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Syriana is a 2005 Academy Award-winning geopolitical thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan. As with Gaghan's screenplay for Traffic, Syriana uses multiple storylines to portray global themes. Syriana focuses on the influence of the oil industry, whose political, economic, legal, and social effects are experienced respectively by a CIA operative (George Clooney), an energy analyst (Matt Damon), a Washington attorney (Jeffrey Wright), and a young unemployed Pakistani migrant worker in an Arab, Persian Gulf country (Mazhar Munir). Gaghan's screenplay is loosely adapted from Robert Baer's memoir, See No Evil. George Clooney was one of the film's executive producers. In his review, film critic Roger Ebert suggests that the film is an example of hyperlink cinema.[1] As of April 20, 2006, the film grossed a total of $50.82 million in the U.S. box office and $42.9 million in the rest of the world, for a total of $93.73 million.[2]
Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Fictional American energy giant Connex, sharing a nominal resemblance with ExxonMobil, is losing control of key Middle-East oil fields in a fictional kingdom ruled by the al-Subaai family. The emirate's foreign minister, Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) has granted natural-gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, greatly upsetting the American oil industry and government. In order to compensate for its decreased production capacity, Connex initiates a shady merger with Killen, a smaller oil company which recently won the drilling rights to key oil fields in Kazakhstan. Connex-Killen ranks as the world's fifth largest oil company, and American anti-trust regulators at the Department of Justice (DOJ) have misgivings. The Washington law firm headed by Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) is hired to smooth the way, and the taciturn Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is assigned to promote the impression to the DOJ that due diligence occurred and any suspicions of bribing foreign officials have been confronted. Image:Marbella1.jpg The filmmakers used the exterior of the Royal Mirage hotel in Dubai as the emir's estate in Marbella, Spain In reparation and out of sympathy for the loss of his son, Prince Nasir reveals that the Marbella estate will be razed and converted into a park, grants Woodman's company oil interests worth 75 million USD, and invites Woodman to become his economic advisor. Prince Nasir confides in Woodman that all is not as it appears: the prince, recognising that oil dependency is not sustainable in the long term, desires to break away from American economic dependence and utilize his nation's oil profits to diversify the economy and introduce democratic reforms. In contrast to the reactionary, fundamentalist status quo of his father's government (which has been supported by American interests), Prince Nasir is dedicated to the idea of progressive reform. (He is compared to prominent leaders such as Mossadeq, Kemal Ataturk, and King Faisal.) As evidenced by the deal with the Chinese, this includes granting drilling rights to the highest bidder — but the U.S. stands in the way. Nasir hopes to succeed his father as emir, but his younger brother, happy with his playboy lifestyle and willing to continue the status quo (such as American military presence), is chosen. Nasir plans a military coup, but American officials kill him moments before via a missile attack on his Range Rover. Robert Barnes (George Clooney) is a veteran CIA field operative trying to stop Middle Eastern illegal arms trafficking. While on assignment in Tehran to assassinate two Iranian arms dealers via an explosion, Barnes notices that an anti-tank missile intended to participate in the explosion was diverted to a blue-eyed Arab who did not speak Farsi. Barnes makes his superiors nervous by writing memos about the missile theft, and is subsequently proposed for a desk job; however, unaccustomed to the political discretion required, he quickly embarrasses the wrong person by speaking his mind and is sent back to field work — specifically, arranging the assassination of Prince Nasir. Barnes travels to Lebanon and seeks safe passage from a Hezbollah leader. Barnes then hires a mercenary with whom he has worked before, named Mussawi/"Jimmy", to murder Nasir. But Mussawi turns out to be an Iranian agent, who has Barnes kidnapped. Mussawi tortures Barnes, seeking information about the Tehran explosion, and nearly kills him before being interrupted by the Hezbollah leader.
Pakistani migrant workers Saleem Ahmed Khan (Shahid Ahmed) and his son Wasim (Mazhar Munir) board a bus to go to work at a Connex refinery. When they arrive, they find out that they have been laid off due to a Chinese company (China Gas and Electric) outbidding Connex for the rights to run that facility. Since the company has provided food and lodging, the workers face the threat of poverty and deportation due to their unemployed status. Wasim desperately searches for work. The migrant workers are ordered to report to the immigration bureau or face deportation and Saleem and Wasim wait in a long line, which is overseen by heavily armed guards. A public address system warns those waiting to keep silent. An elderly man complains about the heat, and when Saleem tries to warn him not to talk, it is Saleem and Wasim who are beaten with truncheons by the guards. Wasim and his friend join an Islamic school to learn Arabic in an effort to improve their employment prospects. While playing soccer, they meet a charismatic blue-eyed Muslim fundamentalist cleric (the same who took Robert Barnes' missile in Tehran) and start down a path that will eventually lead them into executing a suicide attack on a Connex-Killen LNG tanker (similar to the Limburg attack) using a shaped-charge explosive from Tehran missile. The individual or organization that is responsible for this attack remains unclear. However, it is falsely linked to the death of Barnes in a scene where Barnes' CIA office is being cleaned out. Bennett Holiday meets with U.S. Attorney Donald Farish III, who is convinced that Killen bribed someone to get the drilling rights in Kazakhstan. While investigating Connex-Killen's records, Holiday discovers a wire transfer of funds that is traced back to a transaction between Danny Dalton (Tim Blake Nelson) and Kazakhstani officials. Holiday tells Connex-Killen of his discovery, and they pretend not to have known about it. Holiday advises Dalton that he will likely be charged with corruption in order to serve as a "body" to get the DOJ off the back of the rest of Connex-Killen. Farish then strong-arms Holiday into giving the DOJ information about illegal activities he has discovered. Holiday gives up Dalton, but Farish says this is not enough. Holiday meets with ex-Killen chief Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper), and informs him that the DOJ needs a second body to drop the investigation. Pope asks Holiday whether a person at Holiday's firm, above him, would be sufficient as the additional body. Holiday acknowledges that if the name were big enough, the DOJ would stop the investigation, and allow the merger. Holiday brings his colleague and mentor Sydney Hewitt to meet with the CEO of Connex-Killen, Lee Janus. In a surprise move, Holiday reveals an under-the-table deal that Hewitt made while the Connex-Killen merger was being processed. Holiday has given Hewitt to the DOJ as the second body, thereby protecting the rest of Connex-Killen. Janus is able to attend the ceremony "oil industry man of the year" with a load taken off his shoulders. ThemesOil addiction and dependenceThe central theme is the dependence of the U.S. on oil. Father-sonSyriana revolves around a subtext of father-son relationships: Bryan Woodman and his two sons, the elder of whom is killed in the emir's swimming pool; the emir and his pair of sons competing for succession, the elder of whom is killed in an American air strike; Saleem Ahmed Khan and his son Wasim, who comes to embrace Muslim militants; the lawyer Bennett Holiday and his alcoholic father; and Robert Barnes and his high school-age son who wants a "normal" life. Family versus politicsThere are many apparent conflicts in the movie between personal family lives and politics, mainly in terms of morality. Clooney wanted to incorporate the character's family members into the story to show how tough this life is on them, and several scenes involving his character's wife (played by Greta Scacchi) were excised from the final cut. The role garnered Clooney an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor anyway, though an attempt was made to show the effect on family in many other characters, especially to Bryan Woodman's (played by Damon). Imperialism, Anti-CapitalismThe film suggests that the U.S. is willing to kill reformists to ensure that the U.S. maintains its patronage-type relationship with the Middle East, in order to strengthen and reinforce its control of the oil. It also obliquely suggests that the capitalism of the West is one of the many root causes of Islamic fundamentalist terrorist activities. Spoilers end here.
TitleThe movie's title is suggested to derive from the hypothesized Pax Syriana, as an allusion to the necessary state of peace between Syria and the U.S. as it relates to the oil business. In a December 2005 interview, Baer told NPR that the title is a metaphor for foreign intervention in the Middle East, referring to post-World War II think tank strategic studies for the creation of an artificial state (such as Iraq, created from the elements of the former Ottoman Empire) that would ensure continued western access to crude oil. The movie's website states that "‘Syriana’ is a very real term used by Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East."[3] Gaghan said he saw Syriana as "a great word that could stand for man's perpetual hope of remaking any geographic region to suit his own needs." [4] The word Syriana derives from Syria + the Latin suffix -ana, a neuter plural form; it means, roughly, "things Syrian." Historically, Syria refers not to the state that since 1944 has borne the name, but to a more extensive land stretching from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the middle Euphrates River and the western edge of the desert steppe, and from the Tauric system of mountains in the north to the edge of the Sinai desert in the south. This land was part of the Fertile Crescent, and has historically been a geopolitically crucial junction for trade routes from the east, from Asia Minor and the Aegean, and from Egypt, and has long been a focus of great power conflicts. The word Syria does not appear in the Hebrew original of the Scriptures, but appears in the Septuagint as the translation of Aram. Herodotus speaks of "Syrians" as identical with Assyrians, but the term's geographical significance was not well defined in pre-Greek and Greek times. As an ethnic term, "Syrian" came to refer in Antiquity to Semitic peoples living outside Mesopotamian and Arabian areas. Greco-Roman administrations were the first to apply the term to a definite district (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.). ReviewsSyriana received generally very positive reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert named it the second best film of 2005, behind Crash, while his partner critic and co-host Richard Roeper named it the best film of the year. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it his highest rating. CriticismAs a motion picture, the main criticism, even among reviewers who praised the film, was the confusion created by following so many stories. Most critics stated that it was almost impossible to follow the plot, though some, notably Roger Ebert, praised precisely that quality of the film. The audience confusion mimics the confusion of the characters, who are enmeshed in the events around them without a clear understanding of what precisely is going on. Some people have suggested to watch the film two times in a row to fully comprehend the plot. Syriana has also been criticized for political reasons. Baer's book describes his attempts to assassinate Saddam Hussein, but in the movie the figure whom Clooney is to assassinate is a benevolent, liberal prince. (This may have been changed for authenticity, as the capture of Saddam Hussein took place two years before the movie's release.) Many, though not all of its critics come from the political right. Charles Krauthammer criticized the film for "anti-American" views and moral equivalence, stating that "Osama bin Laden could not have scripted this film with more conviction." Fellow Post columnist Richard Cohen (a self-described liberal) calls its portrayals of terrorists, the CIA, oil companies, and the U.S. government "crude clichés"[1]. [2] Awards and nominationsAwards
Nominations
Trivia
See alsoReferences
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