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| Syriana (Widescreen Edition) |
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List Price: $28.98
Buy New: $10.95
You Save: $18.03 (62%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $9.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 161 reviews)
Sales Rank: 5
Category: DVD
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Label: Warner Home Video
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 128 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 012569807723
EAN: 0012569807723
ASIN: B000F7CMRM
Release Date: June 20, 2006 (New: Last 30 Days)
Theatrical Release Date: December 9, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Syriana is an oil-based soap opera set against the world of global oil cartels. It is to the oil industry as Traffic was to the drug trade (no surprise, since writer/director Stephen Gaghan wrote the screenplay to Traffic): a sprawling attempt to portray the vast political, business, social, and personal implications of a societal addiction, in this case, oil. A major merger between two of the worlds largest oil companies reveals ethical dilemmas for the lawyer charged with making the deal (Jeffrey Wright), and major global implications beyond the obvious; a CIA operative (George Clooney) discovers the truth about his work, and the people he works for; a young oil broker (Matt Damon) encounters personal tragedy, then partners with an idealistic Gulf prince (Alexander Siddig) attempting to build a new economy for his people, only to find hes opposed by powers far beyond his control. Meanwhile, disenfranchised Pakistani youths are lured into terrorism by a radical Islamic cleric. And thats just the start. As in Traffic, in one way or another all of the characters fates are tied to each other, whether they realize it or not, though the connections are sometimes tenuous. While Syriana is basically a good film with timely resonance, it cant quite seem to measure up to Gaghans ambitious vision and it very nearly collapses under the weight of its many storylines. Fortunately they are resolved skillfully enough to keep the film from going under in the end. To some viewers, Syriana will seem like an unfocused and over-loaded film that goes, all at once, everywhere and nowhere. Others will find it to be an important work earnestly exploring major issues. In either case, its a film that deserves to be taken seriously, and its likely to be one that will be talked about for a long time to come. --Dan Vancini
Beyond Syriana
The soundtrack |
More from Participant Productions |
Why We Love Jeffrey Wright |
Starring George Clooney |
Oscar Central |
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
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Stills from Syriana (click for larger image)
Description
Big oil means big money. Very big money. And that fact unleashes corruption that stretches from Houston to Washington to the Mideast and ensnares industrialists, princes, spies, politicos, oilfield laborers and terrorists in a deadly, deceptive web of move and countermove. This lightning-paced, whip-smart action thriller grips your mind and nerves with an intensity that doesn't let go for an instant.
DVD Features:
Additional Scenes
Featurette:Make a Change, Make a Difference
Interviews:Conversation with George Clooney
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Customer Reviews: Read 156 more reviews...
 Compelling July 8, 2006
"Syriana" isn't the convoluted film it's accused of being, but it does require a few things of the viewer. Before you watch, you need to have accepted a few ideas about the oil industry and U.S. foreign policy that Americans have been educated not to accept.
First, you have to accept that the goal of the United States, and for that matter every industrialized nation on Earth, is not the peaceful advancement of civilization for its' peoples. No world power is spared - China and Russia are called out as up-and-coming players in the dirty game. Damon's character points it out clearly - every major treaty & action in the region since World War I has been about strategic access to oil. It is literally a fight to the death to determine which worldly powers control it.
Second, you have to accept that oil actually is "running out". Oil wells don't exactly "run dry", but they can be depleted to the point where it's no longer trivial to continue extraction. Fewer and fewer new oil fields are being found, and the oil industry's focus has made a steady move away from exploration of new fields, and towards technologies to further exploit existing ones. This means that, while the world doesn't neccesarily face a crisis of oil shortage, the easy work is behind us; oil companies face ever more difficult, expensive technical challenges in the future in order to guarantee supply. This is known as "Peak Oil".
Third, you have to accept that money, power and ideology make strange bedfellows. Seedy, corrupt connections like the ones between lawyers, U.S. government officials and the oil industry would easily be dismissible as paranoid fantasy if it weren't for the rich plunder of oil. The Bob Baer character finds himself surrounded by enemies within his own agency, but a friend to a coup plotter. Damon's character allows the promise of radical change in the region to split apart his family. The incongruity starts to make sense when viewed through the lens of Syriana.
And last, you have to accept that in a struggle such as this one, all parties are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to achieve what they see as the right ends.
This film has been lauded as a "wake up call" about America's complicity in the violent regional conflicts surrounding oil-rich nations; I don't think it's that. No smoking gun is revealed, no single event demonized, no accusation is made. You will learn nothing new here if you've glanced at a copy of The Economist or The New York Times in the last 20 years. I don't think the aim here was to "lift the blanket" off of a problem most Americans are already willing to acknowledge exists.
And to call the film "unamerican" is short-sighted as well. Everyone finds a straw man to beat; journalist Amir Tehiri considers it anti-Arab. Capitalists would call it "anti-capitalist fantasy". It's hard to sustain any of these claims, because nothing in the film is really that shocking. Americans have woken up to new charges of corruption, globalism and anti-Arab violence in the papers every single day of 2006. A simple reading of practicallly any newspaper in the U.S. today would indicate massive corruption, illegality and doublespeak on the part of government and industry oil-related or not, that far outstrips any controversial aspect of the film Syriana. If you have to concoct a criticism of Syriana as to its realism, you would have to conclude that the film itself is far too tame.
The criticism most frequently leveled at this movie is that it's convoluted, hard to follow, maybe intentionally confusing. I didn't find that to be the case - in fact, you only need a basic understanding of oil and geopolitics in order to follow the story. I found the large number of characters to be a stumbling point though. Also, some of the story's most critical junctures involving kingmaker Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer's character) are quickly glossed over and left (maybe intentionally) vague. In a traditional film, Whiting would be the villain, and it's unfair I think to leave him so unconnected. One would assume that Whiting is the nexus of powerful forces in the oil industry lobby, the U.S. government and the oil-producing states, but it's all to vague to be certain. We are left to guess at the exact nature of what is, essentially, the hand pulling all of the strings. In a film where every plot device has a clear real-world analog, it's unfair to leave ambiguous such a central point.
"Traffic" shared this problem. Such is the nature of Gaghan's finger-pointing. The weighty bundle of innuendo is often left to hang by a precious thread, unconnected to reality and dangling precipitously.
 Plan 9 From Hollywood July 8, 2006
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Syriana" was somewhat hard to follow with the choppy transitions among multiple vaguely-drawn plotlines, but I finally figured it out: The Great Satan conspires with Big Oil to grind the hapless Middle East under foot as they rape the planet. Using the CIA as their tool, they set out to murder everyone who gets in their way. Two young Middle Easterners rise up against this megalithic monstrosity. One is the wealthy son of an Emir and the other is the poverty stricken son of an oil worker. As the labyrinthine plot winds to its inevitable unhappy ending, the wealthy prince seeks to overthrow his father's government and set up a government based on principles of liberty, equality, and democracy and thereby save the world. Of course, the Great Satan must do everything possible to prevent the spread of ideals so foreign to its nature. Meanwhile the poverty stricken youth studies at the feet of a guru who teaches the complementary doctrines of love, peace, and tranquility on the one hand and blowing up yourself and innocent people in the name of God on the other.
Will the movie end in multiple explosions, with the poverty stricken youth lovingly, peacefully, and tranquilly riding a rocket into the side of an oil tanker and the rich prince being taken out by the Great Satan as he is on the verge of saving the world? Will the bad guys live happily ever after and the world continues its downward spiral to abject poverty and misery? Or will George Clooney and Matt Damon be able to foil the bad guys and change the course of history? It will take you approximately two hours to find out.
My biggest question is "Where was the media while all this skulduggery was going on?" The American media serves as a vigilant watchdog to prevent and expose shenanigans such as this. They'd have had a field day with this Byzantine plot.
Using all the cardboard stereotypical villains and victims "Syriana" teaches us that up is down, left is right, and off is on. No wonder the plot didn't make any sense. Neither did the premise.
Possibly the most well hidden illogic of the movie is this: It teaches us that the Middle East cannot help itself. (Never mind that it was the cradle of civilization and that it had the supreme culture of the Middle Ages). The good prince needed a Western education and a Western advisor (Matt Damon) to pull off his feat of saving the world. Let's see, the Middle East can only be saved by the imposition of the Great Satan's cherished values of liberty, equality, and democracy, but the Great Satan will never let that happen. How's that for clear thinking?
Bela Lugosi's last movie, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is supposed to be the worst movie ever made. "Syriana" may just edge "Plan 9" out for that honor.
 In Defense of Syriana July 8, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I don't normally write reviews, but when I saw the negative reviews on this movie, I just had to write something. First of all, yes, this movie is somewhat complex. If you are looking for a movie which doesn't take much brain power to understand don't see Syriana; I would recommend The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (that shouldn't addle your sensitive brain). But if you are looking for a movie that has nuance and an interesting plot, then I would watch Syriana. This movie presents an interesting and unique perspective on the US's relations in the Middle East which I have in few places.
pay attention to the details July 8, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I would say this plot offers up more suspense and intriguing details than any tom clancy movie I've ever seen. It wasn't until about an hour into the movie that things finally started to make sense. But, from that point on, I was hanging onto every word and piecing together every detail.
The trick to understanding this movie before it's over is to remember the names. Once you get to the point when you know who's who, everything else unfolds from there.
This movie does a profound job of putting you into the minds of the impressionable and disenchanted middle eastern youth who are easily recruited into the terrorist agenda. In fact, if you follow this plot closely, you'll realize that the stinger missile that G. Clooney "loses" at the beginning of the movie actually ends up being used to commit an act of vengeance on his behalf.
After all, after becoming cognisant of the circumstances surrounding the investigation of his life's "work", he is forced to shed his "blind" loyalty to his employer, the US government.
Unfortunately, the victims of terrorist suicide bombings aren't always oil executives and arab beneficiaries of oil contract kick-backs. However, as I stated before, it becomes easier to see that the war on terror isn't as clear as the good guy vs. the bad guy, when looking at it from the perspective offered by this movie.
So, what's going on?
Matt Damon is a financial advisor to Prince Nassir. Prince Nassir's family just approved a deal with the chinese to come in and set up shop as oil drillers, as the chinese offered the highest bid.
However, the US wants to cut the chinese out of the picture, so that the newly merged connex and the smaller oil company can do their thing in place of the chinese.
So, now we're at that scene where the old guy is talking to Prince Nassir's younger brother on the yacht. What you have to infer is that the "wish" that Nassir's younger brother wants the "cat's paw" to grant is to have his older brother, Prince Nassir, assassinated. In return for the favor, the US will get the oil contract instead of the chinese.
That's when the CIA have George Clooney arrange for Prince Nassir to be assassinated. However, you know that doesn't work out. That's why Clooney threatened the old man in the cafe. He knows that the old man is setting him up to be the fall guy for the failed Nassir assassination.
So, everything else is pretty much straightforward.
wish I had my 2+ hours back July 8, 2006
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the worst movie I have seen all year. It reminded me of Solaris, another Clooney movie that left me confused and wishing I hadn't wasted the time to watch the entire flix.
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Copyright Runningonkarma.com 2006
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