Syriana Movie Review 2005

Gaghan once again uses multiple storylines to tackle a major social issue (after his excellent "Traffic"). This time he studies the interactions of foreign and U.S. governments, Wall Street, the CIA, energy companies, ordinary workers, and lawyers that control the flow of oil to consumers. Dense narrative follows a displaced oil field worker, corporate troubleshooting lawyer (Wright), an energy analyst (Damon) who suffers a tragic loss, a betrayed CIA operative (Clooney), an oil-rich prince (Siddiq), and a behind-the-scenes power broker (Plummer) as they maneuver to, intentionally or not, affect who controls the energy market, through backroom deals, terrorism (or the threat of it), and even less-pleasant methods. Well-done, if confusing film will generate discussion and reflection.

Distribution

Not Yet Released

Available on DVD
Running time 126 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Action-Thriller, Politics, Middle East, CIA/NSA, Spies & Espionage, Terrorism

Screenplay

Stephen Gaghan

Cast

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Amanda Peet, Christopher Plummer, Alexander Siddig, Akbar Kurtha, Max Minghella, David Clennon, Robert Foxworth, Mark Strong, Mazhar Munir, Khan Shadid Ahmed, William C. Mitchell, Dadral Sonnell

Cinematography

Robert Elswit

Director

Stephen Gaghan

Music

Alexandre Desplat, Cynthia Weil

Other

Petur Hliddal, Tim Squyres, Laurent Ott, Alan Hook, Andrew Menzies, Daran Fulham, Louise Frogley

Producer

Jennifer Fox, Michael Nozik, Georgia Kacandes, Section Eight, Participant Production, 4M Film, Warner Bros.

Awards

Oscars 2005: Support. Actor (Clooney); Golden Globes 2006: Support. Actor (Clooney); Natl. Bd. of Review 2005: Adapt. Screenplay.