Product Details

• Actors: Kayvan Novak, George Clooney, Amr Waked, Christopher Plummer, Jeffrey Wright
• Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Arabic, English, French, Persian, Urdu
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 20, 2006
• Run Time: 126 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (352 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E5KJFM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,439 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Syriana [HD DVD]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Syriana is an oil-based soap opera set against the world of global oil cartels. It is to the oil industry as Traffic was to the drug trade (no surprise, since writer/director Stephen Gaghan wrote the screenplay to Traffic): a sprawling attempt to portray the vast political, business, social, and personal implications of a societal addiction, in this case, oil. A major merger between two of the world’s largest oil companies reveals ethical dilemmas for the lawyer charged with making the deal (Jeffrey Wright), and major global implications beyond the obvious; a CIA operative (George Clooney) discovers the truth about his work, and the people he works for; a young oil broker (Matt Damon) encounters personal tragedy, then partners with an idealistic Gulf prince (Alexander Siddig) attempting to build a new economy for his people, only to find he’s opposed by powers far beyond his control. Meanwhile, disenfranchised Pakistani youths are lured into terrorism by a radical Islamic cleric. And that’s just the start. As in Traffic, in one way or another all of the characters’ fates are tied to each other, whether they realize it or not, though the connections are sometimes tenuous. While Syriana is basically a good film with timely resonance, it can’t quite seem to measure up to Gaghan’s ambitious vision and it very nearly collapses under the weight of its many storylines. Fortunately they are resolved skillfully enough to keep the film from going under in the end. To some viewers, Syriana will seem like an unfocused and over-loaded film that goes, all at once, everywhere and nowhere. Others will find it to be an important work earnestly exploring major issues. In either case, it’s a film that deserves to be taken seriously, and it’s likely to be one that will be talked about for a long time to come. --Dan Vancini

Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/20/2006 Run time: 103 minutes Rating: R

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Syriana is not for Everyone; Then for Who..?, March 4, 2006

By 

RS Steube - See all my reviews

I won't try to restate or expand upon previous reviews found here for Syriana. Many contributors have offered a better reviews of the content of Syriana than I could describe.

But I will point out that whether Syriana is for you or not, has more to do with the movie-goer, than the movie itself.

Consider:
1) Can you check your political prejudices at the front door?
2) Are you willing to attempt to follow four "chess games" simultaneously?
3) Have you the courage to feel really upset at the end?

If you can answer "YES" to all three questions, then Syriana may just be one of the most worthwhile movie releases of 2005.

If you answered "NO" to any of these points, you'd better pass on Syriana.

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pay attention to the details, July 8, 2006

By 

DL (Chula Vista, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Syriana (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

I would say this plot offers up more suspense and intriguing details than any Tom Clancy movie I've ever seen. It wasn't until about an hour into the story that things finally started to make sense. But, from that point on, I was hanging onto every word and piecing together every detail.

The trick to understanding this movie before it's over is to remember the names. Once you get to the point when you know who's who, everything else unfolds from there.

Syriana does a profound job of putting you into the minds of the impressionable and disheartened middle eastern youth who are easily recruited into the terrorist agenda. In fact, if you follow this plot closely, you'll realize that the stinger missile that G. Clooney "loses" at the beginning of the movie actually ends up being used to commit an act of vengeance on his behalf.

After all, after becoming cognisant of the circumstances surrounding the investigation of his life's "work", he is forced to shed his "blind" loyalty to his employer, the US government.

Unfortunately, the victims of terrorist suicide bombings aren't always oil executives and arab beneficiaries of oil contract kick-backs. However, as I stated before, it becomes easier to see that the war on terror isn't as clear as the good guy vs. the bad guy, when looking at it from the perspective offered by this movie.

So, what's going on?

Matt Damon is a financial advisor to Prince Nassir. Prince Nassir's family just approved a deal with the chinese to come in and set up shop as oil drillers, as the chinese offered the highest bid.

However, the US wants to cut the chinese out of the picture, so that the newly merged connex and the smaller oil company can do their thing in place of the chinese.

So, now we're at that scene when the old guy is talking to Prince Nassir's younger brother on the yacht. What you have to infer is that the "wish" that Nassir's younger brother wants the "cat's paw" to grant is to have his older brother, Prince Nassir, assassinated. In return for the favor, the US will get the oil contract instead of the chinese.

That's when the CIA have George Clooney arrange for Prince Nassir to be assassinated. However, you know that doesn't work out. You might recall the torture scene. The torturer has threatened to reveal the CIA's assassination attempt to the media.

That's why Clooney threatened the old man in the cafe. He knows that the old man is setting him up to be the fall guy for any negative backlash resulting from the exposure of the failed assassination attempt.

And that's why we see Clooney attempting to warn Nassir on the freeway of the danger to his life. He knows that the government wants to have Nassir assassinated soley for the sake of US oil interests. In the freeway scene, Nassir has re-established relations with the Chinese, and with the help of 9 out of 11 of the country's generals, is attempting to take the throne away from his younger brother.

So, everything else is pretty much straightforward.

Syrania illustrates the following points of controversy:

1. The US uses its intelligence community resources to eliminate opposition to its oil interests.

2. US government watchdogs are helpless to make an impact on anti-trust violations committed by oil companies, while the intelligence community acts as an accomplice to those violations.

3. The US strategically ensures that oil producing countries do not improve their infrastructure, economy..etc., so as to keep them more easily controlled.

Again, those are the points of view illustrated by this movie; they are not my own.

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative film lost to an audience expecting "24"-the movie, February 7, 2006

By 

Royster "Royster" (the East) - See all my reviews

Gagan's ideas based film -- while lacking the visual virtuosity of Traffic -- raises some very interesting questions indeed. But all is lost to a collective audience who thinks the "24" is complex and challenging or "Crash" is deep...

It seems that the US audience are so used to "film as pure sensory entertainment" that it infuriated them when nothing is resolved. I find most "bad reviews" (either here or in the press) are laced with misinformation, xenophobia, partisanship bias and juvenille comments. It is unfortunate that doing a narratively complex film offering an alternative view (esp. regarding terrorism) would incite more hate and ignorance as opposed to dialogue.

I find the film to be very well made and the issues it raises are very interesting (esp to those informed in Network systems and the Chaos theory), to a certain extent, Matt Damon, the actor and the narrative his character carries is the weakest part of film and is what I assume a concession to the joe q public -- to present the point of view of an "Average Joe".

Syriana stands proudly alongside The Insider, The Constant Gardner, Traffic and to a lesser extent, Munich (which wraps its ideology in easy to digest Thriller genre conventions ) in honoring the "New Cinema" of the 70s when filmmakers pushed against the grain, but unlike the 70s, there is no longer an like-minded audience (except for the critics) here in the States. I would predict the film to do a lot better in the rest of the world.