Before September 11th, it was hard to find a film about the Middle East that did not involve ancient Egyptian mummies, swarthy terrorists spouting one-liners, or the parting of the Red Sea. While these cliches certainly are entertaining, they ignore the complex web of religious, political and economic intrigue which governs the world's main oil producing region. Syriana, while only scratching the surface of the unpredicatble nature of the region, provides a fair perspective of the competing parties in the conflict as they negotiate, threaten and sometimes kill in pursuit of their own self-interest.
Cast and Characters
The obvious strength of this movie is the ensemble cast, from the three major leads- Matt Damon, George Clooney and the underappreciated Jeffrey Wright (Boycott, Ride with the Devil) to brief appearances by William Hurt and Tim Blake Nelson. The actors playing the Muslim characters are especially well done, although this might only seem so because of the relative unfamiliarity American audiences have with complex Middle Eastern characters.
The plot is neccessarily convoluted, mirroring the politics of the region, and takes the form of a number of different strands that intersect and diverge throughout the film. Clooney plays a veteran CIA agent who's first act is to assassinate terrorists holding one of two American missiles, it's his quest to locate the other weapon which leads him on a wild goose chase through the Middle East and Washington. Wright is a D.C. attorney employed to push through a shady merger between two major oil companies with heavy interests in the region. The third member of the triumvirate, Damon's character, a naive, energy analyst employed by a Middle Eastern prince (of an unnamed country) who has big dreams of modernizing his state- cutting out the West in the process.
If the plot seems tough for the average viewer to follow, that's because it is. It takes repeated viewings to catch the complexities of each major story line, characters drift in and out of the picture, background information is sparse, and audiences unfamiliar with Middle Eastern politics, federal anti-trust laws, may have trouble following the story. Conservatives may find the story bends to the left of the spectrum, and will identify more with Wright, Chris Cooper or Nelson's characters, while liberals will think the opposite, finding the Crown Prince played by Alexander Siddig or the two migrant workers sympathetic.
In the end, this is the triumph of Syriana. The movie operates within a grey area, where it is impossible to tell who is good and evil, or even who is on what side. The three major characters are inherently flawed, as are the supporting players, and the movie offers no quick solutions or easy outs. Instead, the film suggests the system itself needs changing at a very fundamental level, and blame should never be cast on one group or ideology to the
