A LINGUISTIC REVIEW OF SYRIANA
Collounsbury bestirs himself to comment on the finer nuances of Middle-Eastern language and culture present in the new film Syriana ,which was filmed in some of his old stomping grounds. A review you won’t get from Roger Ebert.
December 14th, 2005 at 5:46 am
Um, I’m almost afraid to ask what you think of Roger Ebert…
December 14th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
The fat boy’s review isn’t so bad, at least what I saw at his site.
All in all, I would say that the Cohen whack at Syriana is a bit off, although he’s right in saying “their fervid grip on old-left bromides about Big Oil, Big Business, Big Government and the inherent evil of George Bush, and come up with something new and relevant” made the film less than what it could have been in terms of relevance.
On the other hand it was a good story overall and not utterly off base in terms of what big ticket deals in the region end up like rather too frequently. To take a non-American example, look at what court cases have dug up on Total. One has to be naive to think US energy firms do not also play ball. I don’t blame them either.
That aside, Cohen is slightly off base as the Chinese and the Indians are just getting into the game. They are not the main drivers yet. And the film does mention them.
Well, in any case, any film that tells a fun story and gets its details right I am willing to forgive some underlying political biases.
December 14th, 2005 at 5:50 pm
My former Mother-in-Law went to school with Ebert. She had much to say about his consumption of chili-dogs and coke. I find him a bit of a stiff.
I’ll have to go see Syriana and see if it lives up to your billing Col.
December 14th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
Billing? Well you have to like such things, to be sure, and you do have to go in understanding the Evil Oil Company angle is a given. Taking that as the point of departure, I found it largely amoral, which I liked.
December 15th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Well, you have to take silly leftism/conspiracy theories as a given. People who make movies often aren’t Rhodes Scholars – nor do they make movies fror an audience who can (like you or me) pick out an incorrect dialect used by an extra or the wrong chevron on a military uniform