media consumption

Syriana

Syriana is promoted as being made by the "Academy Award winning filmakers Traffic." As with Traffic, a story is told--a big story--from the varying perspective of several different participants, none directly connected, but all making up a vital piece of the puzzle. The film cuts from one story-line to another, thus forcing the viewer to track these parallel plot-lines throughout the course of the film.

It's a powerful device that is meant to instill an uncertainty and a feeling that there is much more going on behind the scenes than is immediately apparent. Unfortunately, unlike my experience with Traffic, I found this constant cutting back and forth to be simply confusing. it's possible that this confusion was a result of my naiveté w/r/t Middle Eastern politics, but I'm thinking it is more likely there was just too much information to pack into a two-hour film. For example, here are the main plot threads, with a lot of connecting information left out for brevity's sake:

• a CIA operative finds himself under investigation by his own government,
• a Swiss investment banker becomes, through tragic circumstances, a personal advisor of the heir apparent to an unnamed Gulf state (a stand-in for Saudi Arabia),
• a Washington lawyer investigates the monster merger of two oil companies,
• another Washington lawyer advises the ailing sheik of our unnamed Gulf State to name his second-born son to succeed to the throne,
• two Pakistani immigrants to this Gulf state fall under the thrall of Islamic militants and train to become suicide bombers,
• et cet...

Still, despite my unease and difficulty with following the multiple plot-lines, I found the overall concept fascinating. I definitely plan on seeing this film again (probably not until it hits DVD) so that I can attempt to trace the threads through a bit more thoroughly. The basic message is bleak and is not designed so much as an indictment of our current administration or even of our political system in general. Instead, if Syriana makes anything clear, it's that there is no single clear solution to the turmoil that continues to engulf the Middle East. There are simply too many independent forces all acting toward similar ends with a clear incentive (money) to maintain the status quo in each case.

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