Syriana (2005): politics is strange

A review of Syriana (2005). Why do I say politics is strange? Because in politics there are no friends and no enemies. There's no loyalty in politics. Politics is like a film sketch. Politics is about interests. Politics is strange.

As an international relations student, it doesn't feel right to talk about international politics without quoting Hans Morgenthau.

"International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power"

— Hans Morgenthau

But I won't get into international politics here. I'll just show how international politics sits underneath this film. Yeah, this film took me right back to my university days, hehe.

Syriana is from 2005, but looking at the world today, it feels like it predicted what would happen in Middle East politics. It's fiction, but it's based on real stories about how international politics works, the politics of interests.

While inspired by a non-fiction work, this motion picture and all of the characters and events portrayed in it (except for incidental archival footage), are fictional.

— Closing statement, Syriana (2005)

Despite that closing statement, you could say the film seems inspired by the Iraq War. The Iraq War started in 2003 and ended in 2011.

There are four stories in Syriana that end up connecting. The first follows a CIA agent named Bob Barnes, played by George Clooney.

The second is the story of an oil analyst, Bryan Woodman, played by Matt Damon. Along the way, Bryan Woodman becomes a personal consultant to Prince Nasir, the future king of an oil state.

The third is the story of Dean Whiting, a lawyer hired to handle a merger between two big US oil companies. The fourth is the story of a worker who gets fired because of that merger.

The four stories only come together at the end of the film. So if you don't like films that make you think, or slow plots, or you're just in a lazy mood, don't watch this one.

I really recommend this film to people new to politics, so they can see how politics works. Especially around the Middle East, oil, and American capitalism.

tl;dr The film shows that America's interference in the oil state (a fictional country) is about getting oil cheap. America even sets up a liberation committee for the oil state so it can get there.

How it gets there is what Syriana shows. What makes it even more interesting is China showing up as a competitor in the oil market.

China is ready to buy the oil state's oil at the highest price. The US can't and won't. So, as a long-term investment, they run an operation to "liberate" the oil state.

In real life, operations like this always use democracy and human rights as the reason. That reason works best because Middle Eastern countries are still "conservative" about their cultural values.

Add to that the "kingdom" system, which can spark internal conflict between future kings. Again, this is politics, and America is very good at this game.

The film also shows how strong US military technology is. A single drone can take out an enemy in an instant.

In the old days wars were fought face to face. In the future, maybe wars will be fought with AI and remote control.

I think this film review is heavier than my earlier ones. So to lighten things up, let's watch this video, a parody about the United States and oil.