Actor Jeffrey Wright had maybe the best line in a movie that makes a very good political statement, "We need to have the appearance of due diligence." Syriana is a movie that gives us an opinion on the complexities of the oil industry and what governments will do to sustain that resource, no matter the price.

Syriana has an all-star cast including George Clooney (Good Night and Good Luck,) Matt Damon (The Brothers Grimm,) Christopher Plummer (Must Love Dogs), Jeffrey Wright (Broken Flowers,) and Academy Award winner® Chris Cooper (Adaptation,) and they all add an important piece to this spider web of a story. Clooney is Bob Barnes, a CIA agent, who sells a booby trapped pair of missiles to an Iranian terrorist. However, the terrorist splits the missiles up and Clooney does not know where the other one is going. He tries to tell his superiors where the missile might be going but is instead forced by them to assassinate Prince Nasir Al-Subaai, played by Alexander Siddig (Kingdom of Heaven,) who is next in line to the thrown of a Persian Gulf Kingdom.

Matt Damon is Bryan Woodman, a consultant for an international company that is involved in oil futures who becomes Prince Nasir's consultant after the death of his son in the swimming pool of the Prince's father. Woodman tells the Prince that, "Everybody thinks that 100 years ago you were chopping off heads in the sand and that is where you will be 100 years from now if you don't change your tactics."*(Yes I am paraphrasing but this is close to the idea.) Woodman discovers that the Prince wants to inherit his father's land and put his countries oil out on the open market and bring the profits of the oil sale back home so he can change his country into a capitalistic, secular, and free country.

The U.S. Government is investigating the merging of two oil companies Connex and Killian Oil because Killian Oil got a contract to drill in the fields of Kazakhstan. The government is investigating before it approves the merger and they are skeptical of how the owner of Killian, Jimmy Pope, played by Chris Cooper, was able to get such a huge contract as a small company. Bennett Holiday, played by Jeffrey Wright, is the chief investigator, yet he is being influenced by congressman, both owners of the company, and his own boss. This ties into the story because the company has a major oil pipeline in the Persian Gulf country run by Prince Nasir's father. Behind the scenes pushing the buttons of all of these people is Dean Whiting, played by Christopher Plummer, whose decisions are affecting everyone, including Woodman and Barnes.

This is story is very complex and engrossing and I found it interesting. However, I found that it was also very long. Syriana in many aspects reminds me of the 1991 Oliver Stone movie JFK. Syriana has the similar story development in that there are separate characters in different areas that are all tied together by one element. The only thing that is different is that there is no Jim Garrison character in Syriana that helps the audience tie up the loose ends, the audience is on its own. Because of this, the story drags and I can't imagine any one who doesn't have an interest in government conspiracy, world politics, having an interest in this movie. If you do have an interest in these subjects and have patience, then this is a great film. Writer/Director Stephen Gaghan, who won an Academy Award for writing Traffic, did a great job of bringing this story to the screen. It is too long, but I don't know how he could shorten the story and not deliver the same message. There is another element to this story that I have completely ignored and it is equally important but I have to leave something unknown for the movie going audience.

The best actor by far was Jeffrey Wright. He started off as this man trying to find a law breaker and by the end he became a moving part of the "conspiracy." His character also delivers one of the two important messages of the movie which is based on his line, "...the appearance of due-diligence." The government will allow corruption to continue as long as it appears to the public that it is doing its job, and the corruption is beneficial to the country. The other message that was delivered was that the United States government will help suppress democracy in other countries if it is beneficial to our country. Wright did a great job of showing his frustration in the beginning and then his compliance by force in the end. Excellent job!

The other actors did a pretty good job, with the strongest of them being George Clooney, as a hard nosed CIA guy who doesn't understand what is going on, and what his part is in this particular chess game. The worst of the rest is Matt Damon, who didn't do a bad job, but didn't risk in a part that was screaming for it. Very much a Tom Cruse-esque type performance.

I was very impressed with how this was a non-partisan political movie. The time frame of this movie could have easily been during the Clinton administration or the Bush administration. Syriana is an outstanding movie and will be enjoyable if you enjoy these kinds of political movies.

Brian - the Naked Gun