Syriana

Corruption, Espionage, and Oil.

Syriana is a powerful thought-provoking movie about the complexities surrounding the world's dependence on oil. You have to pay close attention as it confusing during the first half of the movie as you try to figure out what's going on. This movie does a remarkable job in telling the story from a macro and micro scale. It focuses on different characters that are all just a part of the wheel of the world. This movie is particularly relevant today as gas prices keep surging upward.

Syriana is a real term used by government officials to describe the hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East.

George Clooney plays a CIA agent who is assigned the task of assassinating Prince Nasir. However, things don't go as planned and he gets captured and tortured. I thought it was pretty brutal when he got his thumbnails yanked off.

Clooney is ultimately freed but the CIA betrays him and uses him as a scapegoat. Clooney tries to help Nasir from being killed, but the government uses a long range missile to blow them up to smithereans.

Prince Nasir wanted to bring about change to his country and make it a better place. He's American educated and pretty liberal. He wants to bring more freedom to women and make his nation more self-reliant. When the U.S. finds out, they try to take him out. Nasir is the heir apparent, but the U.S. wants to have his younger brother, a flamboyant hedonist, become the next Emir.

Matt Damon plays an energy trading company analyst who is invited to the Emir's palace to talk about his business ideas. Unfortunately, Damon's kid gets electrocuted in the swimming pool due to faulty wiring in the lighting system. That scares me because now I'm hesitant to jump in my swimming pool. I'll let someone else jump in first. That was a nice pool in a huge palatial estate. I can't believe they cheaped out on the pool contract.

Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) plays an ambitious Washington D.C. attorney who is conducting due diligence on a big oil conglomerate merger. He's put in the bad position of trying to make sure the merger goes through and at the same time, trying to give the U.S. Justice Department someone to prosecute for past shady dealings. He finds out that he's caught in the middle of something very dangerous.

Wasim is a Pakastani that came to the Gulf region with his dad to work and find a better life. However, he soon finds out that life sucks for immigrant workers and can't get a job. The oil company he was working for was bought out by another company so they were all laid off. He scrounges around for crappy jobs. He gets a job as a beekeeper, but gets stung because he has no protective clothing. He gets invited to join an Islamic school which seek to indoctrinate him and his other friends into a radical interpretation of Islam. For the first time, he feels some meaning living in an unfamiliar country. He believes that his actions will lead him to a better life in the next world. He rides a boat with a bomb on board and crashes it into an oil refinery.

The Highs: Great acting. A powerful look into the corruption of our government and evil corporations trying to control the world's supply of oil.

The Lows: Confusing beginning. Hard to understand what's going on as it constantly switches between the inter-related stories. Not enough action.

The Verdict: We must do something to reduce our dependence on oil.

My rating: B, 85.