Film review. Also available at imdb.com.
Syriana (2005)
Director: Stephen Gaghan
With: George Clooney, Matt Damn, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper
Runtime: 128 minutes
Rating at the Internet Movie Database IMDb: 7.2
Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon): “It’s running out…. and ninety percent of what’s left is in the Middle East. This is a fight to the death.” There could not be a better introduction to the film Syriana. Although it is hyped as a ‘political Hollywood film’ with a ‘complicated’ message, Syriana is perfectly simple. The United States of America are trying by all means to keep their dominance in the Middle East. The oil reserves over there are much greater than those in for example Central Asia and Alaska. One of the means is corruption, with important consequences for the rest of the world.
Gulf-prince-good-guy Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig) explains to the Swiss energy analyst Woodman how come that his oil state is remaining so underdeveloped. “Your president calls my father. One phone call later we’re stealing out of our social programs to buy overpriced airplanes.” That oneliner brings the story much closer to us. For one, four years ago, the Netherlands too spent almost a billion dollars in a very risky undertaking, under dubious political consequences: the American military airplane Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Theo van Gogh got his inspiration for the film 06/05 from this, suggesting a link with the murder of Pim Fortuyn. Syriana is not made of facts and a fictional context, but the exact opposite. However, conspiracy theory lovers can enjoy both films equally.
Syriana starts with the decision of the young, progressive prince Nasir Al-Subaai to grant natural gas drilling rights to a Chinese company. Obviously, the interests of the Texan energy giant Connex (having long-established business ties in the region) are severely hurt. At the same time the smaller oil company Killen has won drilling rights to coveted fields in Kazakhstan. Because of the unused production capacity, Connex starts a merger with Killen. All of a sudden, Connex-Killen is the fifth biggest oil company in the world. However, the historical merger is far from transparent. A white-shoe (conservative, Republican) law firm is brought in to prevent accusations of bribery and breaking of anti trust laws. They succeed. High ranking Killen manager Nelson is happy: “Corruption is why we win. … Corruption is our protection.”
Much is happening in Syriana, at many locations. There is a way different story line of veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) on a mission in Tehran as the assassin of two arms dealers. Painfully he discovers that ‘his’ CIA betrayed him. For years, he has been lied to, while the true reasons for his missions were never revealed. He is tortured, rescued just in time by a Hezbollah imam and finally degraded. Later on, he tries to prevent a murder attempt on prince Nasir.
Much is happening at the same time too. In this perspective, Syriana is complicated. The ending is familiar. Sacked Pakistani workers hit a Connex-Killen in a suicide attack, pretty much like the USS Cole bombing in 2000. The Pakistani made use of the shaped-charge explosives that Bob Barnes has lost in Iran. All storylines come together again.
Dirty and complicated. That is the reality of oil business, according to Syriana. United States expert Frank Verhagen as well as Middle East expert Paul Aarts agree on that too. Syriana is already more complex than the average Hollywood film. But the reality in the region would be several times worse. The choice to introduce a Chinese oil company in the script is typically ‘Hollywood’, on the other hand. Verhagen: “Yes, for about five years now, China is hot. There’s not much sex in this movie - probably ‘China’ had to make up for it.” Syriana does not provide answers, say director and actors. True. But one thing is sure after watching Syriana: in ten years time, the ‘Connex-Killens’ will still dominate.
Is Hollywood getting more political again? So it seems. Well, George Clooney certainly is, as his roles in the recent films Good Night, and Good Luck (about the witch hunt on communists by McCarthy in the 1950s) and Syriana suggest. “Syriana is not attacking Bush and his administration. It is attacking a system that survived for sixty, seventy years now, with oil as its core”, says Clooney. In another interview he was proud about Bush criticising him. Already in the first years after September 11th 2001, actors and artists were mercilessly divided into good (patriotic) and bad (not patriotic) at Celiberal.com. Clooney has never been outside Whine Rack, with Johnny Depp, Madonna and others. The Righties are for example John Travolta and (unsurprisingly) Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Maybe it is nothing but a change of subject and style. Marlon Brando refused to accept his Academy Award in 1973. He was protesting against the way Hollywood pictured native Americans at that time and sent Littlefeather in his place. But in order to be an ‘engaged’ actor nowadays, one must be tough - against Bush, or against the terrorists.