100 Most Significant Films
100. One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977), France, Agnes Varda
99. Fail Safe (1964), U.S., Franklin Schaffner
98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), U.S. John Ford
97. Germany Year Zero, 1947, Italy, Rossellini
96. A Grin Without a Cat (1977), France, Chris Marker
95. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), U.S. LeRoy
94. Weekend (1967), France, Godard
93. The World (2000), China
92. Tin Drum (1979), Germany
91. Syriana (2005), U.S. Stephen Gaghan
90. Investigation of a Citizen, Italy
| Syriana | |
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Theatrical release poster
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The film’s multiple plots interweave a complex tale that illuminates the consequences of the fierce pursuit of wealth and power in the Middle East, from the players brokering back-room deals in Washington DC to the migrant laborers toiling in the oil fields of the Persian Gulf.
Though Gaghan cites Costa-Gavras’s Z and American political films of the 1970s as sources of inspiration, his film is very different from them.
There are no clearly defined heroes or villains in “Syriana,” no effort to provide an objective perspective on the story, and certainly no neat resolution. Multi-nuanced and ambiguous in text and subtext, “Syriana” aims at a non-melodramatic cinema, one that provides only basic motivations for its characters but no emotional pay-off. Psychology, identification, and emotion, three tenets of classic Hollywood cinema are undermined and even subverted in favor of a more neutral and detached mode of filmmaking that allows for various interpretations of the story.
Gaghan acquits himself more honorably as a writer than director. A strong director like Soderbergh (who’s one of the producer and helmed “Traffic”) would have made “Syriana” a shapelier film, both dramatically and visually. In his second film, Gaghan shows weaknesses in the areas of mise-e-scene and pacing.
With a running time of only two hours, “Syriana” may be too short to accomplish all its goals, and, indeed, in moments, the subject matter seems more appropriate for a TV mini-series. Nonetheless, overall, “Syriana” is an impressive achievement, and arguably the first American film to reflect through its anatomy of the global oil industry and terrorism the state of the world as we know it today, in the post 9/11 era.
The intrigue begins in an unnamed oil-producing Gulf country, where a young, charismatic and reform-minded Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) is seeking to change the long-established relationships with the U.S. business interests. Nasir, the apparent heir to the throne, has just granted gas-drilling rights–long-held by the Texas energy giant Connex–to a higher bid from China, an act that’s perceived as a huge blow not only to Connex but also to the American business interests in the region.
Cut to Killen, a smaller Texas oil company owned by Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper), who has just won the competitive drilling rights to some coveted fields in Kazakhstan. This makes Killen very attractive to Connex, which now needs new territory to maintain its production capacity. When the two companies merge, the pending deal attracts the scrutiny of the Justice Department, and Sloan Whiting, a powerful white-show Washington law firm, is brought in to perform due diligence.
The closest the film comes to have a nominal hero and dramatic center is Bob Barnes (George Clooney), a vet CIA agent nearing the end of a long and respectable career, with a son headed for college and the possibility of spending the latter years of his service in a comfy desk job. Bob is depicted as an idealist, a devoted company man who has always believed that his work benefits his government and makes his country a safer place to live.
But alas in Bob’s last assignment, which involved the assassination of arms dealers in Tehran, a Stinger missile falls into the hands of a mysterious Egyptian. On his return to Washington, Bob is promised a promotion after one last undercover mission: Assassinating Prince Nasir. However, when one of his oil fields contacts turns on him, and the assassination attempt goes awry, Bob is scapegoated by the CIA; he’s betrayed by the organization to which he has devoted his life.
Clooney plays an updated role of the CIA agents and investigators that Robert Redford and Warren Beatty had played in the conspiracy films of the 1970s, such as “Three Days of the Condor” and “The Parallax View.”
In his searching to understand what happened, Bob undergoes a process of disillusionment, realizing that he has been lied to, used as a pawn, that he never really was privy to the motivation for the assignments he has blindly carried out.
As in “Traffic,” Gaghan doesn’t neglect the personal lives of his protagonists. Hen energy analyst Bryan Goodman (Matt Damon), a rising star at Energy Trading Company, lives with his wife Julie (Amanda Peet, one of the two women in the film) and their two young sons in Geneva. Attending a pool party given by Prince Nasir’s family, a tragic incident results in the death of Bryan’s younger son and causes a rift in the marriage. To make amends for the accident, Nasir offers Bryan a business opportunity to help the young leader realize his reformist idea, an opportunity that Bryan embraces to the dismay of his grieving wife.
Intergenerational conflict also describes the father-son relationship of Bob and his son Robby (Max Minghella), who just wants to live a normal life, instead of moving from one place to another with his father, and the troubled relationship between Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) and his father. Put in charge of the delicate task of guiding the Connex-Killen merger, Bennett is a Washington attorney at Sloan Whiting who needs to give the Justice department enough material to make their case against Killen for its shady dealings in Kazakhstan without jeopardizing the entire deal. It’s in the company and country’s interests that the merger goes through, and it also serves Bennett’s personal ambitions, which are fueled by a father (William C. Mitchell) he’s at odds with.
Functioning as Bennett’s sort of a surrogate father is Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer), Bennett’s boss, the firm’s head and one of Washington’s most powerful men. Trying to undo Nasir’s deal with the Chinese, Dean knows that Nasir’s younger, more callow brother, Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha), will be more amenable to American business interests. When he pressures the aging Emir to choose Meshal as a successor, he is effectively engineering Nasir’s political demise.
Just in case you thought that “Syriana” is all about the politics of nation-states, Gaghan introduces social class and class conflict in the form of migrant laborers in Nasir’s country, whose lives are directly affected by the royal family’s policies and the industry’s vagaries.
Connex workers Saleem Ahmed (Shahid Ahmed) and his son Wasim (Mazhar Munir) have just been laid off from their jobs when the Chinese take the fields over. Their future becomes more uncertain as they search in vain for work, before their visas expire. Saleem dreams of returning to Pakistan, whereas his son hopes for a better life, though becomes quickly disillusioned and angry at the way they are treated.
Syriana is loosely based on CIA Agent Bob Baer’s memoir, “See No Evil,” though Clooney’s character, Bob Barney, is largely fictional. The book helped Gaghan understand the web of players in the Middle East and in the oil business. Gaghan has researched the film for a year and a half before beginning to work on the screenplay. During that time, he investigated the inner workings of the oil industry in the U.S., as well as journeying to the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Lebanon, Syria, Dubai, and North Africa, where he interviewed people at every level of the power chain of the petroleum industry.
It’s impossible to do justice to a complex story that unfolds as a puzzle, demanding that the audience put all the pieces together. Suffice is to say that “Syriana” encompasses sheiks and field workers, government inspectors and international spies, rich and poor, the famous and infamous, each playing their part in a vast system that makes up the contemporary global oil industry. None of the participants sees the big picture, and none realizes the true extent of the explosive impact their lives will have upon the world.
Several of my colleagues found “Syriana” too confusing, as the movie consists of over 100 scenes, some of which lasting only seconds.
Admittedly, “Syriana” is a tough movie to watch, it demands our attention. Do not worry if at the end of the film you’ll find yourself agitated and dissatisfied, for “Syriana” refuses to make fast accusations or provide easy solutions. There’s no clear ending, or neat closure.
Nost surprisingly, underlining Syriana is a liberal and democratic ideology. By placing the stories next to each other, Gaghan offers us the ability to connect to the larger whole.
Syriana uses ordinary people, placed in extraordinary circumstances, in order to explore the idea that personal responsibility does matter, that our daily choices contribute to where we are on the global level. It’s through these characters’ ordinary lives that we enter into a world that at first seems abstract and remote, but it is real and relevant.
This nexus of economic (oil) interests, growing terrorism, and the impossibility of democracy in most of the Middle East affect our psyche and life, both personal and collective
Cast
George Clooney as Bob Barnes
Kayvan Novak as Arash
Amr Waked as Mohammed Sheik Agiza
Christopher Plummer as Dean Whiting
Jeffrey Wright as Bennett Holiday
Chris Cooper as Jimmy Pope
Robert Foxworth as Tommy Barton
Nicky Henson as Sydney Hewitt
Nicholas Art as Riley Woodman
Matt Damon as Bryan Woodman
Amanda Peet as Julie Woodman
Credits:
Directed by Stephen Gaghan
Screenplay by Gaghan, based on See No Evil by Robert Baer
Produced by Jennifer Fox, Michael Nozik, Georgia Kacandes
Cinematography Robert Elswit
Edited by Tim Squyres
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Production companies: Participant Productions
Section Eight Productions
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates: Nov 20, 2005 (NYC premiere); Nov 3, 2005 (US)
Running time: 128 minutes
Languages English, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Chinese, French
Budget $50 million
Box office $94 million
89. Salvador
Oliver Stone directed Salvador, his first major film, independently, outside the studio system, which allowed him to take all kinds of risks.
Grade: B+
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Theatrical release poster
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This jittery, restless saga centers on an obsessive American photojournalist (James Woods, brilliant), who drives into the politically troubled El Salvador and confronts the ugly side of American imperialism.
It’s an ideologically critical, energetically dynamic movie that Marlon Brando, at its most political, would have approved of, and perhaps even play, if it were made in the 1950s or 1960s.
The pulpy screenplay, penned by Stone and Richard Boyle, based on the latter’s real-life story, was nominated for an Oscar.
The plot begins in 1980, as Boyle, then a vet but unemployed journo, decides to go to El Salvador with his buddy, Dr. Rock (James Belushi, in one of his better turns), an unemployed disc jockey. Boyle promises, and to a large extent delivers, drugs, booze, and sex (with prostitutes).
At first the idea is just to make a quick buck in a country torn by “little guerrilla war,” a stab at biases of American mass media, misled by Reagan, in reporting the situation down there.
Things change, however, as soon as the duo cross the border, which throws them into turmoil, and life-threatening situation, as a result of the devastating civil war.
From that point on, the film assumes the shape of a surreal nightmare that chronicles the chaos in El Slavador in 1980-1981.
The film draws a classic contrast between jaded leftists Americans and the decent, honest Salvadorian people who have to endure senseless horror, confusion, and despair.
As would become clear in future Stone films (“Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “The Doors,” “JFK”), Salvador wears its politics on its sleeves. It is replete with preachy speeches and messages, and there’s a romantic interlude that is not particularly compelling; it’s more like a disruption.
Yet the film displays raw political and emotional power, and the nervous, edgy tone feels suitable for depicting Boyle’s unstable persona as well as El Salvador as an unstable country.
Salvador is a sensationalistic, pulp fiction work, but in its good moments, which are plentiful, it surpasses the quality of “Platoon,” made the same year on a bigger budget.
Woods, who previously had worked in TV and theater, plays the cool anti-hero to the hilt, a turn that deservedly eared him Best Actor nomination (see below).
Despite positive reviews, the movie was a commercial failure.
My Oscar Book:
Oscar Alert
Oscar Nominations: 2
Screenplay (Original): Oliver Stone and Richard Boyle
Actor: James Woods
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context
In 1986, the Best Actor winner was Paul Newman for “The Color of Money.” The Original Screenplay Oscar went to Woody Allen for “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
Credits:
Directed by Oliver Stone
Written by Stone and Richard Boyle
Produced by Stone, Gerald Green
Cinematography Robert Richardson
Edited by Claire Simpson
Music by Georges Delerue
Distributed by Hemdale Film Corporation
Release date: March 5, 1986
Running time: 123 minutes
Budget $4.5 million
Box office $1.5 million
