Issue Date: July 23, 2006
An energy expert's evaluation
Weighing Hollywood's "Syriana" against the world's true balance of power
THE PLOT: Filmmaker Stephen Gaghan weaves together multiple story lines in this political thriller about oil, money and power. Bob Barnes (Oscar-winner George Clooney) is a CIA operative who discovers the disturbing truth about his lifelong work, Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) is a young oil broker who finds himself collaborating with a Persian Gulf prince, and Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is a Washington lawyer who investigates the questionable merger of two powerful oil companies.
Insider's credentials: Joseph Romm is executive director of the Center for Energy & Climate Solutions and a former acting assistant secretary at the Department of Energy during Clinton's presidency. He is a top expert on clean energy technologies and author of a forthcoming book about global warming.
OVERVIEW: "This is a paranoid thriller of the kind that doesn't get made a lot anymore, like "The Parallax View" (1974). The first time I saw "Syriana," I liked it, but it's a bit hard to follow, which I think was intentional. I think it was designed to be as confusing as our energy policy is. But the basic idea that our foreign policy has been corrupted by our addiction to oil is true."
Scene 12: Hawks in desert -- Woodman tells the emir's son, "You want to know what the business world thinks of you? We think 100 years ago you were living out here in tents in the desert chopping each other's heads off, and that's exactly where you're gonna be in another 100."
"Matt Damon lecturing the emir's son is hard to believe. I appreciate that he's somewhat depressed and angry, but certainly in my years in government, I've never witnessed anything like that."
Scene 13: Date with Ikea -- Barnes confides in his friend (William Hurt).
"The cameo appearance by Hurt is just great. Clooney goes to talk to Hurt because he doesn't trust anyone on the inside. It's the idea that someone outside the bureaucracy might have a better idea or a more honest opinion than those in government."
Scene 27: The BBQ -- Holiday tells an oil exec, "We're looking for the illusion of due diligence, Mr. Pope. Two criminal acts successfully prosecuted -- it gives us that illusion."
"I love this line. Much of what passes for government policy today is nothing more than theater designed to create the illusion that the nation's problems are being addressed."
Scene 30: Predators -- In a Washington control room, the command is given: "Take the target out."
"If the CIA were going to kill the son of an emir of an oil-rich country like Iran, they wouldn't do it that way; if you kill him with a Predator, it's too easy to trace back to the United States. There are rumors we did that kind of stuff fairly commonly 30 years ago. I don't think we do that anymore. But it was dramatic and more exciting than putting a bomb in a car."
-- Melanie D.G. Kaplan
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