I Finally Saw Syrianna. Can Someone Tell Me What Happened In That Movie?

[Dinger]

I am thoroughly confused. I must be dumber than I thought. I had a very hard time following it. Couldn't tell the "good guys" from the "bad," thought the kid drowning in the pool was no accident, didn't know who was going to whose house at the very end, couldn't tell who died, etc. Sheesh, maybe I should stick to barney?

[CoffeeCat]

1. Not sure I can help... (warning spoilers)

...but I can try. I saw the movie a while ago.

I do think the child's death in the pool was a total accident. If I remember correctly, the rich guys from the Middle East attempted to "buy off" Matt Damon's character--to make up for his son dying in their pool. I remember this as a symbol of how they use their money to manipulate and take care of any problem. Money is a tool to them and they have more than God.

At the end, it was a bit fuzzy--but I'm assuming that the Clooney character died in the bombing.

Very, very good movie.

I just rented Munich a couple of weeks ago. Talk about timely.

[madeline_con]

13. I trhink it's a cultural thing...

to pay someone for damages. It's common in the M.E. to offer such a gesture. It's not uncommon to refuse such gestures, though.

[skipos]

2. It is hard to follow.

I had debates with the wife afterwards, and there were a few things we couldn't make sense of. Hopefully someone else can shine some light on it.

[insane_cratic_gal]

3. haha I rented it too

I feel the same way you did.


I was told it was a movie you had to watch twice to pick up everything. Unfortunately I sent it back to net-flicks after only seeing it once, scratching my head the whole way.

I think the elder brother was the good guy the one who got killed. He genuinely wanted to help his country. His youngest was a crowned because he was willing to do business with the US where as the elder was not thus was labeled a terrorist.

So the US offed him.

I didn't know what group the or terrorist organization the two kids joined was. I know it was what they were originally looking for but Clooney's character never quite goes back to investigate that. I suppose that was the point. While we were all looking one way there was a real act of terror being planned.

[madeline_con]

15. The US offed him because he pulled a "Hugo".

He wanted to use oil profits to help his country. At least that's how I remember it. I saw it last year at Christmas time.

[valerief]

30. Pulled a Hugo. Great way of putting it.

[notadmblnd]

59. I thought the story of the terrorist

was showing an example of what drives some people to extreme fundalmentalism. They were immigarnt workers living in poverty who had lost their jobs. They turned to religion to eat.

[Botany]

4. It was called no editing

* bad people did bad things

* oil, money, the CIA, power, Saudi Royalty, and terrorists were in the movie too

It was a mish mash of a movie.

[drthais]

5. you don't even have to be that specific about it...

It's mainly an expose
about the sheer ruthlessness of those
who would control the oil interests in the world
and the fact that nothing, and I mean NOTHING
will get in their way
and so it goes, round and round

that's basically it

[ladjf]

11. I"ve always heard the rumors that the oil business had Huey

P. Long assassinated.

[Octafish]

14. BINGO!

The oil business makes the world go round.
World wars have been fought over petroleum.
The bastards who control it now may be the most ruthless scum on the planet.

Kubrick indicted this utterly corrupt elite in "Eyes Wide Shut."

FIGUREHEAD
& SHITHEAD

[valerief]

25. Aren't all elites corrupt else how do they stay elites?

[Octafish]

62. I've always hoped for Plato's Philosopher-King Thing to come to pass...

...in an idealistic way, where every child and every woman and every man were equal, enlightened and energized members of an elite dedicated to making this the best of all worlds it was intended to be.

OTOH, we have our work cut out for us...

NEVER READS

[Cleita]

50. I just saw it for the first time tonight too on PPV.

I have basically the same take you have. I also got a little epiphany. All this is a game by the players from the west. Since I was never a big sports fan, I can't be very articulate about it, but it's giving me a better understanding of our Republican dominated government.

It's all about checks and passes and making sure you keep the ball. It doesn't matter whom you hurt or kill or whom you support. It's all about keeping the ball and controlling the field and making sure the other team or teams don't get a chance to get ahead. It's no wonder that Bush, Condi, Rumsfeld and Cheney et al are controlling their interests in this way. They are all from a sports background and with them it isn't how you play the game but how you win because they have big bets laying on it.

[ourbluenation]

6. Ya gotta read the synopsis from the website and it will all make sense.

http://syrianamovie.warnerbros.com/synopsis.html

[catzies]

47. Thanks for that. I saw it when it first came out & intend to re-watch it.

And that is worthwhile reading before the second viewing. :thumbsup:

[ourbluenation]

55. I just got it from netflix. I read the synopsis after I saw it in the

theatre and it all came together. Looking forward to watching it again now that I have all the pieces sorted out.

[undeterred]

7. I had heard the producer interviewed on Air America

before I saw it. That's the only reason it made any sense at the time. But I'm not sure I could tell you what happened in that movie now.

[valerief]

8. Just rented it recently, too. The boy drowning was an

accident. I didn't quite understand when Clooney ordered the "good" prince killed and then went chasing him down.

I love to watch Chris Cooper, though, in anything. He's sooooooo "those guys."

[flowomo]

12. Noth

[valerief]

18. Oops. Fixed it. Meant Cooper. Thanks.

[flowomo]

19. ah, that Chris. Great in "Orchid Thief," eh?

[valerief]

22. Yeah! Forgot about that one. Of course, we got to love him in

American Beauty.

[flowomo]

24. agree with that!

[insane_cratic_gal]

16. He was trying to stop it

I think the CIA ordered it, he just caught on to what they were doing.


I got the pool thing was an accident, but why put a camera in the pool? how did the wire suddenly get broken like that? from them forcing the camera to look around?

[valerief]

20. Who was the one who said to kill the prince in his car?

I thought it was Clooney and was surprised his character said that. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

[insane_cratic_gal]

21. Wasn't it Clooney's Boss

the one who was doing the countdown? Fred something, the one he was speaking to (outside his house) when he first got back from getting his ass kicked and deserted.

[valerief]

23. Maybe. Makes sense. But why do I remember being surprised it was Clooney?

Oh, well, I'd have to rent it again, and that's not gonna happen.

[insane_cratic_gal]

26. Because he remembered him from the elevator

that's why he was surprised.

Not that he thought he was going to kill him in the elevator, but ya he might of has Clooney was charing toward him to stop his death.

[valerief]

28. No, I remember all that. The elevator. At the car in the desert and

the elevator recall. No, I'm picturing Clooney facing the right side of the frame with someone behind him facing his back. Clooney says to kill the prince in the car. I was surprised because I didnt' think CIA agents could order such things. I thought only CIA bureaucrats could do that.

[insane_cratic_gal]

32. I don't remember that at all

I remember George demanding his passports back because they took them from him. They didn't want him back there, he was rogue by the time he was chasing down the car. So I guess I didn't make the leap you made because it didn't seem to fit the with all the trouble they went through to keep him from going back over.

He was fallen out with the CIA by the time he went back in. He had to blackmail someone to get them to give him his passports with no help from his former bosses?

My assumption is he was trying to get him out of the car to save his life, it was his former superior officer who ordered the strike.

LOL now that's going to drive me crazy. Grrr I don't want to re rent it to just watch the last 5 mins

[valerief]

37. I remember everything you're saying, but I also remember that1

scene. It must have been Clooney's boss and I'm putting Clooney into the frame. Oh, well, Chris Cooper was the best thing in the movie anyway.

[madeline_con]

38. I could be worng, but wasn't the Prince just a target....

at first, and then Clooney realized who he was, and tried to stop the assassination from going down?

[valerief]

39. Yeah, but I thought Clooney ordered the hit then tried to stop it. n/t

[madeline_con]

40. No, the CIA orderd it.

He tried to stop it.

The guy Baer, whom Clooney played, was on a show once about the way the US left the Kurds hanging in Iraq when they were poised to overthrow Saddam. They pulled their support at the last minute. That's one thing that caused the massacres of Kurds by Saddam.

Baer was a major operative in that fiasco, too.

EDIT: I have to add, he was really upset and frustrted by that manuever. Leaving the post the way it was made it sound like he was the one who screwed up.

[madeline_con]

43. I don't know, but I didn't think he was in a position to decide...

he might have supplied info that led to a decision, though.

It's been a while. I need to rent it and watch again.

[valerief]

44. Great, if you have the patience to go through it again! Thanks for sharing

the info.

[blogslut]

35. Clooney's character had a change of heart

He was on the road, trying to save the prince. I don't know if the prince rmembered Clooney from the elevator or from when Clooney tried to kill him.

Basically, to me the story was about how all these folks think they're so clever and have our future all mapped out and then along comes some little group with a stolen bomb and kablooey.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

17. That's Chris Noth, pronounced like "both".

And I agree...I can watch him in anything, too. :)

[madeline_con]

9. "Couldn't tell the "good guys" from the "bad," ...

That was part of the massage, I think. Oil is like pie. Everyone has their dirty little fingers in it. It makes the world go 'round and produces some strange bedfellows.

It did a fair job of presenting the tenuous relationship between the Saudi royal family and oil politics as they try to stay in power and keep their heads firmly attached to their shoulders.

I thought the part about the guy going to the madrasa was really sad and fatalistic. I felt so bad for him as he said goodbye. :cry:

[Warpy]

10. I watched about an hour of it

and realized all the characters were unsympathetic, the dialogue trite, and the editing too choppy to follow.

So I put it back into its case and returned it a day early.

Someday, maybe somebody will make a GOOD movie about the oil bidness.

[Kire]

33. Hear Hear

or is it, here here?

[RoyGBiv]

34. I have to suggest ...

If your definition of a good movie about the oil business requires the presence of sympathetic characters, you're going to be waiting a LONG time.

[Warpy]

60. I can tolerate movies full of unsympathetic characters

if it has a decent SCRIPT in its favor and if the EDITING is such that the story line makes sense.

This film failed on both those counts, as my OP stated.

[RoyGBiv]

27. There are no good guys ...

Cowboys and Indians is a lie. All hats are varying shades of gray. There is no redemption. Once your soul has been sold to the devil (oil), your soul is linked, permanently, to that legacy, and you will live and die by the terms of the contract.

It's one of the central themes of the movie.

[valerief]

29. And it was juxtaposed against the religious kids who would die

for good and evil.

Morality. What a ripoff.

[RoyGBiv]

31. Exactly ...

It's a brilliant piece of work.

[leftofthedial]

36. the bad guys won

just like in real life

[Strelnikov_]

41. The Parallel Story Lines Do Not Appeal To All. Loved The Movie, Though

Kinda reminds me of Pasternak's 'Dr. Zhivago'

The only 'good' guys in the movie were Bryan Woodman (Damon) and Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig). Prince Nasir Al-Subaai was going to establish the type of democracy everyone talks about supporting. Woodman was a believer in him. The US offed the Prince for signing a contract with the Chinese over Connex (Exxon) in order to install a puppet, his brother.

The Dean Whiting character (Plummer) was portraying James A. Baker, personal lawyer of the Chimp family and the Saudi Royals, the 'Cats Paw'. Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is a staff lawyer for Bakers law firm, running flack for the dirty deeds of the oil companies. He gives Justice a taste so they can claim they are doing their job. And the merger is approved. The business of America is the oil business, after all.

Bob Barnes (Clooney) was your typical government servant being fucked over by everybody. He is blown to pieces in the end with the Prince, while trying to warn him, thus inadvertently providing cover for the CIA who were trying to frame him.

The suicide bombers hit an LNG tanker at the end which contains 20 times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb. Guess they had to cut out the scene where Dean Whiting successfully lobbies Congress for bailout to compensate Connex-Killen for their losses (I made that last part up).

Not a very happy ending, very un-American.

Too much reality.

[Old and In the Way]

51. I thought the manipulation of the young man in the Madrass School

was a pretty important aspect to the film. The religious fundie brainwashing of that poor, ignorant, easily influenced kid was illuminating. Being used as a pawn for someone's power politics. I realized that the LNG tanker was going to get blown up when I saw the missle....I'm surprised they didn't show the explosive power of such a castastrophe...but I suspect that would not be in the interests of the LNG companies who have terminals in major US Ports. It would have been a horriffic scene.

[freethought]

42. Don't feel bad, I had to have some things explained to me

when I saw the film a second time. The second time I viewed I was with someone who has some idea how petroleum and energy markets really work.
As a few posters in this thread have said when it comes to oil nobody is a good guy. Nobody wears the white hat, they are all wearing grey hats.
I think you hit the nail on the head in your post, "Couldn't tell the good guys from the bad." That was the point of the movie.
Alot of people came out of that movie confused, only a few would come out of "Syriana" with a real understanding of what was happening.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

45. Don't feel bad

I rented it twice and fell asleep both times.

[Outer_Limit]

58. Yeah, the movie was pretty whack

There was a nice message in it but it was poorly put together and such a bore listening to it in the theater. Any movie that requires multiple viewings to get is a sign that its a bad film. This is definately one of them

[ourbluenation]

46. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - READ THE SYNOPSIS!

and all will be revealed...(sorry for the shouting - I'm hot and miserable)


http://syrianamovie.warnerbros.com/synopsis.html

[lindisfarne]

54. I just read the synopsis and it didn't add anything to what I got from

watching the movie. As far as Hollywood blockbusters go, Syriana isn't a bad movie but it's not going to be one of the great movies.

Maybe I understood too well before seeing the movie everything the movie was saying because I can't say it really told me anything new. I'm happy the general American public saw the movie as I'm sure they haven't thought of a lot of what the movie said.

[ourbluenation]

56. My post was directed at people who are confused by all the twists and turn

s

[Odin2005]

48. I couldn't stand the ending, too depressing.

I had a feeling the prince would get assasinated at the end when he was being compared to Mossedegh, and I was right. :-(

[Strelnikov_]

49. Not Your 'Feel Good Hit Of The Summer', Was It n/t

[puffthemagicdragon]

52. I am going to rent it on On Demand tonight

I have been anitcipating this I hope I can find some clarity with it.

[Cleita]

53. It could be confusing especially if you haven't been keeping

up with ME issues and learning about their culture. I thought it was well done, and if they would have had to explain everything it would have diluted the story lines. If you had a problem understanding then you probably need to to a little background researching. We all do depending on what we don't know.

[notadmblnd]

57. they were on their way to the palace to overthrow his brother

I got confused on who walked away from the bombing. I think George clooney got killed and the Princes financial advisor walked away as he was in the next scene at home with his family. At the end Clooneys character knew they were going to kill the Prince and was trying to warn them. Clooney was the bad guy gone good.

[EFerrari]

61. With one phone call, an American politician changed

the succession in an oil rich country because the heir was going to kick US troops out of his country and develop it. We couldn't have that, so we basically recruit the younger brother to take over instead.

You couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys because a CIA agent tells us that the good guy is "one of the bad guys" in the early minutes of the movie.