Movie Review: Syriana

Okay, I’ve just seen the movie on DVD. First, you have to read the screenplay (need to find link, they’ve made it available as a PDF). Otherwise you won’t know how all the background stuff relates to the plot(s).

Overall it’s a so-so to lousy presentation of a good story. It goes without saying that it’s a complicated situation. The problem is that the movie simplifies everyone into black hats and white hats, just like an old western. That’s how you tell the good guys from the bad guys, by the color of their hats. They make attempts to balance it but it really doesn’t wash. Too melodramatic.

It’s better than Gaghan’s last movie, Traffic, but that might just be because of Micheal Douglas. (I don’t remember where I read this, but someone described the Traffic theme as “we need to change the drug laws or your daughters will sleep with black men.”)

What really ticks me off it is that they have some good points to make but they cover them up with crap. As one example, one of the side comments they use to set up a scene is something like “but if oil hits $100 a bbl then gas goes to $10 a gal and the economy collapses.” Now why would they say something dumb like that? Oil has nearly doubled to $70, gas has doubled to $3, anyone can estimate the math and see that $100 oil will give us somewhere around $4 gas, not $10. I’d guess oil would have to be well over $200 to push gas to $10. Obvious illogic like this makes me wonder what else is crap, which seriously impedes the message. Am I wrong?

Overall I like the movie inspite of itself.