Syriana So What? [Updated]
I just came back from the Burbank studios of Warner Bros. where I saw a screening of the new thriller, Syriana.
In a word: disappointing.
Syriana’s commercial tag-line might, indeed, be “Everything is Connected” but its 126 minutes made me feel like I was pitched into a roiling sea of free-radical dots with very little coherence at all. As I watched a particularly gruesome scene of George Clooney’s character getting his fingernails pulled out, I breifly considered if it might be worth my time to trade places with him.
Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, (award-winning writer of “Traffic”), Syriana bludgeons you with the relentless message that you are watching something Terribly Important – but I couldn’t quite figure out exactly what that something was.
No question that the flick was an admirable exercise in the sort of risk-taking to which Hollywood is downright phobic. And it’s clearly an Adult Film in the very best sense of the phrase. So an “A” for effort and a courtesy, gentleman’s “C” for the final product.
All I came away with were notions I think I already knew: oil companies are greedy and ruthless; government is a pawn in the hands of such powers; and the CIA kills people it doesn’t like and is perfectly willing to eat its own when expedient. Oh yeah, there was a whole subplot in this weave of disparate narratives about Iran and some sort of neo-connish Committee to Liberate Iran, but one of you viewers out there is going to have to explain that part to me. There was also a thematic undertow that American oil politics are the principal source of evil flowing from that region of the world and that if we could only redirect energy priorities we’d be on the brink of a new Beloved Community.
But to you righties who suspect Syriana is some sort of liberal propaganda – have no fear. To even begin to make sense of the plot, you’d have to be fully immersed in a deep understanding of Middle Eastern politics and if you knew that much, you’re quite unlikely to be moved from your position by this film alone.
George Clooney’s performance as a flabby and burned-out CIA operative is superb. But it is the only human performance in the dry cinematic desert that is this film. And this is a film I wanted to like.
After the screening, writer/director Gaghan made an appearance for a Q & A session. Arianna Huffington, who co-hosted the screening, started off that portion of the evening by joking about how difficult the movie was to understand and requires collective interpretation. "Warner Bros. strategy is to sell tickets to this movie in groups of five," she cracked. After she asked Gaghan to comment on this, he rambled on disjointedly for a solid 25 minutes without taking a break. I don’t think he completed one whole coherent sentence. Frankly, I was a bit shocked by his scattershot talk. Much worse than his movie.
Syriana is most reminiscent of the 1975 Robert Redford thriller, Three Days of the Condor; except Condor was an infinitely better movie that packs a much bigger political wallop.
I can’t help remarking that just 24 hours before the Syriana screening, I saw the new Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. I know there’s war going on and that the world is coming to an end and everything, but I loved Walk The Line. As a movie it’s twice or thrice the film that Syriana is. I admit to a certain partiality to anything Joaquin Phoenix does, but his portrayal of The Man In Black was mind-blowing. Reese Witherspoon turned in an equally masterful rendering of June Carter. And I was left dumbstruck at the end of the movie when I learned that Phoenix and Witherspoon did all the singing by themselves. Go see both films. And sound off.
UPDATE: Wow, great minds think alike. Not until late Monday nite did I discover that my great pal Micah Sifry had blogged his own review of Syriana way back on November 23. His sum-up: disappointed.
December 5th, 2005 at 2:09 am
Saw ‘em both. Loved, loved, LOVED “Walk the Line.” Yeah, it had some flaws. (One dimensional father, one note first wife. Yadda, yadda, yadda.) Who cares???
Joaquin Phoenix was hella scary good. Just mesmerizing.
When I first heard that Reese Witherspoon was going to play June Carter Cash, I was a bit horrified, remembering mostly her various “Blond†performances. I forgot that in “Election†the girl showed that she could do a whole lot more than mug amusingly. As June Carter, Witherspoon simply didn’t strike a false note—literally.
But it was Phoenix who simply blew me away. He didn’t imitate Cash. That wasn’t possible. Instead he found some deep spark of the man’s essence and then blew on it until it grew bright with fire and smoke and completely enveloped him. Amazing.
One small quibble: I felt like the filmmakers pulled their punches a little bit about Cash’s Christianity—as if they were worried about alienating secular audiences, or whatever. They laced it in here and there. But his faith was such a defining element in Cash’s complex persona —creating as it did that remarkable equipoise between saint and sinner…..between Old Testament prophet and the Everyman in Black. They got to it a bit, but it could have used another strong tweak or two.
Hey, Cash the man managed to express his religiosity without alienating anybody—simply because he didn’t lay it on others with his music, but rather used it to let us in on his ongoing falls and redemptions.
But, mostly I just adored the movie. Heck, I wanna see it again.
*********
About Syriana….. I agree with you to some degree, Marc. Unless you’re already pretty informed, you have to really work to follow the thing—and for an uncertain payoff.
In the end, I liked it. It’s just that I expected to like it much better. There was something about the way Gaghan went about the multi-thread structure that didn’t really resolve itself successfully dramatically, thus one was left feeling far less of an impact than I think the filmmaker intended. In part I think this is that, in his quest for verisimilitude Gaghan kept us at an emotional distance.
Clooney was—as you said— very, very good, and extremely engaging, but the end of his thread, in particular, felt very unsatisfying and unnervingly truncated, as if whole chunks of the story had been cut out in trying to edit the movie down to a releasable length.
After Clooney, I liked the actor who played the disaffected young Pakistani oil worker—another real stand out. Also, I found the writing of his story to be the best realized.
Both films are assuredly worth seeing. “Walk the Line,†is one to run to see immediately. But see Syriana too. Even its failures are worth discussing.
My other recommendation is “Capote.†Phillip Seymour Hoffman is fucking brilliant.
December 5th, 2005 at 2:42 am
Dog.. ur right about the Clooney character’s last chapter. Completely contrived and emergent from some gaping black hole in the script. In facf that entire scene with desert caravab made no sense to me… maybe I missed something. But I thought the Prince’s pop already made the deal with the Chinese so why on earth was the CIA so bent out of shape about over the prince? Giving women the vote doesnt seem a threat to oil profits.
And right as well u are on Cash and Christ. Certainly his religiosity was downplayed and no doubt for commercial reasons. But what a guy!
December 5th, 2005 at 2:54 am
What a guy, no kidding. The movie got me to get out lots of his music. Certainly a bunch of the brilliant old stuff, but also some of the American series, with Rick Rubin producing. Like Cash singing Will Oldham’s “I See A Darkness…” (or singing Trent Reznor’s “Hurt.â€)
A staggering canon.
Again….as you said, what a guy!
December 5th, 2005 at 3:12 am
PS: I think the last sequence had to do with the following: the Emir’s elder brokered the deal with the Chinese, and the dad saw the wisdom of the idea, and made the deal. But then the Americans pressured the dad to undo it and also to name the pliable, playboy younger son as the successor to the throne. So the old Emir, went fuck it. Whatever. I’m old and outa here. And it’s not a winnable fight anyway against these American fools.
But then the good, progressive elder son, who wanted to actually invest in an infrastructure for his country, rather than blowing all the money on palaces, was going to stage a coup, remake the deal with the Chinese—and he had the majority of the generals down with him to do so. But, seeing this, the US said, Oh, Nah-Uh! I don’t THINK so. And so they offed the good son, thus preserving their control over the oil, the baby Emir—while having the added perk of screwing the Chinese in the process, a “desirable” thing to do, since they’re about to rule the world soon anyway, because they bother to educate thier kids, and are and have a much bigger, soon to be technologically superior army. All they need is the friggin’ oil to get there. Or so the movie suggested.
Anyway, thanks for posting this thread. I’ll be interested to know what others think.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:26 am
Thought Walk The Line was wonderful too. I’d read Denby’s NY’er
review and was prepared for mediocrity. He said the director “played it safe,” which I can understand but even playing it safe was still excellent. Apparently Cash really did propose to Carter live on stage. I proposed with a muffin and a latte….
Dying to see the new Sarah Silverman film, but living in the flyovers I have to wait. Anyone here see it?
December 5th, 2005 at 8:32 am
Syriana was brilliant, and the flaws that some speak of I look at as strengths. The ambiguity and seemingly truncated characterizations and amount of possible interpretations allow for discussion and perhaps research - how many Americans know about Mossadegh? I think that the ending had to do with gettingsomeone for nationalization ideas, which are hinted at - and to set up Clooney’s inconvenient character, perhaps Damon’s as well.
As for left-propaganda, it showed the entire international class structure of the oil industry, from the proletariat who ends up in the madrassah to the lawyers and analysts who are high paid, but still workers, to the different types of capitalists and state workers who create a world friendly to their interests. The Jeffrey Wright/law firm/Justice subplot lays bare this dialectic.
Most importantly, I thought it was courageous to humanize characters who would be thought of as simple one-dimensional terrorists and/or one dimensional spooks. The film is already being called traitorous for its portrayal of the geneology of a suicide bomber. It should be applauded for this.
December 5th, 2005 at 9:17 am
I knew I liked you for some reason Marc. I am a huge Johnny Cash fan, and big Jaquin Phoenix fan. I just couldnt picture him as the man in black or resse witherspoon as June.
I have to say just the previews convinced me it will be a good movie. Gonna see it with the wife this weekend.
Sorry to hear Syriana is as lame as I expected it to be (.
You prolly liked gnight and good luck though right?
December 5th, 2005 at 9:40 am
I’m not going to read the rest of the comments in detail because I live in the sticks and Syrianna hasn’t opened here yet - I was looking forward to it and now I’m not so sure, but I don’t want to read more about “the ending”, etc. until I’ve seen it.
Walk The Line - great, greatl, great. You guys have said it all. I knew Joaquin did his own songs and was prepared to be mightily disappointed by that because I’ve been a huge Cash fan since I heard the original “I Walk The Line” on the radio nearly fifty years ago, but I wasn’t. My reaction when I read about his singing before seeing the film was that it was idiotic not to just have him lip-sync Cash, but seeing it I realized that the performance was at a level where that couldn’t have been done. As an actor Phoenix needed to be fully in control of those moments auditioning or on stage when he improvised or screwed up. Overall it was a marvel of a movie - most biopics suck, so I can’t believe that the biopics of two of my favorite all-time performers - guys I’ve been in love with since I was a little kid have turned out to be so worthwhile - Ray and Walk The Line.
Incidentally, Bob Baer’s book Sleep With The Devil, about the U.S. and Saudi Arabia,l is a good one. I intend to read the earlier one as well. Former CIA agent Baer’s the guy who Clooney’s character is, apparently loosely, based on.
Here’s something mildly OT that I want to throw in (primarily for rosedog just in case she hasn’t gone out and popped her thirty bucks yet) - the 30th anniversary release of Springsteen’s Born To Run contains a nice remaster of the album (no outtakes - which I think is proper for as perfect a recorded release as anyone’s ever managed to produce), a non-essential booklet, a pretty cool documentary with some old archival concert stuff that’s nice for super-fans AND a DVD of the 1975 Hammersmith Odeon concert that’s never been seen before. This live concert is the reason to buy the set, if anyone who cares even a little about Bruce has hesitated. Best damn concert film (best damned concert, save one) that I’ve ever seen. It is just terrific and it proves all of the stuff about Bruce live was true. (I didn’t see him live until about five or six years ago and I walked outside and had a long conversation with a security guard in the middle of it - I was just not drawn in the way I was supposed to be because it seemed so canned and the crowd reactions so programmed. The most earnest canned performance one could imagine, but it was studied and perfect and every side comment and prologue I knew he’d done a hundred times before. My wife couldn’t believe I ended up hanging out with a security guard and we had one of our Dylan vs. Springsteen arguments after, but she admitted it wasn’t like the shows she’d seen when both she and Bruce were a lot younger and she’s since admitted that Bruce is too nice of a guy to pull out the weird genius stops as an artist at Dylan’s level. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Anyway, run out and get this DVD - it’s a brilliant performance by one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever, terrifically shot in a manner that is less pristine and more emotional than, say, Last Waltz. Loved it.
And back to Johnny Cash for a minute, I want to recommend one of his slightly more obscure albums that folks who started following him after “San Quentin” etc. may not have heard. Bitter Tears - Ballads of the American Indian, recorded in 1964, is just 8 songs long, but it’s a masterpiece. Another one that is unique and great from this period is “Johnny Cash Sings Ballads of the True West” - it was a double LP with lots of narration and authentic songs that any “Deadwood” fan will love.
December 5th, 2005 at 10:07 am
“You prolly liked gnight and goodluck…” (and you “prolly” thought it was crap…or at least I hope so, just to keep my stereotypes straight)
Clooney a bit paunchy and wearing dumb looking glasses playing Fred Friendly, Clooney directing and screenwriting one of the most intelligent films of the year, Clooney adding thirty pounds to play Bob B. and getting major kudos for his performance…proving what I suspected from “Brother Where Art Thou” and “3 Kings” - Not Just Another Pretty Face !
Also, rosedog’s right about “Capote” - another biopic that works brilliantly. Creepy little fuck, but fascinating. I used to invariably hate biopics (George Hamilton as Hank Williams was probably the lowest blow ever) but they’re figuring out how to do them right. Ray and Walk The Line both still follow a formulaic painful childhood-struggle for recognition-stardom’s devils-fall-redemption narrative, but they managed to do it convincingly and infuse real drama and emotion. Particularly difficult to do with iconic figures like Charles and Cash. And even though Capote was “just a writer”, his public persona was so distinct and he was such a media whore that I was surprised that Phillip Seymour Hoffman was able to pull off some dead-on acting as opposed to imitation. I thought it was painful (although the movie was actually sort of interesting for all of its flaws) to watch Anthony Hopkins doing something or other that reminded me mostly of a Saturday Night Live sketch throughout “Nixon”.
December 5th, 2005 at 10:47 am
One more heads up for Cash fans - Fresh Air did a reprise of Cash related interviews (Johnny, June, Roseanne, Rick Rubin) on Thanksgiving and the day after. Go to the NPR/Fresh Air site and listen to ‘em on the Nov.24/25 archive. If you love this kinda music, you’ll probably also dig the Jimmy Dale Gilmore show (”Tribute to his Father”) that ran on Nov. 23 as well.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:26 am
I hate you all. You’re all talking about the kinds of movies that usually take a while to get to Tokyo. And the kinds of movies I love.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Capote — I can picture it. I first saw him in Magnolia, the only time I can remember where I hit the rewind button and saw the whole thing through twice, immediately.
It occurs to me that a number of my favorite actors seem like the kind of people you can imagine having crossed paths with in high school, only to wonder years later what happened to them — Hoffman, Juliette Lewis, John Turturro. That still leaves room for the vaguely demigodlike figures like Clooney, who require of me that I get into a certain mental gear to watch with the required willing suspension of disbelief (though it’s usually worth it.) And those I can’t imagine having gone to high school with, but who are still intensely, and credibly, human, like Benicio del Toro. Hollywood needs to stretch a little more in casting, I think. Reese Witherspoon almost got blonded to death, but she’s actually incredibly good.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t go to talkies very often (still convinced they are only a passing fad) but I may catch Walk based on your review. Modest quibble: the term free radical is a term of art in chemistry. I realize you used the words as a pun, but I hope it doesn’t catch on. I know you wouldn’t want unpaired electrons roving around the middle east causing trouble. It’s not as bad as the way journalists misuse the word exponential (which does not mean large, or fast, or big).
December 5th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Gaghan has talked a lot about Paul Berman’s *Terror and Liberalism*, a top text in the liberal hawk canon, as being a major source for *Syriana*. (See below.) Marc, did you discern that influence, or is Gaghan just puffing his product up?
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21859
It was a naturally emotional story, and I think Warner Bros. deserves a lot of credit. They never said to me, “Soften this.†None of their questions or comments were about “We’re going to take a lot of shit for this.†They were questions about… “How do we make this clearer? How do we make it more emotional? What are you really trying to say?â€
A couple of things happened for me. I read TERROR & LIBERALISM by Paul Berman. Well, first I read the excerpt in The New York Times, where he talked about the philosophy of [Sayyid Qutb]. Berman parsed the 26-volume book which is called IN THE SHADE OF THE QUR’AN. It was written by this guy Qutb, who spent time in America. He’s Egyptian. Academic. And [Berman] very persuasively showed me that what was going on in the world right now is, there is a war of ideas. That these clerics in the Muslim world had a very serious idea. He says that idea had been cross-pollinated with facism, totalitarian ideology from the West. He shows where it could have happened in Egypt. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I wasn’t 100% persuaded by that.
But what I was persuaded by was how seductive the ideas were, and how powerful. Like the notion that you could be part of the greater good. That God has a plan for you. The Koran has that plan written down. If I was a disenfranchised young person who had taken a lot of blows to my self-esteem, who didn’t really know where to go in the world, who had no education, and if someone came along with these ideas that I found in TERROR & LIBERALISM, that are found in Qutb, and took me seriously, and talked to me about this stuff, it would be unbelievably seductive.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:47 am
Gaghan may be influenced by that disguting book but his film is far more - if not on purpose - nuanced, and compassionate.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:47 am
“I pretend rather to be the father of a family intent on guaranteeing that family’s security in an increasingly difficult economy.”
All Marc is about is summed up here. Hey Marc, didn’t you once support Allende, or something ‘leftish’? Now you’re even a willing apologist for oil companies. A West-Coast James Lileks with a smaller head.
You’d probably trash Z if it were released today. Hey Marc, I here Altria is hiring. Since you have no convictions at all, please sign up. I think they need good copy to defend their products, and no doubt your new ‘individual choice’ friends are willing to support someone who lobbies for Tabac as well as oil. I say go for it.
That’s just sad.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:51 am
Reg, absolutely on the Cash classics. And step back a bit further to his 1960 “Now, There Was a Song!” for some Cash versions of old country covers. Just amazing stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing the film, needless to say.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:53 am
“Now There…”also one of my faves. And of course the Sun stuff. What’s not to love about “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” ?
December 5th, 2005 at 11:58 am
Syriana is a movie that, I think, a lot of people want to see but haven’t had a chance to yet.
So please… guys… (looking at rosedog and Marc)… no more spoilers.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
I’m not a big fan of Cash, in the sense that I don’t actually own any of his records or singles.
But I haven’t really heard anything of his that I didn’t like either. A few years back I was listening to this bluegrass show on the radio and they played his version of that “Daddy Sang Bass, Mamma Sang Treble” song (not sure of the name of it) and it blew away.
So I’m sure he’s given a lot of country standards the same treatment.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
I will leave Max Renn’s idiotic comments unanswered, as stupefying as they might be.
Wo WJA: No, I wouldnt have guessed the movie was at all influenced by Berman’s book. I saw no traces of it. I interpreted the movie’s central theme as blaming US oil politics as one of the primary motor forces generating Jihadism. I dont think it’s a notion that would make Berman confortable.
Im glad Comrade Cummings so heartily endorses the movie. Problem is, as a movie, it doesnt work very well. Maybe if your read the script in text it would be more coherent.
Rosedog: Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps Ariananna is correct and you need to go in groups of five to unpack the movie. I hadnt caught that Daddy Emir had cancelled the Chinese contract. Must of missed that during one of my fidgety stretches. I did find the entire final sequence in the desert unconvincing– from every aspect.
That said, if Gaghan wanted to make a film with a direct political message, he would have done better to make a more direct film. a la Z or Condor. I did find it quite revealing that when he spoke, he was equally mish-mosh.. I wish I had brought a note pad to reproduce part of the ramble he let forth… it was something like: Well, yeah, the movie is confusing beacuse the world is confusing. and like on the left hand column of the Times there’s a story about Chalabi and on the right hand side theres a picture of some SUV’s and like you know it’s all connected.
Uh-huh.
Rosedog: You seem to have taken notes when u saw i. Did u unravel the CLI stuff?
BTW to anyone who cares: I wasnt a big fan of Gaghan’s “Traffic” either. I’d give it a 5 out of 10 rating. Greatly over-rated.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
I think the British Traffic miniseries was vastly superior to the movie, largely for the reasons that seem to have you and RD struggling with an apparently overly-complex, yet truncated plot line in Syrianna. Sounds like Syrianna might have been better as an HBO miniseries than a feature flick…the box office and a movie audience’s attention span demand story arcs that aren’t conducive to too many layers or unraveling the complexities of too many characters.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
Ahh, now you’re talking, reg: Syrianna (or a Syrianna-like story) HBO-ified. Gets me excited just thinking about the possibility. And not to get too OT, but keeping with the theme of layered and rich plots, I’m hungrily counting down the days for Sopranos season 6 to start (March ‘06, I believe)…
December 5th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Thank god we’re discussing Syrianna and Walk the Line and not Chronicles of Narnia, like the poor bastards over at Kevin Drum’s.
December 5th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
P.S. Kevin’s sharp in catching the political flow, but his taste in “the arts” tends to be up his ass. He also kicked off a long discussion of Dennis Hopper’s acting talents recently. That was hilarious…
December 5th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
“I will leave Max Renn’s idiotic comments unanswered, as stupefying as they might be.”
No, Cooper, you just don’t have an answer for them. As long as some vestige of ’social’ liberalism survives in your immediate backyard, you will sell the rest of the country, and any left or progressive principle, down the river, as is clear from your ridiculous comments concerning your colleagues at The Nation.
Why don’t you ‘name names’ al la Bill O’Reilly, as to who at the Nation besides some interns really support Kim Il Jung?
You’re a red-baiting coward, and have been for years.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
Haven’t seen Syriana, but I recall that Traffic suffered from obvious editng failures…most egregiously leaving Salma Hayek’s character on the cutting-room floor. It was a heroic effort, though, more of a 7 than a 5. Have you seen the drivel out there–remakes of good films, bad tv shows, and VIDE
O GAMES….
I really liked Walk The Line, perhaps didn’t love it quite as much as some…but my ingrained fondness for the music goes pretty deep (I come from a part of America which, as the bar owner in Blues Brothers says, loves both kinds of music, country AND western.) The film features the rockish up-tempo stuff, with the memorable exception of Witherspoon’s “Wildwood Flower.” My friend said after the movie that if she had known that is what country music was, she would have listened to it more growing up. Well, sort of it was, and sort of it wasn’t….
It was amazing to imagine the tour consisting of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, headlined by Elvis Presley. You could sense the energy these events created across the south.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
I saw the Johnny Cash movie. The performances were excellent, but I found the story a little depressing. Rosedog was right about too little mention made of the faith of the Cash’s.
As a good follow-up that might be repeated, the Country Music channel had an insightful look into Johnny Cash and June Carter by showing performances of theirs, such as the one at Folsom Prison, and with an old 60 Minutes interview at their house. That also told you a lot more about his addictions and overcoming them than could justice be done in the movie. There were segments showing his first wife and discussions with his daughters, too. That show indicated that the movie about them was very accurate, but it went further and deeper. If you can find it on again, it really is worth watchiing.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Why do you suggest that some interns at The Nation support Kim Il Sung ?
Sounds like, in the interest of a flip remark not unlike Marc’s rather acid hyperbole that you reference, you’re red-baiting - to be specific - Dan, Joe, Michael, Sarah, Sahar, Emily, Shreena, Clarisse and Anna.
While I would agree that Marc’s comment was over the top and the kind of blogbluster that’s not ready for prime time or non-pixellated pages, I have a nasty feeling that your definition of “red-baiting” includes lambasting real “reds” of the most noxious sort, like the goons who cluster around a certain defense attorney currently making the news.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
That last comment was directed to our hero from Videodrome, Max Renn.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
Actually, Marc…..can you possibly go in and put SPOILER ALERT at the top of that one post of mine about the Emir thang? Sorry guys. (Clearly, too late at night to be posting when I did. Judgment hopelessly compromised.)
And, again, although I’m critical of Syriana, I’m still haunted by it in many ways—and have nothing but admiration for Clooney for producing two films back-to-back that—whether perfectly realized or not— required commitment and heart. (And I NEVER was a fan of Clooney-the-hunk. In fact he used to have acting ticks that bugged the sh*t out of me…) I haven’t seen “Good Night and Good Luck” yet, but it’s next on my list.
Reg, thanks for the Bruce tip, and no I haven’t gotten it yet. But now I won’t wait.
********
Was about to hit submit, but just now read your last post, Reg. Yeah, I think you’ve hit it dead on. Syriana wanted to be a mini-series. The threads were essentially interesting, but many ended up being over cut, I suspect. I’m not one who minds the multiple thread weave. In fact, it’s generally a strategy I happen to like. Still, some of it worked well. For instance, Jeffrey Wright’s character, the attorney investigating the oil deal from the inside, was another interesting one that managed to resolve itself quite successfully. (Of course, it helps that Jeffrey Wright can do little wrong on screen, like, ever!)
Marc…. in answer to your question, the CLI thread got started then simply dropped into the void. [using code here to avoid anymore undue spoilers.] You didn’t miss anything. Again, I’m betting there was originally meant to be more to it, but the filmmakers had far more story than time….so they just allowed that torn thread to stay in order to Hint Darkly at Similar Matters in Contemporary American Political Life—obviously, namely, a hybrid of PNAC and Chalabi’s INC.
December 5th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
(…or reg, one of your last posts. It seems I keep getting behind. That’s it. No more movie posting. Must work.)
December 5th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
Didn’t realize Jeffrey Wright was in it…that’s generally reason enough to see a movie.
Woody, unfortunately I missed the 60 Minutes part of that CMT Special (where the communists from the MSM interview Cash and June), but was lucky enough to catch the San Q concert part…you’re recommendation is right on. Hope it’s re-run.
December 5th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
Rosedog speaking of Phoenix’s performance: Instead he found some deep spark of the man’s essence and then blew on it until it grew bright with fire and smoke and completely enveloped him.”
I assume you had in mind:
That was my first Johnny Cash 45-rpm and a life long love of his singing.
December 5th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Having read all of the comments now, I’m remarkably struck by the almost total agreement everyone is on the stellar performance of Phoenix and on such a stellar personality that Cash was. Lefties, righties, and presumably folks in the middle… amazing…
As for Renn, do you REALLY want Marc to give you the answer to the questions you asked. I’d almost be willing to bet you would wither before the onslaught…. On the other hand,
Marc isn’t a Red Sox fan, so he can’t be right all the time.
December 5th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
No one has mentioned how great Christopher Plummer was. He’s got that slightly forbidding smooth-yet-sleazy thing down pat. I’ve seen him do it before, but he’s so good at it.
Also, I was never a Clooney fan, in fact I actively disliked him until O Brother, and since then I have really started to enjoy his performances, and he is great here as has been noted.
On the CLI bit in the film, it just struck me that it was intended to be one of those shadowy conspiracy groups that can lurk in the background and be apporpriately menacing–organize coups, kill some Presidents, steal lollipops.
December 5th, 2005 at 5:20 pm
Completely and totaly off topic, I point all of you to Publius Pundit’s accounting of the Elections in Venezeula and the total fraud that Hugo Chavez seems to be.
December 5th, 2005 at 5:30 pm
Okay, I’m one of the father right conservatives on this board, anti-red (but baiting…well, not on purpose).
If Marc is a red-baiter, Renn is so far left he’s about to fall off the edge of the flat earth he also no doubt believes in.
Amazing.
Oh, and I am glad to hear the Cash movie is good - I’ve always liked his music. Syriana sounds like it has elements of a typical Hollywood message movie - the “oil industry dialectic” mentioned above sounds about like Hollywood class-warfare delusions (when I was in LA earlier this year, a Hollywood person informed me that the US invaded Afghanistan so that Bush’s friends could get rich by building a pipeline). But I guess the movie also manages to be boring and complex. Oh well.
As for Qutb ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qutb ), mentioned somewhere above, his writings are indeed a major part of the modern Islamofascist ideology. Very dangerous - like Marxist/Leninism, a utopian idea for the disaffected and the confused intellectual. Qutb plus Wahhabiism is an explosive (and bizarre) mix.
It is important for folks to recognize that it is Qutb’s ideology (and its offshoots) that is a major danger in the “war on terrorism” today - it provides a vehicle for recruiting and motivating vulnerable young men willing to perform truly awful acts, and is used by more cynical leaders (such as Iranian Mullahs) to increase their power through directed terrorism.
In some sense, Qutb’s ideas inform one side of the “war of civilizations” and constitute (in conjunction with WMD’s, European demographics, and the ostrich behavior of the left-elites) a very dangerous threat to the continued existence of western civilization.
By the way, Qutb was executed long ago by the Egyptians.
December 5th, 2005 at 5:50 pm
I’m holding out for Roper/Woody review of Brokeback Mountain.
December 5th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
GM, The truth is never off topic so let’s get the record correct on Chavez and not from the right wing blog you reference.Even a slight perusal of the Venezuela elections shows otherwise. The “opposition after bitching about fingerprinting at the ballot box finally got their way. The election board accommodated the opposition. Since they had nothing to do except lose as they did 2 years ago, they figured the best move was to boycott so people who think like you would have something to complain about!
December 5th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
Mark York says: “I’m holding out for Roper/Woody review of Brokeback Mountain.”
It would be too easy to say that it sucks. Cowboy movies were best with John Wayne and Roy Rogers–not the cowboy from the Village People.
I honestly go to only three or four movies a year, and I have to be dragged to them by the family. I prefer movies like Patton, Field of Dreams, Blues Brothers (tv version), Pee Wee’s Great Adventure, and Airplane. I like them to be fun or inspiring.
Johnny Cash’s movie didn’t fit the normal profile of my taste simply because it was depressing in many areas, and I can come here to get depressed for free.
December 5th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
I’m just surprised they’d give the movie a title that so invites smartass puns of the Gene Shalit/Rex Reed school:
“*Syriana*?! SERIOUS YAWN-AH!”
December 5th, 2005 at 7:51 pm
Paul Berman’s book sounds great if for no other reason it was called disgusting. hmm, I think I’ll have to check that out.
December 5th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
I had the pleasure of meeting Johnny Cash and spending a couple of hours with him when I worked in the music business. He was a class act.
My personal favorite of his recordings: Bitter Tears.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:02 pm
eddie, you’re so uninformed it’s shameful.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:02 pm
RE: GMR’s earlier comment on how damn near everybody loves Johnny Cash (Ray Charles and Willie Nelson are the only other performers who come to mind with anything close to his near-total cross-cultural appeal) reminded me of one of his more comical lyrics, in the vein of Boy Named Sue and One Piece At A Time - a satire of the early ’60s folk song craze, The One On The Right Was On The Left -
This musical aggregation toured the entire nation
Singing the traditional ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They performed with great virtuosity
And soon they were the rage
But political animosity prevailed upon the stage
Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear was a Methodist
Well the curtain had ascended
A hush fell on the crowd
As thousands there were gathered to hear
The folk songs of our land
But they took their politics seriously
And that night at the concert hall
As the audience watched deliriously
They had a free-for-all
(The song ends in fisticuffs, with an appeal to keep “politics” out of “folk songs” - advice which Cash himself rather forthrightly failed to heed in the broadest sense of social commentary, but his music spoke with an integrity, compassion and honesty that never resulted in a cheapening of his message.)
December 5th, 2005 at 8:22 pm
I was referred to this site by an Instapundit link and it’s brilliant. The movie review was great and the comments are excellent. Neither movie has opened down under, but I’m looking forward to seeing the Johnny Cash movie.
I’m particularly amused by Max Renn’s thoughts, such as they are. Good on you Max. Just one more layer of tin foil and your hat should fit perfectly.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
“If you think she´s ugly (and tell me that isn´t the ugliest human being you´ve ever seen), her supporters were even uglier!”
Courteous of Roper-referred Publius Pundit’s “news” on Venezuela. If this is the future direction of internet blogging and the “new media”, the L.A. Times will definitely start looking good to me again. Yeesh. Although I’m sure the blogosphere equivalent to natural selection will eventually weed out drivel like this.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:54 pm
Yup, hollywood has bravely avoiding making a movie about evil corporations causing havok with their greed.
I mean, with Walk the Line.
December 5th, 2005 at 9:02 pm
Apologist,Maybe I’m just a slave of the liberal press but the facts as usual are in the New York Times.
December 5th, 2005 at 9:06 pm
Yeah, that was clearly director Mangold’s intent…clever capitalist bastard!
And Cooper is obviously pushing the film to distract the masses from the struggle. El Pueblo Unido Will Never Eat A Cheeto !
December 5th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
The dog I had growing up was gay, at least if my leg that it kept humping after we got him neutered is any indication.
I loved that cocker spaniel. You both can go to hell!
December 5th, 2005 at 9:36 pm
[...] According to Marc Cooper: But to you righties who suspect Syriana is some sort of liberal propaganda – have no fear. To even begin to make sense of the plot, you’d have to be fully immersed in a deep understanding of Middle Eastern politics and if you knew that much, you’re quite unlikely to be moved from your position by this film alone. [...]
December 5th, 2005 at 9:45 pm
Randy, dogs are just whores…but with hearts of gold.
No shame in that thing with your leg or in loving your cocker spaniel. My wife told me yesterday that the only better relationship she’s ever had in her life with anyone other than me was with her poodle, Pierre, when she was a little girl with pigtails. I was proud. It’s hard to be a saint in the city or a better person than a dog. Also I wish like hell I’d had a chance to meet Johnny Cash.
December 5th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
GMR & Mark - dad and brother-in-law deserve better. Chill.
December 5th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
That last comment is based mostly on my own getting too close to a pissing match with Woody involving his mom and my dad. Not pretty.
December 5th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
Yes reg. Dad got the Library of Congress recently so he definately has better.
December 5th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
On Southpark, Stan had a dog that he thought was gay because it went after another male dog. True story.
Add Roy Orbison to musicians with cross-cultural appeal. He appealed to country and was hooked up with George Harrison when he died. He had great range. “One Piece at a Time” was one of my favorite songs from Cash. Probably one of the all-time best composers and musicians was Roger Miller, known for classics such as “Chug A Lug.” Another classic componser was Ray Stevens with his original hit “Ahab the Arab.”
I’m glad to know that this bunch shares my good taste and appreciation in music.
Regarding meeting singers, an acquaintance goes to an Episcople church in Atlanta and noticed during the hymns that the visitor behind her could sing very well. When it came time for people to greet those around them, she turned to this stranger and said to him that he had a beautiful voice and should consider joining the choir. Her friends noted him also, but later informed her that the church probably couldn’t afford Elton John.
Regarding movies, to stay on topic, my all-time favorite as a kid was one that is hidden in a vault somewhere. It was cheerful and had fun songs, and I never had a thought about it being racist–but, some did because of stereotypes. Yes sir, it was a Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah movie–”Song of the South.” http://www.songofthesouth.net/movie/index.html
December 5th, 2005 at 11:16 pm
Roger Miller was a genius…among other things he wrote the songs for a very good Broadway musical version of Huckleberry Finn - “Big River”. Definitely underrated. Orbison was also one of the best - incredible singer. Another amazing guy who came out of Sun studios in the ’50s and is remembered mostly for the pop-country he did in the ’70s but not for his best stuff which was far more soulful is Charlie Rich. (check out his final “Pictures and Paintings” CD - it covers the bases from Duke Ellington to country to gospel - I Feel Like Going Home is one of the most beautiful, moving songs I’ve ever heard.) Great Elton John story. I recently played his first album (my old LP copy no less) for one of my sons and he was blown away by how good it was - thought Elton was just sort of a silly wanker - Diana and all that. We were also watching “The Office” DVDs which end with “Handbags and Gladrags” and I had to play him some really old Rod Stewart to convince him that the guy was ever worth listening to and not just a preening imbecile.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:59 pm
Randy Paul is the king of tonight’s thread — you met Johnny! Please tell me he introduced himself to by saying, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash…”
In my tiny apartment I keep three personal items close to the door, which I will risk my life to save, lest the ol’building should ever catch aflame: Vinyls of Cash at Folsom, San Quentin, and the Clash’s London Calling.
On Syriana: I have a terrible “wine vocab” for rating movies (probably due to being on the road way too much). At first I thought this movie was the greatest thing since Sergi Leone’s “Once upon a Time in America” Christ, a hollywood production with some actual Marxists themes! But then I thought back to all the crap — no shit — that’s been released this year and realized that Syriana can be considered a great movie just by contrasting the competition. So, I’ll give Syriana some due for at least asking American audiences to take a ponder about corporate power. I appreciated the discussion at the top of the thread by Marc, rosedog, and reg. Fine points all.
Lastly, the mention of Paul Berman’s “Terror and Liberalism” — a great book, I highly recommend — as a source or inspiration for Syriana. I didn’t see that at all; agreement here with Marc, again.
December 6th, 2005 at 12:47 am
Speaking of the Roy Orbison, if you’ve never seen it, the 1988 Cinemax special, “Roy Orbison and Friends - Black and White Night,” filmed at the old (now deceased) Coconut Grove, is available on DVD and is a wonder.
Reg….I saw “Big River†in LA as performed by the Deaf West Theater Company,before it went to Broadway. It was cast using half hearing actors, half deaf, performed half in sign language, half aloud—including the songs. Unbelievably cool. (Imagine figuring out how to do rhyming lyrics in American Sign. )
Randy Paul…we’re all, of course, wildly envious.
December 6th, 2005 at 12:56 am
Randy Paul.. U are now appointed as My God. How much can I pay you to paintbox me into your photo with Johnny Cash?
Otherwise… Im tempted to invite Woody and GM out to L.A. during Xmas break and take them to a West Hollywood screening of Brokeback Mountain!
Love you guys!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PLEASE NOTE: FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY, I HAVE DELETED SOME PISSING-MATCH COMMENTS LACED WITH AD HOMINEM.
GENTLEMEN AND LADIES… I WANT TO REMIND YOU THAT ON THIS BLOG I RESERVE ALL MONOPOLY RIGHTS TO PERSONAL ATTACKS FOR MYSELF. YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE INSTRUCTED TO HOLD AND VOICE ANY OPINION YOU PLEASE, BUT WITH COURTESY AND RESPECT.
December 6th, 2005 at 1:37 am
The comment that turned my head 180 degrees tonight is that Woody likes Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. It’s a lovely film. I do wonder sometimes if the readers on this blog have channeled the ‘I know you are, but what am I?’ scene from that film.
I’m with reg on early Rod Stewart. Especially the stuff with The Faces. Classic rude-boy pub rock. What the hell happened to him and Elton in the 80s? Leopard skin spandex and Do Ya Think I’m Sexy - a precipitous decline, indeed. And Elton traded in the glam for insipid Casio keyboards, the very sound of indifference.
I am yet to see Syriana. I’m alternately grateful simply for its existence, but also suspicious. It is a good thing that mainstreamish fiction films are able once more (fleetingly?) to address current political issues without having to dress them up in period clothing and hope that the audience gets the metaphors/parallels. Good Night and Good Luck suffered from that, I think. If Clooney wants to make a film about the fractious political climate and cowardice of the media in the US today (I see no other reason to make the film now), why make it about McCarthy? Why not just make a film about Ann “Fucking” Coulter? Why do we need to decode the civics lesson in order to apply it to our lives? Godard said a long time ago that if you have something to say, the simplest solution is to just say it.
I am suspicious, however, because Traffic was crap.
I find myself going back to films such as Z, State of Siege, The Battle of Algiers, Burn! and Salvatore Giuliano for doses of fierce political filmmaking and wonder why American political filmmaking has never scaled these dizzy heights (I would be happy to hear about suggested exceptions - Three Days of the Condor has too much movie love going on for me to take it seriously; I suppose Missing is American to all intents and purposes, though). All five films are made in a more or less commercial idiom; formally, they are not exactly avant-garde. And people seemed to enjoy The Battle of Algiers when it was rereleased last year. It does bother me that I have to rely on a film made forty years ago about the now-resolved anti-colonial struggle of a North African country in order to get my fix of political film.
As for Johnny Cash, maybe it’s an American thing - I have never caught the bug. Can anyone suggest a list of Baby’s First Johnny Cash Records To Listen To?
December 6th, 2005 at 6:31 am
“Im tempted to invite Woody and GM out to L.A. during Xmas break and take them to a West Hollywood screening of Brokeback Mountain!”
Well at least the concept worked if not the response. I remember the Cash’s from an episode of Dr. Quinn I worked on. They were friends of the lead couple and guest starring at the time.
December 6th, 2005 at 6:46 am
My question is, why would anyone expect a movie with George Clooney in it to be good? The man couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper sack with two tomahawks.
December 6th, 2005 at 7:11 am
For a “Battle of Algiers” guy, start with Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Then pick up “Bitter Tears - Ballads of the American Indian”, and one of those anthologies from Columbia (Essential Johnny Cash contains some early Sun recordings all the way through mid-career classics and duets with Dylan, Waylon Jennings and U2, no less), and then his American Recordings which are worth going straight through - the first is still the better in my book, but they’re all terrific. The 3rd one, Solitary Man, has him at his least solitary - with Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench backing him up, along with Marty Stuart, Gary Scruggs and vocal assists by June, Tom Petty, Merle Haggard and Sheryl Crow. After that one they get progressively closer to last testaments and you should spend some time with Cash before you listen to them. Once you’ve got a personal relationship with the man, those last couple of albums will have you in tears. If you’re hooked, a couple of other excellent individual albums from Columbia (after you’ve also gotten a “Best of” from the early years with Sam Phillips on Sun) are “Orange Blossom Special”, “The Fabulous Johnny Cash”, “Ballads of the True West”, “There Was a Song” for his versions of country classics, and for Cash’s take on the labor theory of value, “Blood, Sweat and Tears”. A couple of my old favorites are out of print. (The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me was a weird but cool album that veered from the mean streets of Memphis through the eyes of Kris Kristofferson through a cut by a young Roseanne and stuff with the Carter family to an earnest tribute to Billy Graham, Rex Humbard and Oral Roberts. A definitive trip through Cashland!) Some of his older classic albums have been nicely remasterd with outtakes, etc, and others have been reduced to bargain discs. Also, I should mention “Johnny Cash at San Quentin”, which doesn’t quite measure up to the original “At Folsom” album - mostly because he’d done it once before - but it’s a wonder of a live album in and of itself. There was also a re-issue from Columbia called “Love, God and Murder”. Three discs, with those spare titles and the appropriate content, which you could buy together or seperately, depending on your particular obsessions. One of the better anthologies, especially for his sacred songs. (Not that it all ain’t sacred to Cash lovers.)
December 6th, 2005 at 8:31 am
I went to the review of Syriana by your buddy Micah Sifry, who wrote, “… the movie has a provocative premise–that there is an intimate link between political corruption in America, the Middle East, and shadowy players at big oil companies, multinational law firms and covert agencies who manipulate the feudal monarchies who sit atop the greatest oil reserves in the world….”
Now, I know that I wouldn’t be interested in the movie. The plot is simply fantasy and implausible.
December 6th, 2005 at 11:53 am
Boogie…. reg has given you the definitive tour.
If you want a shorter version, try “Essential recordings,” then jump to one of the American CDs. Eventually you gotta get “Live at Folsom” in its entirety, though, simply because its not like anything else ever recorded by anyone, period. But, I’m not suggesting you deviate from Reg’s whole path, if you’re willing, as it’s well worth following.
Soak…. You’re back in the past. Clooney used to be a hideously irritating actor. But then he did “Three Kings” and started to get how it worked—the help of a good director, David Russell, who apparently didn’t get the memo that Clooney was a STAR. A year later, the Coen’s got hold of him for “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou,” and Clooney emerged a different actor. In Syriana he’s really very good.
Hey, some people can actually grow up artistically. It’s nice when you see it happen.
December 6th, 2005 at 11:54 am
that was “with the help of a good director…”
December 6th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
I just saw Walk the Line, and really enjoyed the wonderful score by T-Bone Burnett. The music really carried the movie for me–I really like the music.
I think Joaquin Phoenix was OK, but Reese Witherspoon was too cutsey pie and lacked the depth to play June Carter. Despite the acting which was OK, it’s still a really enjoyable film because the music is so wonderful.
As for Syriana, I saw a preview some months back so I don’t know if it’s the same cut as just got released. Syriana has much more intelligence, audacity, and daring than Walk the Line. Yes, the mutliple story lines of Syriana are a bit confusing, but that makes it fun to figure it. The main idea was that the reforming Arab younger son who doesn’t want to sell his country’s oil to the U.S. angers the U.S. What
I liked about Syriana is that the film was the
first that had the look and feel of today’s conflict
over oil.
As for Woody comment that Syriana’s connecting political corruption in the U.S., Big Oil, and the Middle East is a ” plot [which] is simply fantasy and implausible,” I think Woody lacks knowledge of some current history. Ever since Edward Doheny, West Coast Big Oil, bribed his way to Teapot Dome oil leases in the early 1920s, Big Oil has had huge imopact on our national politics. Big Oil went around the country in the 1940s and 1950s buying up trolley/bus systems and destroyed them so U.S. citizens would be forced to buy cars and use oil. Woody, why is Cheney’s Energy Plan that he made up with Big Oil still classified. Of all the outrageous things to keep classified? I think when the truth finally comes out (it might take a while) we’ll find that Big Oil spent a lot of money to get the energy politics they wanted in the Bush Adminstration.
Anway, both films are well worth seeing, but Syriana is the better one.
December 6th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
I actually thought Woody was being ironic (and god knows I’m usually one of the first to jump on his case.)
Maybe not…
December 6th, 2005 at 5:16 pm
One more Johnny Cash appearance…on PBS last night, at least here, on an interesting special on Appalachia. The last scene is Johnny and Roseane talking about his trip to Ireland, from which he drew the material for a stunningly beautiful ballad, “Forty Shades of Green.” I had never heard it before.
As for Julia’s judgment about Reese Witherspoon being too “cutesy” for the role of June, maybe…I know I was always very aware that I was watching Reese W….But she is playing June Carter at an age when June’s persona was itself “cutesy.” And she certainly played her intelligently, as intelligent. [This brings up a question about acting: is it possible to "act", but not be, "intelligent"? I don't see how, but I wonder....]
December 6th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
Randy Paul is the king of tonight’s thread — you met Johnny! Please tell me he introduced himself to by saying, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash…â€
Rob, you are much too kind. Actually, he didn’t because he was introduced by one of my colleagues who was there.
Full disclosure: from 1985 to 2005 I worked in Broadcast Licensing for ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. I was traveling from New York to Nashville in February 1988 to attend the Country Radio Seminar, an event in which commercial radio stations met with musicians and had seminars on radio programming, etc. ASCAP was sponsoring the luncheon event the following day featuring several artist/members, including Rodney Crowell, Cash’s son-in-law at the time and the dreadful Randy Van Warmer.
In any event, I arrived at the airport, was icked up by my dear departed colleague, Roy Stanley, the man by Rosanne Cash in the photo and went straight to ASCAP’s offices in Music Square to pick up our passes for the event the next day. We were told that they were having a reception for Johnny and Rosanne Cash there and I said “Christ, I’m wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. I’m not dressed to meet Johnny Cash!”
The Nashville staff told me not to worry and they insisted that I get my picture taken with them. As a matter of fact, Johnny Cash himself insisted.
Randy Paul.. U are now appointed as My God. How much can I pay you to paintbox me into your photo with Johnny Cash?
Marc, as the moment was both priceless and unexpected, I couldn’t put a price on it.
A word on Reese Witherspoon. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to see The Man in the Moon, her debut performance (I believe she was 12). She was nothing short of brilliant.
December 6th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
Reese Witherspoon was born in Nashville and seemed a natural for the part–plus, she’s a doll.
————–
Julia Stein, since you don’t know me, I was kidding in my comment about the movie being implausible.
However, I wouldn’t be kidding about the oil industry if I said that we need to run all the caribou out of ANWR so that the oil companies can suck that place dry and make us less dependent on foreign sources. Well, I might not mean it quite that stongly.
General Motors had the major role in killing street cars. I can’t blame any business for doing something to improve its profits. I believe in the broad sense that business helps America when it helps itself and grows. You know the saying, “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” However, if this were something that ran counter to our national interests, then a competing company or government might have stopped it at the time–or, corrected it later.
Cheney’s energy meetings were confidential to give energy officials the ability to speak openly and freely, as we needed good information rather than public relations sound bites. Hillary Clinton’s government health care meetings has that same level of privacy–but, she was hiding something.
———
Back to movies and performers…. I think that Nixon played the piano better than Clinton played the sax. Deal with it.
December 6th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Correction: Witherspoon was born in Baton Rouge but moved to Nashville in her early childhood.
Other than typing errors, there are no other corrections to my previous comment.
December 6th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
RP: I said “Christ, I’m wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. I’m not dressed to meet Johnny Cash!â€
On the recent Fresh Air reprise of a Johnny Cash interview, he talked about his first meeting with producer Rick Rubin. Something to the effect of, “He looked like his hair had never been cut and was dressed like a hobo. So I was pretty sure he was someone I would be comfortable working with.”
December 6th, 2005 at 7:36 pm
Woody,
You’re right that General Motors also had a major role in killing street cars. Tire companies also helped in killing the trolleys as well as Big Oil. As
for your reference to “What’s good for General Motors is good for America,” well that ain’t true. This country would be better off now if we had more street cars and a working rail system to transport goods as they would both save energy as oil is destined to run out.
GM should learn how to compete with Toyota and Honda, and that would be good for America. So far GM has been pigheaded in pushing low-mileage/gallon SUVs and trucks because they give the company a larger profit margin; GM has never learned to make good small cars–now the company is nearing bankruptcy.
This country’s reliance on oil and cars and trucks for its transportation is part of the pigheaded stupidity which unfortunately hasn’t been corrected yet. Such dependcy on a soon-to-be-depleted resource as oil is indeed counter to our national interests. But now we’re back to the movie Syriana which examines these issues.
Your rationale for secrecy for Chenyey’s energy meetings is not true. Big oil didn’t give Cheney “good advice” as you say but advice that would make them the most money. The reason the Bush adminsitration keeps this information secret is they don’t want energy ever to be part of a public debate because they want an ignorant public. But even if there was some small rationale for keeping the energy meetings secret at the time, that rationale doesn’t justify the continuance of the secrecy.
Do you really want this country to be without adequete mass transportation when oil hits $4 and then $5/gallon as it will? That’s where Big Oil’s “advice” to Cheny is leading us.
December 6th, 2005 at 8:21 pm
I’m not so sure that what’s good for General Motors might not be good for America. It’s pretty clear (or at least strongly implied by their CEO - see Kevin Drum today) that one thing that would be good for General Motors and the rest of the “legacy” industries survival these days (actually starting about 35 years ago would have been best, but that’s history) is national health insurance so they can compete on a more level playing field with counterparts based in other industrialized nations. Without a plan for national health insurance, they’re screwed (as are employees in industries that are dying in the squeeze of runaway costs of benefits or deny their workers decent coverage.)
December 6th, 2005 at 8:24 pm
That of course doesn’t address their ridiculous lagging in efficiency and product reliability, which is their own damn fault. It’s been ironic to watch so many urban areas rebuild their mass transit train systems over the last decades - basically reinventing the street cars that were discarded back in the day .
December 6th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
J.S. wrote: “The reason the Bush adminsitration keeps this information secret is they…”
If it’s secret, then you don’t really know what advice was given and why it was given. It does make sense to keep it secret even now, though. If I were an oil executive and I provided confidential information about the company’s oil explorations and reserves, I sure wouldn’t want that to get to my competitors or do anything to hurt my stock value. The secrecy for Cheney makes more sense than does that for Hillary, whose motivation was likely that she knows what’s best for everyone else and didn’t want anyone interfering with her socialist agenda.
I’d explore this more with you, but we’re off topic and I’m on my way to the Florida Gulf coast–maybe to push for off-shore drilling there.
I may have seen your name before. It’s nice to have you commenting here, and I hope you stick around. Here’s a tip. Generally everyone is okay unless their name begins with R. Have a good rest of the week.
December 6th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
reg, just saw your G.M. comments; i.e., G.M. as in General Motors and not G.M. Roper. Labor unions have a lot to do with the higher cost to value of domestic versus foreign production. Along with the labor costs have come huge medical and retirement benefits for workers that exceeded their true value and only represented their bargaining strength during the 1960’s when things started going downhill. I’d comment more, but I have to leave, so don’t take a lack of response as acceptance for anything you write.
December 6th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
I’d comment more, but I have to leave, so don’t take a lack of response as acceptance for anything you write.
Perish the thought . . .
December 6th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
So what are the fundamental challenges facing American manufacturing? One is the spiraling cost of health care in the United States. Last year, GM spent $5.2 billion on health care for its U.S. employees, retirees and dependents–a staggering $1,525 for every car and truck we produced. And the figure is going up again this year. Foreign auto makers have just a fraction of these costs, because they have few, if any, U.S. retirees, and in their home countries their governments fund a much greater portion of employee and retiree health-care costs.
Some argue that we have no one but ourselves to blame for our disproportionately high health-care “legacy costs.” That kind of observation reminds me of the saying that no good deed going unpunished. That argument, while appealing to some, ignores the fact that American auto makers and other traditional manufacturing companies created a social contract with government and labor that raised America’s standard of living and provided much of the economic growth of the 20th century. American manufacturers were once held up as good corporate citizens for providing these benefits. Today, we are maligned for our poor judgment in “giving away” such benefits 40 years ago.
Rick Wagoner, CEO & Chairman, General Motors writing in today’s WSJ “OpinionJournal”
December 6th, 2005 at 9:17 pm
The solution Woody will offer when he gets back from killing baby seals or whatever is to cut health and retirement benefits for autoworkers and other industries, “Walmartizing” the entire U.S. labor force. He will recommend this slashing of labor standards, health care and contracts with the elderly because he loves America, Jesus and the GOP - not necessarily in that order.
December 7th, 2005 at 1:35 am
So I’m aware that this thread is pretty much dead, but on the way home from work this evening I heard Bob Barker (?) on NPR, the former CIA fella who inspired part of Syrianna and took writer/director Gaghan around the middle east. Bob was a much better spokesman for the film than Gaghan and helped me understand the basic idea behind the film’s incoherence: all these different people and organizations have different agendas that interact often in ways no one has predicted. And all these interactions and agendas have consequences that are carried out upon real people, primarily middle-eastern people. As the viewer, we were supposed to see that incoherence and understand how and why chaos came to be.
Unfortunatly, the movie fails. It doesn’t get across that message with Bob’s help and it doesn’t reward you for all the effort expended keeping up with the plot. Not to mention it became clear that Gaghan took some his favorite bits of obscure and not so obscure history and personal experience and dramatized them all, without any concern for their effect on the overall drama. The philisophical conciet, that out of diverse and secret agendas comes chaos, is not well tended to.
Also, I’m trying not to prejudge here but I hate biopics and I really hate Mr. Phoenix. Am I the only one who saw Gladiator?
December 7th, 2005 at 1:39 am
Whoaa Mavis! I saw Gladiator about 8 times.. The only thing I love more than Joaquin Phoenix in that film is Russell Crowe.
What we do in life today will echo in eternity! Strength and honor! Scotch and Soda!
December 7th, 2005 at 9:49 am
Seriously, Marc? I think we have schism here. No friend of Gladiator is a friend of mine. The only thing worse than Joaquin Phoenix’s Gladiator performance is his name (and maybe those awful sunsets).
December 7th, 2005 at 9:58 am
Mavis!!! WTF???? I thought you said a way back that, despite the “Mavis” nom de plume, you were a “dude” !?!?!?!? Dudes LOVE Gladiator !!!!
December 7th, 2005 at 12:33 pm
Well then. Perhaps I’m a lady masquerading as a dude with a woman’s name. OR DID I JUST BLOW YOUR MIND?
December 7th, 2005 at 3:23 pm
I played a Rolling Stone reporter in Man in the Moon. I’d like to be a real one now if given the chance.
December 7th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
Marc — the political risk to making this movie was nil. Hollywood is not bad because the politics are all liberal. The politics are uniformly liberal because Hollywood has a massive agency problem. Ain’t it Cool had an interview with Gaghan where he talked of how “Marxism” is the answer in his Malibu mansion. That encapsulates the problem.
It isn’t any different than Richard Scrushy at Health-South; or Rigas at Adelphia, or the folks at Tyco. Management has incentives to “loot” the company in one way or another, or at best spend money to benefit personal proclivities and such, like corporate jets and the like, instead of add to shareholder value. There’s entire sets of Executive compensation theory to address this “agency problem” of mis-aligned economic objectives: shareholders for maximum value; executives for personal profit. It’s why you get bad films like Syriana or History of Violence or In the Bedroom or Closer.
The risk under this agency issue was nil. ALL of Hollywood’s creative and executive class embraces the hereditary positions of liberal elitism. A REAL risk would have been to paint Muslim extremists as the obvious bad guys and whip up the audience against them. Gaghan and Clooney and the rest lacked the courage to do so because they were AFRAID. AFRAID of offending in any way Muslims. And ending up like Theo van Gogh. Hence white guy businessmen are the villains instead of oh I don’t know, people who cut the heads off of screaming victims for their own sadism.
Please explain to me how criticizing GWB or Oil Companies is “risky” in Hollywood? A real risk would be to embrace cultural conservative positions which can only be done in “fantasy” movies like Batman Begins, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, LoTR etc. Almost all of Hollywood embraces “honest” and uber-liberal cultural concerns such as murderers are people too and cuddly (Dead Man Walking, Capote) and infidelity is cool (any Diane Lane movie, Closer, Spanglish etc). Heck look at PC Stealth. Hollywood can’t have real villains they have to have MACHINES as bad guys.
Hollywood is like Detroit circa 1970, balkanized, unable to comprehend consumer demand, about to get obliterated by alternatives who provide value (Video Games, look at the advertising for Medal of Honor or SOCOM games to see where the audience is at).
This movie is all wrong too. Oil companies above all else crave transparency and stable government. Little known is that Shell offered a substantial payment to the Obosanjo Government to spare Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine that was rejected. Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered because he exposed the corruption and thievery by the Obosanjo Government. Oil companies make billions of dollars in capital investments in regions that are extremely risky. Above all else they crave a stable and as clean as possible government to do business with. Corrupt regimes like Nigeria’s are forcing Shell to basically write off billions of investments (the bunkering and payoffs needed to do business are simply too extreme).
You could make a real great movie about a real hero: Ken Saro-Wiwa; but you’d have to make brutal and corrupt African Dictators the bad guys. The only line that made sense in Syriana was Damon’s quip that the Arabs cut each other’s heads off and would continue that in utter futility.
Oil goes up and down in price based on demand which is unpredictable (China could go into a tailspin and kill demand world-wide in many ways). Like all other commodity companies, Oil companies survive by having industrial scale efficiencies. Wealth is NOT created as Gaghan says by digging stuff out of the ground and it is not as Gaghan says a zero-sum game.
Typical of drug-addled Lefties: incoherent when faced with economic reality and espousing Marxism from their Malibu mansions. Wow what “risk.”
December 7th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
“(Video Games, look at the advertising for Medal of Honor or SOCOM games to see where the audience is at).”
It’s hard to pick which comment of yours to respond to, Rockford, considering the way they fan out in a hallucinogenic kaleidoscope of stream-of-consciousness segues, but I had to bite at your video game reference. You might wish to think twice (or do some marketing research) before you take the pulse of the video game world and its customer base. Let’s just say that the millions of fans of such huge-selling cuddly-murder games like Grand Theft Auto probably won’t be in line to “embrace cultural conservative positions” anytime soon. In other words, gamers love to shoot shit up–cops, monsters, criminals, civilians, non-sentient beings, JFK, what-have-you. Unfortunately, this lack of shit-shooting discrimination doesn’t do much for your claim that the video game industry is somehow being driven by a culturally conservative groundswell. But it was a nice hypothesis.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:53 am
Here’s something I just discovered about Syriana that maybe gives a little clue.
I haven’t seen it, but I’d be a lot more excited about seeing it if I felt it was really based on a deep grounding in events in that part of the world, as opposed to a superficial view of them recycled from other Hollywood movies.
And here’s my clue as to how original, or not, Syriana is. Alexander Siddiq plays a key character called Prince Nasir. Here are other recent roles he has played, per the IMDB:
Kingdom of Heaven (2005) …. Nasir
Vertical Limit (2000) …. Kareem Nazir
Not to mention Bashir on Deep Space Nine. Can’t the screenwriter at least find an original Arab NAME?
(Interestingly, for those making connections… Siddiq played Prince, future King, Feisal in a T.E. Lawrence TV movie… and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in The Hamburg Cell!)
December 8th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
No, gold is never found in the ground. Oil either. That isn’t wealth? Visit a Nevada mining town sometime. The remnants are all around, in piles, but the only wealth now comes from gambling. The gold is long gone.
December 8th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
Freddy….that really is a great piece of film trivia—with hideously depressing and cringe-making implications.
December 8th, 2005 at 6:59 pm
Bob Baer on NPR, if anyone’s interested.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/duncanblack/baer.html
December 8th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
More Baer (on Hardball….scroll down.)
http://tinyurl.com/8vzyj
December 8th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
ooops….http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10364693/
December 8th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10364693/
double oops
December 9th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
I guess Baer refuted the Woody thesis that the whole thing isn’t plausible. That’s a real shocker.
December 11th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
Kudos to George Clooney for Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck—at least his last two films are an attempt to make the public THINK about something other than gratuitous violence, exploitative sex scenes, and ridiculous dialogue. If Syriana is to be criticized, it is for being too ambitions. It’s thinly based on a book “See No Evil†written by former CIA operative Bill Baer. An attempt to expand the story line created four interconnected stories which examine the CIA; corrupt oil moguls; the grooming of Middle Eastern teens for terrorist activities and the inside ideological planning at the Whitehouse. I did not need a libretto to follow the script. I think the intention of the director, was to give the viewer a feeling for the corruption and hopelessness that is ever present in the world of oil, money and power. What’s that old adage: ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!
Hopefully it will attract an audience who will be provoked enough, to explore the efficacy of our involvement in Iraq and the entire Middle East region. It would be delightful if Hollywood would produce more movies that awaken an audience, rather than place them in a narcotic incoherent stupor.
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