Reviews

Syriana - New to DVD

In a documentary included within this DVD, George Clooney says the screenplay is the star of this feature, matter of fact he says it a few times. He is most definitely correct. While the film has an enormous cast of characters and familiar actors, and does center upon three characters played by Clooney, Matt Damon and Jeffery Wright, the real star is the story. What is the story, you ask? The story is a convoluted mess of a tale about political corruption, double-crossing, searching out corruption, unwanted assets and how to remove those assets, revolution, and most importantly oil and how it is the life’s blood of not only a nation, but of the entire world.

Clooney plays an aging C.I.A. operative that is being fazed out of his position as an Iran go-between. When he is tasked to go to Beirut and take out an up-and-coming, revolutionary prince (Alexander Siddig) things immediately go haywire for him. He is double-crossed by his own agency, and his supposed assets in the field. The rest of the film for him is how does he get out of that situation.

Damon plays Bryan Woodman, an oil industry broker who becomes a financial advisor for the prince that Clooney was sent to take out. While Damon’s character is dealing with the prince’s finances, during a time where said prince is on the verge of being the Emir of his country if he can just outwit his corrupt younger brother vying for the same position, his own family unit is falling apart after the death of one of his sons. His grieving wife (Amanda Peet) is unable to understand how Woodman can take a new position and nearly abandon his family during this time of grief.

Wright’s character, Bennett Holiday, is a corporate lawyer who is investigating two oil companies on the verge of a huge merger. He is faced with several moral dilemmas, as he is a just man in bed with some of the most corrupt men in any business. A sub plot that Holiday deals with is his alcoholic father (William C. Mitchell) and while they have a very love-hate relationship Holiday doesn’t even think twice about cleaning up his mess and caring for his troubled father.

A fourth plot deals with a Pakistani teenager (Mazhar Munir) who is disenchanted with being improperly treated as a foreigner working in the Iranian oil fields, becomes caught up with a cleric of questionable beliefs.

All of these characters are in, around and affected by the oil business as a whole and writer/director Stephen Gaghan does a brilliant job of intertwining these stories and somehow making this nonlinear story come together in the end and making an epic film.

The only real issue I had with the film is that there is many questions it asks about oil and the world’s dependency upon it, but none of them are really answered. Now while I do appreciate a film that asks questions, but does not figure everything out for you, I do want some responsibility to be accounted for by the filmmaker. Dare to go further out on that limb and give an opinion not just present some facts mixed with a lot of fiction and just say, “There you go, now deal with that.” It’s the equivalent of getting on your soapbox and just saying blah, blah, blah. Take a real stand despite the criticisms; at least you would be able to say you did.

Despite this opinion the film is well done, but demands to be paid attention to. It is very easy for a casual watcher to become lost in the film. I do think that “Traffic” was a much easier film to follow and a better executed piece of work, but I guess that is why it got the Best Picture Oscar.

As for the DVD, the picture is great in all it’s widescreen “scope” ratio, yet only 5.1 surround is available as an audio option. Special features include two tiny docs on the film most feature Clooney in all his preachy glory. A few deleted scenes are offered as well as a theatrical trailer. So if you are buying this thinking this is going to be the last time, think again. I imagine there will be a special edition around the corner in the next year of so.
Film: 8.5/10 DVD: 6.5/10
George

Rent Syriana at Wild and Woolly video. If you’ve already seen Syriana get reacquainted with Traffic… so good

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