[4] As with Gaghan's screenplay for Traffic, Syriana uses multiple, parallel storylines, jumping between locations in Iran, Texas, Washington, D.C., Switzerland, Spain, and Lebanon. The fifth storyline, centering on Michelle Monaghan playing a Miss USA who becomes involved with a rich Arab oilman, was cut when the film became too complicated. [23] The audience confusion mimics the confusion of the characters, who are enmeshed in the events around them without a clear understanding of what precisely is going on. If the movie shook down into good guys and bad guys, we'd be the good guys, of course. Connex-Killen ranks as the world's twenty-third largest corporation, and US antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice (DOJ) have misgivings. Behind George Clooney's confident charm is a very real man who wrestles with doubt, wakes five times a night and is "terrified" of not achieving what he wants. U.S. energy giant Connex Oil is losing control of key oil fields in a Persian Gulf Kingdom ruled by the Al-Subaai family. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. Harrison Ford turned down the role of Bob Barnes (the role played by George Clooney), regretting it later, stating, "I didn't feel strongly enough about the truth of the material and I think I made a mistake. Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig) decides to give the oil rights to the Chinese, instead of the USA. "It wasn't the fault of the film or director", he explained. According to a user from Bahamas, the name Syriana means "peace". We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Only, Bingbing is there to stop him. Syriana is a 2005 American political thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, loosely based on Robert Baer's 2003 memoir See No Evil. [7][11] Also, a role played by Greta Scacchi, as Bob Barnes' wife, was also cut before the final release. Source: Getty. Prior to his reassignment, Barnes confides in his ex-CIA officer friend, Stan Goff, that he will return to Lebanon. Bennett Holiday meets with Dean Whiting, who is convinced that Killen bribed someone to get the drilling rights in Kazakhstan. Syriana, and the television series The Wire, all of which play with network forms to promote reection on domestic crisis and imperial decline in contemporary America. African-American Film Critics Association, Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film, DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, New Group Aims to Drum Up Backing for Ousting Hussein, A Half-Dozen Ways to Watch the Same Movie, http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2006/03/04/story247617.asp, Ex-CIA Agent Robert Baer, Inspiration for 'Syriana', Dubai censor cuts scenes of labour abuse from 'Syriana', Soderbergh, Clooney and Co. Make Mideast Mess Too Simple, King Clooney and the 10 Best Movies of 2005, Democracy 'n' Action: 25 Powerful Political Thrillers, Metacritic: 2005 Film Critic Top Ten Lists, Ebert and Roeper Top Ten Lists (2000-2005)), The 78th Academy Awards (2006) Nominees and Winners, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy Award Noms: Oscar's western union, African American Film Critics Association Select, The 11th Critics' Choice Movie Awards Winners and Nominees, DallasFort Worth Film Critics 2005 Awards, The Winners of the 7th Annual Golden Trailer Awards, Hollywood Film Festival Bestows Kudos, Stephen Frears's, The New York Film Critics Online Awards 2005, Screen Actors Guild Honors Outstanding Film and Television Performances in 13 Categories at the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Nominations Announced for the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, 18th Annual USC Scripter Award Winner Announced, WGA Announces Nominees for Writers Guild Awards. Herodotus speaks of "Syrians" as identical with Assyrians, but the term's geographical significance was not well defined in pre-Greek and Greek times. An Arab who is incidentally played by a British character actor. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. (beat) Corruption is how we win. He has Barnes's passports revoked, locks him out of his computer at work, and initiates an investigation of him. [20], Syriana received generally positive reviews, mostly for Clooney's performance and Gaghan's screenplay. Woodman's supervisor directs him to attend a private party hosted by the Emir at his private estate in Marbella, Spain, to offer his company's services. Holiday acknowledges that if the name were big enough, the DOJ would stop the investigation and allow the merger. Asked by Yokyah R #1043533. Hale Tourism Hale Hotels Bed and Breakfast Hale Hale Holiday Rentals Hale Holiday Packages Flights to Hale Syriana; Hale Attractions Hale Travel Forum Hale Photos But she doesn't go to jail for Josh's murder. Design and text 1996 - 2023 Jon Sandys. The movie released in 2016 and was directed by M Night Shyamalan. Greco-Roman administrations were the first to apply the term to a definite district. The showrunner followed through on his promised "decompression" of the final episode with a discussion with novelist A.M . She encourages her boss to follow her, but he refuses to listen. Which words describe the tone at the end of this excerpt of "the monkeys paw" ? "[8] Before any filming took place, Gaghan convinced Warner Bros. to give him an unlimited research budget and no deadline. Regardless of which ending you see, the story concludes with a final scene near. She pleads with him not to go inside . updated May 7, 2021. I remember her best . Most critics stated that it was almost impossible to follow the plot, though some, notably Roger Ebert, praised precisely that quality of the film and offered an interesting hidden story possibility (a covert deal between the U.S. and China involving oil being shipped through Kazakhstan and passed off as coming from a different source). syriana ending explained. Director Stephen Gaghan Writers Stephen Gaghan Robert Baer (book "See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism") Stars George Clooney Matt Damon Amanda Peet Syriana (2,879) 6.9 2 h 7 min 2005 X-Ray R Big oil means big money. The CIA sets forward their plan to assassinate Nasir. But this radical decision has upset Connex Oil, a U.S. energy giant. R 2006 126 minutes Save Rate movie Parents say not rated for age Based on 2 reviews Kids say age 13+ Based on 4 reviews Watch or buy Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Moments after arriving in Beirut in 2002, Gaghan was taken from the airport in a blindfold and hood where he met with Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who was interested in films. Summoned to execute Prince Nasir Al-Subaai, a liberal foreign minister who granted crude oil and natural gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes is with his back to the wall after a failed mission in the Middle East. Written and directed by one of Hollywood's most coveted screenwriters, Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for Traffic, Syriana weaves an intricate web of thrilling parallel stories, bound together by the global effects of the oil industry. Pakistani migrant workers Saleem Ahmed Khan and his son Wasim board a bus to go to work at a Connex refinery, only to discover that they have been laid off. She's written most of a book in which a Spanish conquistador searches for the Tree of Life at the behest of his queen; meanwhile, in the future, a cosmonaut heads for a distant nebula in a. . By understanding this film in its entirety, one can get a better grasp on the complexity of conflicts in the Middle East. The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Instead of complexity, there is a blank, uncompelling tangle, which conceals a kind of complacent political correctness. [12], Gaghan shot in over 200 locations on four continents with 100 speaking parts. A Washington, D.C.-based law firm headed by Dean Whiting is hired to smooth the way for the merger. Peet has appeared in a number of successful films including "The Whole Nine Yards" and "Syriana". [23], Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "Gaghan relies on Clooney's agnostic heroism to lure viewers into his maze. DANNY -Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks hes gonna run this up the flag pole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. All rights reserved. As with Gaghan's screenplay for Traffic, Syriana uses multiple, parallel storylines, jumping from locations in Texas, Washington D.C., Switzerland, Spain, and the Middle East, leading film critic Ebert to describe the film as hyperlink cinema. The Syrian civil war ( Arabic: , romanized : al-arb ul-ahlyyat us-sryyah) is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (supported by domestic and foreign allies) and various domestic and foreign forces that oppose both the In a December 2005 interview, Baer told NPR that the title is a metaphor for foreign intervention in the Middle East, referring to post-World War I think tank strategic studies for the creation of an artificial state (such as Iraq, created from elements of the former Ottoman Empire) that ensured continued western access to crude oil. A politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it. Since the company had provided food and lodging, the workers face the threat of deportation due to their unemployed status. Prince Nasir is dedicated to the idea of progressive reform and understands that oil dependency is not sustainable in the long term; Nasir wants to utilize his nation's oil profits to diversify the economy and introduce democratic reforms, in sharp contrast to his father's repressive government, which has been supported by American interests. Holiday reveals an under-the-table deal that Hewitt made while the Connex-Killen merger was being processed. Springing from the discussion about 'new wars' in the age of globalisation, it is demonstrated how these 'new wars' also generate new plays about war, illustrated by Caryl Churchill's "Far Away" (2000) and Zinnie Harris's "Midwinter" (2004). By on November 6, 2020. [31] Entertainment Weekly ranked Syriana as one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers" in film history. In reparation and out of sympathy for the loss of his son, Prince Nasir, the Emir's older son, grants Woodman's company oil interests worth $75 million. "Syriana" was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for best screenplay adaptation for "Traffic," another hyperlink movie. The convoy that he rolls up on at the end belongs to a young prince who is getting ready to foment either democracy or revolution in his country. It all started to click for me. Not that its sufficient consolation, but Clooneys powerhouse performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This land was part of the Fertile Crescent, and has historically been a geopolitically crucial junction for trade routes from the east, from Asia Minor and the Aegean, and from Egypt, and has long been a focus of great power conflicts. Most meant this as a compliment and it is to be hoped students will relish the opportunity Syriana offers to dip into distinctly murky waters. Several reviewers felt they were often trying to catch up with the intricacies of the plot. Syriana, Murderball and Good Night and Good Luck - collectively gaining eleven Oscar nominations. If Connex-Killen were a country, it would rank as the world's twenty-third largest economy, and antitrust regulators at the DOJ have concerns. Ask and answer questions. The Emirate's foreign minister, Prince Nasir, has granted natural gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, greatly upsetting the U.S. oil industry and the U.S. government. Clooney works for the CIA. The drama is a mystery thriller about Go Hye Ran (played by Kim Nam Joo ), an anchorwoman who becomes a murder suspect, and her rocky relationship with. [14], The film's title is suggested to derive from the hypothesized Pax Syriana, as an allusion to the necessary state of peace between Syria and the U.S. as it relates to the oil business. Goff advises him to clear his presence with Hezbollah so they know he is not acting against them. JTBC's drama "Misty" has concluded its run! A recent blog item coined a term like "hyperlink movie" to describe plots like this. No, I tell you. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. [13], The film's title is suggested to derive from the hypothesized Pax Syriana, as an allusion to the necessary state of peace between Syria and the U.S. as it relates to the oil business. While working on Traffic, Stephen Gaghan began to see parallels between drug addiction and America's dependency on foreign oil. Parts of the film were shot in Lebanon, Dubai and other parts of the Middle East. Just as Woodman and all the other guests are brought to the pool area, Woodman's son jumps into the pool and is electrocuted. [18], Syriana was released on November 23, 2005 in limited release in only five theaters grossing $374,502 on its opening weekend. His father, at the urging of the American government with the help of Whiting and his law firm, names the younger Meshal as his successor, causing Nasir to attempt a coup. 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