The geopolitical film Syriana directed and written by Stephen Gangham is full of international film stars, like George Clooney, Matt Damon and Jeffrey Wright. The film takes place in the USA and the Middle East.
The film shows four strings of action at the same time. The story of Bob Barnes, a spy of the CIA. Brian Woodman, an energy analyst from Geneva. Bennett Holiday a lawyer from Connex and Wasim, a worker for Connex in the Middle East who had been fired.
The CIA agent Bob Barnes loses a STINGER-missle with elements to build a bomb during a mission. Connex is one on the biggest oil firms in the world. After the company had lost production permission in the Middle East to its Chinese rivals, they try to get a permission in Kazakhstan, with Killen another oil firm they get the rights. The energy expert Brian Woodman meets the emir of an Middle East state and gets his financial adviser. The Prince plans to democratize the country, but can't because his very ill father makes his bad, evil brother, who is supported by the USA, emir. Nasir wants to end the influence of the USA to his country and organizes a coup. Nasir gets classified as s terrorist, and is wanted dead by the Americans because the USA fear their oil rights. Bob Barnes is instructed to kill Nasir ,but his local contact turns against him and tortures him. They also make the plan public and the CIA fears that they and the government get involved, so they arrange it the way that Barnes is the scapegoat. Barnes searches for more background information and sees that Nasir isn't a terrorist.
The setup of the film is very authentic and realistic. The locations are good like the Islam school of Wasim, the torture scene of Bob or Max' drown scene. The family history of the main characters is quite thin and they don't really fit in the film.
The costume design is quite impressive , because no matter which scene the actors fit perfectly. The white robes in the Middle East, the outfit of Bob or Brian who always wear suits.
My opinion on the film is very good. It is an exciting and fascinating story about the scrupulous doings of the CIA and the government of the US. A great screenplay of actors and a very clever and fetching story supported by a great work of direction and edition. But sometimes it got too messy because you didn't completely understand the four simultaneously strings of action.
I totally agree with BP. Syriana is a suspenseful movie with good actors. It show the difficulties in modern oil business quite well. It is also a movie about political power in a world dominated by the USA. I also like the classy costume design and the locations.
There is one torture scene, which in my opinion is too disgusting and too cruel. In this scene Bob Barnes' enemy cuts down his nails and beats him. Another bad aspect about the movie is, that the story is very hard to follow and the many different parts make it even more complicated. In some scenes it seems more like a documentation than a thriller. Especially at the end the story becomes pretty interesting.
Because of these reasons I rate the movie Syriana with 6 out of 10 points.
TOPIC: Film Review: Syriana
ReplyDeleteSyriana (2005)
Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright
Director: Stephen Gangham
The geopolitical film Syriana directed and written by Stephen Gangham is full of
international film stars, like George Clooney, Matt Damon and Jeffrey Wright.
The film takes place in the USA and the Middle East.
The film shows four strings of action at the same time. The story of Bob Barnes,
a spy of the CIA. Brian Woodman, an energy analyst from Geneva. Bennett
Holiday a lawyer from Connex and Wasim, a worker for Connex in the Middle
East who had been fired.
The CIA agent Bob Barnes loses a STINGER-missle with elements to build a
bomb during a mission. Connex is one on the biggest oil firms in the world.
After the company had lost production permission in the Middle East to its
Chinese rivals, they try to get a permission in Kazakhstan, with Killen another
oil firm they get the rights. The energy expert Brian Woodman meets the emir of
an Middle East state and gets his financial adviser. The Prince plans to
democratize the country, but can't because his very ill father makes his bad, evil
brother, who is supported by the USA, emir. Nasir wants to end the influence of
the USA to his country and organizes a coup. Nasir gets classified as s terrorist,
and is wanted dead by the Americans because the USA fear their oil rights.
Bob Barnes is instructed to kill Nasir ,but his local contact turns against him and
tortures him. They also make the plan public and the CIA fears that they and the
government get involved, so they arrange it the way that Barnes is the
scapegoat. Barnes searches for more background information and sees that
Nasir isn't a terrorist.
The setup of the film is very authentic and realistic. The locations are good
like the Islam school of Wasim, the torture scene of Bob or Max' drown scene.
The family history of the main characters is quite thin and they don't really
fit in the film.
The costume design is quite impressive , because no matter which scene
the actors fit perfectly. The white robes in the Middle East, the outfit of Bob
or Brian who always wear suits.
My opinion on the film is very good. It is an exciting and fascinating story
about the scrupulous doings of the CIA and the government of the US.
A great screenplay of actors and a very clever and fetching story supported
by a great work of direction and edition. But sometimes it got too messy
because you didn't completely understand the four simultaneously strings of
action.
My Rating (8,5x10)
(450 words)
BP
I totally agree with BP. Syriana is a suspenseful movie with good actors.
ReplyDeleteIt show the difficulties in modern oil business quite well. It is also a movie about political power in a world dominated by the USA. I also like the classy costume design and the locations.
There is one torture scene, which in my opinion is too disgusting and too cruel. In this scene Bob Barnes' enemy cuts down his nails and beats him.
Another bad aspect about the movie is, that the story is very hard to follow and the many different parts make it even more complicated. In some scenes it seems more like a documentation than a thriller. Especially at the end the story becomes pretty interesting.
Because of these reasons I rate the movie Syriana with 6 out of 10 points.
(138 words)
MW