Movie Info

Syriana - "Everything is connected."

I had heard about Syriana and didn't pay much attention to it. Judging from the brief television spots, I thought this was another movie about terrorism. It was only when my friend Brian wanted to go watch it did I do a little bit of research on it. I watched the trailer and the movie seemed interesting enough. So off we went to watch this movie. My thoughts? The movie was great.

Syriana's tagline is "Everything is connected" and this movie definitely lived up to its tagline. In one word, the movie is about oil. It is about how oil dependent western countries have become. It's about how the Middle East countries have squandered the wealth generated by oil incomes. There are no heroes, there are no villains. The movie just connects the lives of all the main characters.

I can't really go into the details of the movie too much. Explaining it would ruin the film and I don't think I'd do a very good job of it anyways. I can talk about the format of the movie. It follows the lives of several main characters and it slowly interconnects them. It explains why these people make these decisions and what circumstances lead them to perform their actions.

The film doesn't try to preach to you. It doesn't even insult or make political comments about current governments. It's just an informative film about how and why the United States has so much interest in the Middle East. How everyone, not only the United States, has become dependent on oil as a lifeline to their economies. It shows how China, a rapidly growing economy, would desperately love to own oil fields in the Middle East. It shows how idealism is often questioned and quashed.

None of the revelations in the movie shocked or surprised me but I did come out with a better understanding of how ridiculous everything is. When Brian and I left the theatres we got into a discussion about how the foreign policy of many nations seemed to revolve around oil at times. Syriana showed me why Middle Eastern countries dislike the United States and other western countries. Westerners take away their most valuable asset and many of them live in poverty. Their leaders have wealth beyond imagination but they do little to better the lives of their citizens. I have often wondered why it is taking so long for so many countries to emerge from being a second tier country to one of the more advanced nations of the world. Well, the top stay on top by pushing the rest down. It seems like it's in the best interests of the United States and other western powers to keep the current conflicts in the Middle East continuing as it will only strengthen their power base and weaken those of its competition.

Syriana is a great movie and I hope that more people go and see it. It's informative and the ideas that it presents will definitely have you and your friends talking for awhile.

Dragoncrypt