Description
Syriana (2005) was directed by Stephen Gaghan and was produced by George Clooney, who also starred in it. The film, loosely adapted from Robert Baer’s memoir, See No Evil, is a thriller which focuses on contemporary themes and is highly relevant in today’s geopolitical context. It tells four parallel stories, and the audience is taken on a lightning-paced, often confusing ride from Texas to Washington D.C. to Switzerland to Spain to the Middle East. This places it into the genre of hyperlink cinema, where storylines and characters interact subtly and events in one storyline have a distinct effect on other story lines, but the characters are not aware of this fully.
Gaghan’s Syriana is similar in treatment to the documentary feel of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which was written by Gaghan. While the latter had drug trade exposure as its main theme, both used interlocking stories to take the viewer on a spell-binding ride, which keeps throwing curves till the very end.
The ensemble film’s central theme is petroleum politics and the widespread influence of the oil industry. One of the key characters is Robert Barnes, played by George Clooney, who is an experienced CIA agent, attempting to put an end to illegal arms trafficking in the Middle East. However his stellar reputation is tainted when he notices and publicizes the theft of an anti-aircraft missile by an Arab. Not accustomed to the discretion required for the desk job he is assigned to, he is again sent to the field and given the task of assassinating the emirate’s foreign minister, Prince Nasir Al-Subaai. Clooney’s character is trying to get his son through college, and the success of this mission could mean a promotion for him. But when a colleague turns on him, making his assassination mission go completely wrong, the CIA makes him the scapegoat, leading him to question the decisions of his whole life which had been devoted to serving this organization.
Nasir is the apparent heir to the throne, and has recently awarded the drilling rights which had previously been owned by a huge Texas company, Connex, to a Chinese company which bid higher. So Connex merged with Killen, a smaller Texas-based company which had been awarded very precious right to oil fields in Kazakhstan. Bennett Holiday (Jeffery Wright) is hence part of a Washington law firm brought in by the Department of Justice to investigate this merger. However, Holiday must ensure that the merger takes place because it is not only in the country’s interests, but is linked to his personal ambition as well.
Other key plotlines focus on the political, economic, legal and social ramifications of the oil industry on an energy analyst Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), based in Switzerland, who is a friend of Prince Nasir but suffers owing to this association and Wasim Khan (Mazhar Munir), a Pakistani immigrant working for an oil company in an Arab country, which later fires him. Woodman attends a party at the Prince’s house, which leads to the accidental death of his son. But much to his wife’s horror, he is perfectly willing to exploit this for his own benefit because this means having “a giant ATM on our front lawn.” Wasim is one of the many workers laid off after the Chinese firm takes over and before his visa expires, he must quickly find another source of employment. His future is in the hands of the royal family and others who make whimsical decisions at the drop of a hat, and take away their bread and butter while doing so.
Analysis
The book by Robert Baer, who was formerly a top CIA operative, See No Evil is the starting point of the movie, which itself is a domain of supremely acted characters and a story so powerful it engages the audience no matter what political sphere they hail from. This is a movie which through its powerhouse performances and intricate handling of issues which are so crucial in today’s reality, forces viewers to think and reach their own conclusions about what is going on in the world around them.
The narrative revolves around oil: who has it, who wants it and how they are seeking to attain it; money, power and terrorism. However, the movie does not convey its meaning simply through story lines and dialogue. Syriana requires concentration, because there is a lot of emphasis on whispered conversations, almost giving the impression that one is hearing something not intended for them, and the sidelong glances between characters often depict critical elements of the plot. There is not a redundant character, dialogue or moment in any scene, each one of these being there to lead to the larger premise behind the story, and if one loses track for a minute, absolutely nothing will make sense.
The fact that the viewer has to make some effort to understand what is going on is one of the main reasons why watching the movie is an intensely entertaining experience. However, essentially what the film ends up conveying is that the real story behind the politics of oil is so complex that we should stop even trying to understand it: the Arab princes, CIA operatives, analysts in Europe, and oil company executives, there is a myriad of characters and people but there isn’t a linear progression of the problem leading to a solution. The entire film just depicts different aspects of one problem, the source of which can be traced back to oil.
Through its editing and direction, the movie also deliberately withholds information and keeps viewers in the dark: the audience is taken to the middle of situations before they can trace the beginning, into rooms where the conversations have begun and events have already started. There is no accompanying information to who the characters are, what their background is and only at the very end does the puzzle truly piece together into one coherent whole.
Clooney’s character speaks at a number of places in Arabic, which is accompanied by English subtitles, and the shooting took place in many places such as Washington, D.C., Texas, Geneva, Dubai and Morocco. All of this combined, the structuring and format, gives the impression of this being a very realistic endeavor, that we are eavesdropping on private situations, and that these might be the very situations going on at this moment in some other place, where the world is being affected by the strings being pulled by powerful people in Washington.
However, care must be taken to clarify here that Syriana is not just about the American quest for oil. The intersecting characters and their vested interests regardless of which country, group or walk of life they belonged to show that there isn’t actually one puppet master pulling the strings as is often believed. Yes the Americans want oil, but the Arab princes want to further their own ambition, the displaced immigrants want their bread and butter, the law firm has its own goals while the lawyers which work for it have a different view, and the oil corporations have vastly different motives.
Critique
Syriana is both, entertaining and relevant. It aims not to explain, but to simply show its audiences the events which go on as the world fights for a dwindling supply of oil: As Matt Damon’s character tells the Prince: “It’s running out… and ninety percent of what’s left is in the Middle East. This is a fight to the death.” The movie invents a number of conspiracy theories, but it makes one fearful of the true extent of how dangerous petroleum politics can be, and if even a fraction of this fictitious tale is true, then the world really has a lot to fear.
In one of the scenes the character of Danny Dalton, played by Tim Blake Nelson talks about the benefits of corruption: “Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win”. This movie does not make you feel negative about the current government or the one before it. Rather, it says a lot more about the decades of American administration, regardless of them being Democratic or Republican, have led to the explosive oil policies (and politics) of today. It grips the viewer from the get go, taking him on a thrilling ride and leading him to question the dynamics of the world policies.
At no point does the viewer feel as if the economic and political realities of the world have been simplified, or even “cheesed” up to concoct a tale which would make for a nice movie. While some may argue that corporate oil giants, the Middle Eastern royals and American lawyers would not actually be involved in secret plots to control the world’s supply of oil and consequently affect the futures of many thousands of people, Gaghan’s story can hardly be dismissed on these grounds. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and the world of money, politics and power shown in Syriana leaves behind the clichéd heroism, suspense and conventional perceptions, and depicts realism which oozes credibility due to its natural dialogues and believable settings.
The movie does not allow one to pass judgments on the characters and the complex story lines do not allow one to truly understand the story in one viewing. Syriana is layered, with an explosive ending but a labyrinthine journey all the way. It disturbs, because it seems so true and rational. There aren’t any needless explanations and it never wastes time or insults the viewer’s intelligence by actually making anything easy to understand. The multiple story lines keep progressing at the same time, sometimes they intersect, and other times they run in parallel with just the bare minimum information presented to the viewer scene after scene. Sometimes the viewer does lose his way in all the crisscrossing traffic, and after the movie one does feel that the whole was not greater than the individual power which the scenes had.
Regardless Syriana is a movie with strong political convictions. It takes risks, presenting a narrative of the oil industry that is definitely eye-opening. Gaghan’s effort is commendable, his approach of not explaining everything and leaving the viewer to decide the right and wrong of it makes this movie a tough nut: gripping, complex, confusing and yet fascinating till the end.