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The DVD runs well and was excellent value. The listing said there was no case, but the cover artwork came with the DVD and I soon had them both in one of my spare cases.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Can be confusing, but there is always Wikipedia if you do not understand the story. I feel the actors are very appropriately casted. I would like Hollywood to make more movies like this. It is a movie for the thinking man
We thought it a really good film and enjoyed watching it. George Clooney played a really part as did Matt Damon. I wanted to see it at the cinema but missed it, so I was pleased that i managed to get it on DVD
As in the stunning "Traffic" of a few years ago, "Syriana" adopts the audacious tact of piecing together many plot strains with the intention of making some major points about the need /desperation and unending thirst for Oil. As in "Traffic" Gaghan sets up a situation in which Oil, not drugs is an obsession, a sickness really...the real stuff of life and he peoples his movie with those who support and thrive on his thesis: the C.I.A, the Arab Nations, the US oil companies. People are victimized, blown-up, tortured, brutalized and even murdered in service of the all-mighty pursuit of black gold. Writer/Director Stephen Gaghan (writer of "Traffic") has the sense though of making the proceedings global yet often times heart breakingly personal which only makes his film more persuasive, more contemporary, more like real, rather than reel, life. George Clooney, bloated and bearded and not looking at all like the "Worlds Sexiest Man" plays a C.I.A. agent, Bob Barnes: a work-horse agent...one who is sent out on missions as a scapegoat, one who is not expected to succeed but time and time again completes his missions to the utter dismay of his superiors: whereas all of his contemporaries are earning raises and respect, he earns neither and in fact he is abhorred for his expertise: definitely a case of someone who gets the job done his own way and does not follow the party line: a rebel. Why? It's never really explained but it is obvious that Barnes is an outsider: a man more sinned against than sinning. And even with the extra 20 pounds, grey beard and baggy, shapeless clothes, Clooney has never been more effective: he's gruff, he's gross, he's driven but he is nonetheless a good guy...someone who always has the big picture in mind and sees and understands the forest despite the trees. We, the audience view much of the action and plot of "Syriana" en Medias re: we eavesdrop on many scenes as they are unfolding rather than at their inception: a device that was used to great advantage in "Traffic" and "Gosford Park." This process keeps us off-balance and psychologically on our toes: we pay close attention just to "keep up" and Gaghan, always the consummate storyteller punctuates his films with the rational and irrational stuff that makes us all human. There is also a dark, foreboding, mean-spirited and dangerous side to the story Gaghan is telling here: how do you differentiate the light without the dark? How do you know what is Evil without knowing the Good? "Syriana" is bravura filmmaking in the best sense: universal yet coming from a personal place. In fact there is a verisimilitude about "Syriana" that is chilling and frightening: is there indeed a wolf pack of rabid Washington honchos pulling and manipulating the strings that control the world's oil supplies? Gaghan definitely has a point-of-view here and if anything his view might be too mature, too ambitious, too prescient for most of us to digest.Read full review
A must see, confusing at times but it really makes you think!! When Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney set up their Section 8 production company in 2000, they took as their benchmark American cinema from 1964 to 1976, specifically the comparatively overlooked output of studio stalwarts Sydney Pollack, Alan J. Pakula and Sidney Lumet. Mainstream movies like All The President’s Men, Three Days Of The Condor and Network were assembled according to evergreen genre guidelines, and yet at the same time were daring liberal commentaries on Nixon’s America, pictures that could not have emerged at any other time. Until recently, Section 8’s mission statement has been little more than a theoretical gold standard, the sort of lofty promise that allows two well-heeled insiders to dabble in offbeat fare like Far From Heaven. However, with the release of Stephen Gaghan’s audacious Syriana, hard on the heels of Clooney’s own stealth weapon Good Night, And Good Luck, it’s become clear that the gold standard is no longer hypothetical. The world has shifted significantly in the last three years and it’s no longer artistic ideals that America urgently requires, but idealistic artists. Although Syriana shares DNA with the great ’70s conspiracy thrillers and a common purpose with Clooney’s companion picture Good Night…, the movie it’s most clearly patterned after is Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which won Gaghan a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 2001. Like the drug trade Traffic carefully picked apart, Syriana tackles a BIG subject — US reliance on foreign oil — by weaving together small stories. By entangling flawed individuals at every level of a complex network, each side of the debate is given a recognisable face. Of the various faces on show, Clooney’s beard-and-bloat disguise has unsurprisingly hogged the acting plaudits, but the actor puts in an unselfish producer’s performance here; his low-key CIA veteran is visibly uncomfortable on centre stage. Indeed, each of the four main protagonists are unassuming bit-players who must tap hitherto unseen resources if they are to ever shape their destiny. Scenery-chewing is left to the distinguished supporting cast, notably the redoubtable trio of Christopher Plummer, Chris Cooper and William Hurt, plus two faces familiar from British TV — Mark Strong and Alexander Siddig, as a terrorist-for-hire and idealistic prince respectively. As the story ranges over three continents and the faces multiply, there’s much to admire and even more to absorb in every scene. However, the problem with this kind of narrative tapestry is that the audience is offered heaps of thread and asked to take on faith the grand design. For much of the opening hour it remains hard to divine anything more than thematic tissue connecting the storylines, and many will pine for the narrative clarity Soderbergh’s experience as editor and cinematographer brought to the superior Traffic. Still, as soon as the various protagonists attempt to take charge of their own fate, the net suddenly draws tighter and the stories converge in both surprising and tragically predictable ways. As the movie accelerates into a breathless final act, salient details are left behind (none of the personal particulars amount to anything significant), and the narrative never quite justifies the roots-of-terror thread that is central to Gaghan’s thesis, but by the time you can recall the forgotten faces the momentum is irresistible, the climax shattering.Read full review
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