Turns out Clooney had a two-and-a-half-inch rip in the middle of his back, a half-inch tear in his neck and was leaking spinal fluid to the point where it was coming out of his nose. Committee for the Liberation of Iran was based on an organization called Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.[5]. TlDR : USA/CIA/OIL conglomerate didn't wanted "another Iranian" revolution. I understood who, what, when, where and why, but not how they connected. George Clooney plays the lead character of Bob Barnes. The two commit suicide by driving their boat (with the missile on it) into a Connex-Killen LNG tanker. 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. Syriana Those complaining that Hollywood never turns out films of topical or political substance are likely to embrace "Syriana," a weighty and deeply intriguing look at the international oil . I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches where it feels like you're having a stroke, and for a short three-week period, I started to think, 'I may have to do something drastic about this.' "[15] Gaghan said he saw Syriana as "a great word that could stand for man's perpetual hope of remaking any geographic region to suit his own needs. Clooney transformed himself to play headstrong CIA operative Bob Barnes. Holiday meets with the CEO of Killen Oil, Jimmy Pope, and informs him that the DOJ needs a second body in order to drop the investigation. By understanding this film in its entirety, one can get a better grasp on the complexity of conflicts in the Middle East. It went on to make $50.8 million in North America and $43.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $94 million. Prior to his reassignment, Barnes confides in his ex-CIA officer friend, Stan Goff, that he will return to Lebanon. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. It finds all of the players in the oil game corrupt and compromised, and even provides a brilliant speech in defense of corruption, by a Texas oilman (Tim Blake Nelson). Jagoda then looks at digital media that are interactive, nonlinear, and dependent on connected audiences to show how recent approaches, such as A series about street racing that turned into a series of heist movies before eventually shooting a car into space hardly seems like the playground of serious actors. Well, he did take the deal. "[25] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote, "it's also the kind of movie that requires a viewer to work actively for comprehension, and to chalk up any lack of same to his or her own deficiency in the face of something so evidently smart. MBA (Master's degree in Business Administration), Experienced Corporate Founder and Director. "Syriana" was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for best screenplay adaptation for "Traffic," another hyperlink movie. While investigating Connex-Killen's records, Holiday discovers a wire transfer of funds that leads back to a transaction between Texas oilman and Killen colleague Danny Dalton and Kazakh officials. Published Jan 5, 2021. Although abuse of foreign workers is rife, the censor authorities deemed such scenes as insulting. . 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. He hopes to succeed his father as emir, but his younger brother is chosen instead. However, both moves, the assassination and the merger, have a common denominator--one stained with blood and betrayal. Connex-Killen ranks as the world's twenty-third largest corporation, and US antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice (DOJ) have misgivings. 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. "[23] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, "This is conspiracy-theory filmmaking of the most bravura kind, but if only a fraction of its suppositions are true, weand the worldare in a world of trouble. While sitting with his agent in a restaurant, he pictures Annie as a waitress with a knife, but this is nothing but a hallucination. Whatever ending you saw, it's not the only one. In the process, Woodman learns of Prince Nasir's western leanings and his want to change radically his country into a western democracy with a diversified economy. Source: Warner Bros. For 15 days straight, the actor's internal wounds were injected with blood, which basically means his spinal cord was relentlessly stuck with a needle. Holiday is brought by his colleague and mentor Sydney Hewitt to meet with the Chairman & CEO of Connex Oil, Leland "Lee" Janus. [32], Syriana was listed on many critics' top ten lists.[33]. What are Damon's real motives, anyway? How does How It Ends end? Asked by Yokyah R #1043533. Graham, who penned the last story, discussed the world where DI Alex Drake found herself in the show . No one notices that a crack in one of the swimming pool area's underwater lights has electrified the water. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. When Bob is in the elevator in the hotel in Beirut, a camera lens is visible in an elevator mirror. No, I tell you. Regardless of which ending you see, the story concludes with a final scene near. Syriana, Murderball and Good Night and Good Luck - collectively gaining eleven Oscar nominations. Clooney works for the CIA. And yet 10 films in, the Fast . Directed by John Lee, False Positive explores a lot of different themes involving motherhood, women's bodies, and how the patriarchy attempts to control both of those things. That was how I wanted to relate to it. He was pumped with painkillers, which didnt agree with himVicodin obliterated his stomach, following which he spent a long stretch of time on morphine, resulting in uncontrollable anxiety. [20], Syriana received generally positive reviews, mostly for Clooney's performance and Gaghan's screenplay. "[8] A few weeks after 9/11, Steven Soderbergh sent Gaghan a copy of ex-CIA officer Robert Baer's memoir, See No Evil. "[31], Ebert named it the second-best film of 2005, behind Crash. "[30], Ebert named it the second-best film of 2005, behind Crash. I liked the way I experienced the film: I couldn't explain the story, but I never felt lost in it. Syriana (2005) Summary News Box Office International Video Sales Full Financials Cast & Crew Trailer Metrics Latest Ranking on Cumulative Box Office Lists See the Box Office tab (Domestic) and International tab (International and Worldwide) for more Cumulative Box Office Records. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 73% based on 198 reviews, with an average score of 6.89/10. Syriana (2,879) 6.9 2 h 7 min 2005 X-Ray R Big oil means big money. Barnes's boss, Terry George, worries that Barnes might talk about the Nasir assassination plan and that killing Nasir with a drone would make it obvious as an American-backed assassination. He decided to grant the writer an audience even though he had not requested one. He survived the blast and returns home to be with his family. A Washington law firm headed by Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) is hired to smooth the way for the merger. 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. 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. Thinking she's been abandoned, Powder is approached by . The plot moves through labyrinthine levels of double-cross. Holiday advises Dalton that he will likely be charged with corruption in order to serve as a "body" to get the DOJ off the back of the rest of Connex-Killen. It went into wide release on December 9, 2005 in 1,752 theaters grossing $11.7 million on that weekend. The two commit suicide by driving their boat (with the missile on it) into a Connex-Killen LNG tanker. Holiday acknowledges that if the name were big enough, the DOJ would stop the investigation and allow the merger. Corruption aint nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. "[24] USA Today gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "Gaghan assumes his audience is smart enough to follow his explosive tour of global petro-politics. He said, "When 9/11 happened, it suddenly was a war on terror, which I think of as a war on emotions. 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. Jump to the diagram Read background information Requires Flash. Directed by Todd Field, the film tells the story of Lydia Tr, a fictional conductor whose incredibly accomplished life comes crashing down around her after a series of scandals come to the surface. Vi, devastated, walks away from her sister. This comes as a strategic defeat for Connex, a Texas-based oil company. Herodotus speaks of "Syrians" as identical with Assyrians, but the term's geographical significance was not well defined in pre-Greek and Greek times. She encourages her boss to follow her, but he refuses to listen. According to a user from the United Arab Emirates, the name Syriana is of Jewish origin and means "The Assyrians land". Clooney's performance was critically acclaimed, earning him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as British Academy Film Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. It is a film for older The emirate's foreign minister, Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) has granted natural gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, greatly upsetting the US oil industry and government. The move is in response to Connex losing a number of oil fields in the Persian Gulf region as Prince Nasir Al-Subaai, his country's foreign minister, and the oldest son of the Emir and thus the heir apparent to the throne, signed a contract with the Chinese instead. I can't actually live.' Its no wonder, then, that Syrianafeels authentic in a way not many Middle Eastern-set American films are. Barnes returns to the Middle East and approaches Prince Nasir's convoy to warn him of the assassination plan. Syriana is a thriller of corruption and power related to the oil industry that tells four parallel stories: the CIA agent Bob Barnes with great experience in Middle East that falls in disgrace after an unsuccessful mission dealing missiles in Lebanese Republic; the investigation of the attorney Bennett Holiday related to the merge of two American oil companies, Connex and Killen; the traumatic association of the energy analyst Bryan Woodman with the son of a powerful emir of Emirate; and the social drama of the Pakistani immigrant worker Wasim Khan that is fired by the oil company. ode to the vampire mother results; national asset mortgage lawsuit; green tuna paper; mary davis sos band net worth If you don't think about it too deeply, putting Nick and Sabrina together for all eternity is a lovely way to end the series. Barnes becomes a pawn in the goings-on between the players. The final scene shows Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) returning home from a party, once again finding his father waiting half asleep on the front steps of his house. Some of the characters I cared about included Robert Barnes (George Clooney), a veteran CIA field agent; Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), a trader based in Geneva; Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper), who runs Killen; Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer), a well-connected Washington lawyer whose firm is hired to handle the political implications of the merger; Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright), assigned by Whiting to do "due diligence" on the deal, by which is meant that diligence which supports the merger; Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), who sold the rights to the Chinese; his younger brother Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha), who is backed by those who do not want Nasir to inherit the throne, and the mysterious Stan, played by William Hurt as someone who is keeping a secret from the rest of the movie. This essay considers the theatrical representation of the individual and war in a time of disintegrating national states. While on assignment in Tehran to kill two arms dealers, Barnes notices that one of two anti-aircraft missiles intended to be used in a bombing was diverted to an Egyptian, while the other explodes and kills the two arms dealers. I never felt connected or that I even understood a character's motives. To compensate for its decreased production capacity, Connex initiates a shady merger with Killen, a smaller oil company that recently won the drilling rights to Kazakhstan's Tengiz Field. Several reviewers felt they were often trying to catch up with the intricacies of the plot. Instead of complexity, there is a blank, uncompelling tangle, which conceals a kind of complacent political correctness. He told Rolling Stone: "I was at a point where I thought, I can't exist like this. Mussawi tortures Barnes and prepares to behead him, but the Hezbollah leader arrives and stops him. 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 "[28] Philip French, in his review for The Observer, praised the film as "thoughtful, exciting and urgent". "It wasn't the fault of the film or director", he explained. In the long run, we're out of oil. Ending Explained: Decoding Stephen King's New Coda. [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. "[21] The film has a score of 76 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 40 critics indicating "Generally favorable reviews". The movie's plot is so complex we're not really supposed to follow it, we're supposed to be surrounded by it. 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