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Posted by Gunther Gloop on 03/07/06 13:21
It's not out on dvd yet, but I'm hopeful for a super-duper "bibliography"
type release that points to similar oil-lobby tales as those portrayed in
this (fiction) movie.
Saw it yesterday. I spent the first half of the film being a little
underwhelmed -as I was with Traffic on the whole.
From around the halfway point though, each storyline began to really settle
down and occasionally overlap and the whole thing seemed to gel better than
I thought it would -and each segment was more interesting than I thought
they would be.
I left the cinema with plenty to think about -and not all of it necessarily
about "the evils of the oil-lobby". There is much to recommend this
movie -from the acting to the writing to the way the story is told, to the
bits that were hinted-at, but left unsaid.
I think Spielberg took the traditional route (with Munich) by telling a
smaller story, hinting at being part of a greater "whole sorry mess". In
that, I think Spielberg made perhaps his best film to date. It wasn't
judgemental or over-biased -it left room for opinion and for the viewer to
fill in the blanks as they see fit.
I don't think he did that a lot (ever?) in the past.
Syriana is more ambitious. It doesn't take the traditional storytelling
route (well not traditional for a movie anyway). Most people are aware it's
like Traffic -from the same writer -and in this case, writer-director.
But Traffic for me was less effective because it was too random... it could
have involved almost any selection of people worldwide and had their story
woven into the plot. The stories it _did_ pick then weren't really that
interesting to me (well it's bin a while since I saw it too so they might
interest me more now).
Syriana isn't about a particular oil-scandal, so things are still a little
random, but it beautifully tells of corporate/government/individuals'
involvement in the Middle East and how they affect so many
hundreds/thousands/millions of others across the globe.
Whether things exactly like those represented in the movie actually happen
is incidental -Syriana shows how these kinds of things _could_ happen and it
portrays realistic characters/motivations/plots that make it all so
believeable.
Excellent movie. I am surprised that it didn't feature more strongly in the
Oscars -even if they weren't gonna vote for it, it deserves a lot more
publicity than it seems to be getting.
-Kevin.
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