Written and directed by Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, Syriana, a daring geopolitical Le Carre-like thriller, goes a theoretical warp factor 10, taking in everywhere and all at once. A scathing attack on American imperialism and the wilful prejudices underlying the War On Terror, we should not be surprised to see the usual right-on Hollywood players. A bearded and paunchy George Clooney (excellent) plays a wily CIA operative left out in the cold. Matt Damon is the young energy executive who, taking advantage of a family tragedy, bonds with Alexander Siddig’s liberal Persian prince. Elsewhere, as oil executives Chris Cooper and an all but moustache-twirling Christopher Plummer battle it out for control of the Gulf region, redundancies leave young Pakistani migrant worker (Mazhar Munir) out of a job and ripe for indoctrination into Islamic fundamentalism.
Inspired by See No Evil, a memoir by former CIA spy Robert Baer, Syriana plays out planetary political skullduggery with few concessions to those weaned on popcorn opiates. The sheer scale of Gaghan’s opus is daunting. Attempting to represent the whole damn system, the film’s many plotlines can become muddled and certainly require an unusual degree of engagement from the audience. Oh no. It’s making us think thoughts.
Still, we’re not really going to complain about that. When it all comes together, one is reminded of disgruntled post-Watergate incendiaries such as The Parallax View, The Conversation and Three Days Of The Condor. Forming an invigorating charge against The Man, Syriana is hands-down the most politically complex product to make it through the system in decades.
Watching this film and the incoming Molotov V For Vendetta, you find yourself wondering if Warner Brothers (the studio responsible for both) has become overrun by Bolsheviks. If so, here’s hoping they keep up the good work.