's the way things are done when problems get to a certain level of intractability.

Christopher Plummer is superb as the senior partner of a law firm doing business with the Arabs. It's the finest portrayal of a dedicated lawyer since Al Pacino in "The Devil's Advocate."

I was glad they didn't let the big names run away with the show. The young man that plays Wasir is the emotional heart of the movie. I never heard of him before. One of the things that makes the original Manchurian Candidate such a joke to me is who'd believe Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra doing jack?

I wonder what the special features on the DVD will be.

I don't think I saw or heard anything about special hype before the show came out. Did you see anything on TV about it, like those "Making of. . . . " shows they do before blockbusters are released? I would love to see extended interviews with the director/screenwriter and the composer. The music is almost like another character in the film. The Syriana theme urges me to go back to my Notre Dame School recordings to find the first few bars, its so plangent.

[Corlyss_D]

Great review CD. I hope you take up political writing as well. Time is tight so in lieu of a long piece, thanks for taking care of the board, I hope you and your family are well, and have a great set of holidays.

Thank you, O. Go see the movie and come back and tell us what you thought. Happy holidays! Doing anything special?