Syriana (Widescreen Edition)
by Stephen Gaghan
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DVD details
Actor: Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer, George Clooney, Jeffrey Wright, Matt DamonDirector: Stephen Gaghan
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: George Clooney
Writer: Stephen Gaghan
Producer: Steven Soderbergh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Arabic (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Arabic (Original Language); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Persian (Original Language); Urdu (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 128 minutes
Published: 2006-06-01
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-20
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 80772
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Big oil means big money. Very big money. And that fact unleashes corruption that stretches from Houston to Washington to the Mideast and ensnares industrialists, princes, spies, politicos, oilfield laborers and terrorists in a deadly, deceptive web of move and countermove. This lightning-paced, whip-smart action thriller grips your mind and nerves with an intensity that doesn't let go for an insta
DVD Reviews of Syriana (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Preaching to the converted
Summary: 2 Stars
I was actually interested in seeing this movie. The trailers seemed promising, and it got a lot of critical acclaim. When it finally came out on DVD I rented it from my friendly local Blockbuster and decided to see all the hoopla was about. My question at the end of the movie was where the hoopla came from the first place.
"Syriana" (a term by Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East) has several stories happening at once. On the simple side you have the prince of a nameless Arab state trying to sign a deal with the Chinese to help better his people, while American barons are wooing the prince's conniving little brother so that they can get the deal and hence the money. However, this is told through several different plots. For example, you have George Clooney as a CIA operative who specializes in Middle Eastern affairs. You have Matt Damon as a representative for a financial corporation who allies himself with the Arab prince to help see his dreams become a reality. You also have Jeffrey Wright as the oil company's lawyer trying to wrestle the wants of the corporations with the appeasement of the Justice Department. But it doesn't end there, oh no! You also have a young Pakistani immigrant who is fired from his job at an oil field in the Middle East and joins a fanatical terrorist cell. Then, of course, there are the countless subplots for each individual characters, all getting their own screen time.
As you can tell from this, "Syriana" often meanders in the storyline. At times I'll find myself interested in what is going on, and at other times I'm wondering to myself when something is going to happen. (to be honest, I was surprised George Clooney won the oscar for "best supporting actor" when I couldn't even tell who the MAIN actor was) The scenes with Jeffrey Wright didn't have to be so dragged out, in fact they probably could have been resolved within thirty minutes. Many of the subplots, in fact, seem only to exist so as to add to the film's screen time. The subplot with Jeffrey Wright's father did absolutely nothing for me, and didn't make me feel any closer to the character or make him seem more human to me.
I also have to say that for a film with as much praise as "Syriana," I was amazed at the number of cliches. George Clooney's character is a distinguished CIA agent who is willing to break the rules and upset his superiors. (oh no!) He also has a failing marriage and an unappreciative son. (oh brother!) Matt Damon's character has a happy, loving family, which means you know something is about to happen to them, and it does in the form of his son getting killed in a pool accident. Back to Clooney, his character is soon set up by his superiors (wow, didn't see that coming) and is now on his own, a renegade agent out to set things right. (PUH-LEEZ!) In fact, the ending itself is something you will see coming thirty minutes before it happens, and even though they try to build the suspense you're never really unsure of what's going to happen.
The stereotypes in this film are astounding as well. All of the corporate characters might as well have Snively Whiplash mustaches which they twirl as they laugh and talk about how much they love about money. I'm not joking here, folks - the scenes involving the rich Americans resemble the "corporate villain" scenes you'd find in any bad horror or sci-fi movie, except here it's somehow "poetic." The worst offender is Tim Nelson as Danny Dalton, a Texas oil baron (oh God, kill me now!) who cavorts in a hick accent and throws ignorant questions around like "What the hell is an emir any way?!" Uh...if his company has such huge oil ties to the Middle East, why doesn't he know what an emir is? Oh yeah, because then he can't be shown as a dumb, American hick, gotcha! This wouldn't have struck me so much except the Muslim extremists are exactly the opposite - the sheik who takes the Pakistani immigrants in is portrayed as a smart, charismatic man, which was OK except you rarely see the dark side of this lifestyle. To put my point into context, any one who watches "Triumph of the Will" and sees the Hitler Youth laughing and playing and never sees a single shot of or even a hint of a concentration camp would, for all intents and purposes, think, "Hey, being a Nazi must be pretty cool!" Just as watching a terrorist leader playing ball with some boys and laughing with them and never really getting into the darker side of militant religion would make one think, "Hey, these terrorists aren't such bad guys!" Even Hezbollah (yeah, they're in this movie) seem to be just a bunch of good guys making their way in the world, not an anti-Semitic terrorist group abusing political powers and hurting the infrastructure of Lebanon. Let me use another example: "The Godfather" presented a noble, dignified view of the Mafia from the inside, but it also reminded the viewer these guys are criminals who don't mind murdering people to get their way.
The fact is, I realized an hour into this film that all it really is is eating into the "Last Samurai" mentality of "the West is bad and everyone else is good." It eats into the belief that we get all of our oil from the Middle East (despite the fact we only get 17% from the Middle East region - and yes, I checked import figures and did the math, and that is true) and all wars are started because of the lust for oil. Matt Damon implies to the prince that the Sinai Campaign and the 1973 Yom Kippur War were all conflicts over oil. Besides the fact that the 1973 was an effort by Syria and Egypt to try and finish Israel off after the embarrassing Six Day War, the film is failing history: Sinai could be argued as a conflict over regional interests, but the efforts of Britain, France, and Israel were stopped by the United States; the 1973 war ended because of the involvement of the United States in the peace process and ending the warring influence of the Soviet Union. (Nasser HIMSELF admitted this) Contrary to what "Syriana" would have no believe, there was no CIA agent with his finger on a button ready to blow up Nasser as soon as his car stopped. To tell the truth, this film lost all respect from me in the accuracy department when near the beginning a CIA official tells Clooney that China is now America's friend (!) and everyone from Morocco to Pakistan is an enemy. Uh...yeah...I have a funny feeling America is a LITTLE more concerned about China than we are about Jordan or Egypt.
"Syriana" has some fun, original moments. The scenes with the Pakistani refugees - especially the moments between the young boy and his father and their plight in a foreign land - are the most interesting in the whole movie, and Prince Nasir is a likeable enough character, and Alexander Siddig did a wonderful job in his role. Truth be told all the actors do a decent job, even Matt Damon. My only real issues with the movie came from the pacing and script.
For all intents and purposes, all "Syriana" does is provide eye candy for those people who want to believe this extreme. Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying there ISN'T any corporate corruption, nor am I implying that no government official has ever taken a bribe. Far from it. What I dislike is an extreme on any side, and unfortunately "Syriana" shows one, with a world of evil corrupt corporations who buy off governments to do their dirty work, while poor suffering Arabs are forced into the "noble" act of terrorism, which is good murder because they're not corporate executives. When you get right down to it, it's just another way of blowing up...er...sticking it to the man.
Description of Syriana (Widescreen Edition)
A POLITICAL THRILLER THAT UNFOLDS AGAINST THE INTRIGUE OF THE GLOBAL OIL INDUSTRY.Syriana is an oil-based soap opera set against the world of global oil cartels. It is to the oil industry as Traffic was to the drug trade (no surprise, since writer/director Stephen Gaghan wrote the screenplay to Traffic): a sprawling attempt to portray the vast political, business, social, and personal implications of a societal addiction, in this case, oil. A major merger between two of the world?s largest oil companies reveals ethical dilemmas for the lawyer charged with making the deal (Jeffrey Wright), and major global implications beyond the obvious; a CIA operative (George Clooney) discovers the truth about his work, and the people he works for; a young oil broker (Matt Damon) encounters personal tragedy, then partners with an idealistic Gulf prince (Alexander Siddig) attempting to build a new economy for his people, only to find he?s opposed by powers far beyond his control. Meanwhile, disenfranchised Pakistani youths are lured into terrorism by a radical Islamic cleric. And that?s just the start. As in Traffic, in one way or another all of the characters? fates are tied to each other, whether they realize it or not, though the connections are sometimes tenuous. While Syriana is basically a good film with timely resonance, it can?t quite seem to measure up to Gaghan?s ambitious vision and it very nearly collapses under the weight of its many storylines. Fortunately they are resolved skillfully enough to keep the film from going under in the end. To some viewers, Syriana will seem like an unfocused and over-loaded film that goes, all at once, everywhere and nowhere. Others will find it to be an important work earnestly exploring major issues. In either case, it?s a film that deserves to be taken seriously, and it?s likely to be one that will be talked about for a long time to come. --Dan Vancini
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