While film reviews are not a regular feature here, I’ll make an exception for “Syriana,” starring George Clooney Chris Cooper, and Matt Damon. The reason for the exception is that the film is based on former CIA officer Robert Baer’s See No Evil, the story of a CIA agent, but also his 2004 book Sleeping with the Devil, which carried the subtitle “How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude.” The film never says which country forms the center of the story, but it dances around sufficiently that one can conclude that Saudi Arabia is, indeed, intended. Audiences certainly seem to think that the KSA is the country involved.

Baer’s books’ thesis–which is the major theme of the film–is that the US is so desperate for oil that it will not only support autocratic states at the expense of democratic reform, but that it will also kill reformers to ensure the uninterrupted flow of oil. That’s a non-uncommon refrain heard in leftist, democratic, and anti-capitalist fora, but it reamains, essentially, nuts.

The film itself is actually quite good. The direction and script, by the gifted Stephen Gaghan, are superb, with interlacing stories that cross in unexpected ways. The acting is uniformly excellent. The film, shot on location in Dubai and Morocco, Geneva and the Washington, DC area, reeks of authenticity. Even the scenes set in Beirut, though shot elsewhere, are very realistic.

Note should be made, too, of the use of language in the film. The Gulf Arabs in the film are speaking the Gulf dialect of Arabic. A terrorist recruiter, while speaking Gulf dialect, lapses into Egyptian pronounciations at times. Hezbollah members are speaking in Levantine Arabic and Pakistani laborers in Urdu. The translations, subtitled on screen, are colloquial and accurate.

As good as the film is–as a film–it should not be taken as either an accurate telling of history or a realistic statement of US policy and actions. The film avoids picking contemporary political fights; there’s nary a mention of Bush, of Republicans or Democrats to be heard. But it is political nonetheless. A passing reference is made to the 1954 coup–engineered by the US and British intelligence services–to overthrow Iranian PM Mossadeq. The film suggests “it’s all about oil”. A better reading of that event, however, would put it in the context of the Cold War and note the activities of both Mossadeq and the Communist Tudeh Party at the time. While oil was certainly a factor, I think it took a distant second place to fears that the Soviets would become the masters of Iran, its oil, and its politics.

Do see the film though… it’s everything an action film should be, even if its historical referents are out of date.