It's Complicated (What I liked about Syriana)



I finally watched Syriana on Saturday night. I've had it out from netflix for at least a month.

I liked what Syriana stood for. It captured the essence of the contemporary clusterfuck that results from the competing interests and flawed characters/entities attached to the modern middle east. When Clooney can't give simple answers to seemingly straight-forward questions, without the preface "it's complicated, but...", I feel like the essence of the situation is somehow captured.

Now, this essence might have been captured to a fault, as the movie might have been rendered unwatchable because of the slippery characters, the uncertainty of the heroes and villains, and general spastic nature of the narrative, but (again) I think this is as evocative a reification of the situation as you'll see in film.

I liked the flawed characters that are the underpinnings of generally understood entities/concepts like "reformer", "terrorist", "soldier", "government official", "lawyer", "businessman", "economist", "man of faith", etcetera.

I tend not to watch films about that region of the world (or this nexus of issues) because the gross oversimplifications that you can somehow let slide in everyday speech can't be ignored on the big screen. That said, Syriana didn't bother me in the end, because, well, it was complicated.

Posted: Mon - August 14, 2006 at 07:58 PM      

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