Syriana

[flitzermusik]

I am back in town on "family business" so I spent some time with an old friend. We went to the local cinema to catch an evening showing of Syriana. Fucking $9.50 for a popcorn and a slushee. But this post is about more important things than the rising price of movie concessions.

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Thoughts on Syriana Part 2 of 3

[ixchelmala]

cont.

...a Syrian king--little more than a puppet in the hands of Uncle Sam (more on that later)--whose sons were vying for control of the kingdom. One prince wanted to use his country's oil to free them from bondage and debt; the other was happy blowing money out his ass, just as long as the United States was his best customer.

Again, this is reminiscent of the days of Feudal lands, Kings and their 1st and 2nd sons. Uncle Sam being not unlike the Pope of The Church of days of old. Giving his 1st son to the Crusades, not knowing if he'd come back the same, only knowing that "it was the right thing" to do... much like the 1st son here is sent to America to gain a good education so he could turn his country into a better place. His second, greedier son, in the shadow of that position, has been seduced by those things that satisfied the urges of "now" at the expense of his people. Think Robin Hood. Prince John and King Richard (King Richard being more like the 1st son in this case.)

This take on it, in Syriana, was skillfully done in it's subtlety.
The CIA was involved in the whole mess, because their job was to ensure the continued reliance of the US on foreign oil. Why this makes sense anymore, I'll never know. Their job was to--well, I won't give away that part of the movie.

Ah the CIA... if you saw the film Elizabeth, there is this guy called Walsingham, he would be the equivalent. Read up on him. Some people think him the predecessor of what MI6 is today. It makes sense, because it's all about power.

The sad thing is that when you are part of a big secret organization and you don't do what they tell you, they turn on you without mercy. Look at The Prisoner. Or that one Bond film where he gets his access as a spy taken away. Hell, look at current events.
Then there is this exiled CIA agent who seems to derive exquisite pleasure from meddling into affairs and getting captured and tortured by the Hezbollah.

I hope on the second viewing this bit made more sense. Bob was doing his missions. He was good a what he did, with a risk to the agency that he sometimes was unorthodox, that's what I got from the film anyways. As for the torture from Hezbollah, that wasn't Hezbollah doing the torture. That was Massawi. Massawi was told to stop, essentially because he and Bob were guests of Hezbollah and the security it provided.

I'm guessing that Massawi was working for himself, contracted his services to the CIA through a 3rd party, or had some connection to the 2nd son. My bet is on the CIA connection, as they were the only ones that knew where Bob was going to.

cont.