Syriana

Syriana (2005) starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Christopher Plummer, Amanda Peet. The politics of the Middle East, U.S. oil interests and corruption on all sides are told in multiple parallel story lines in this complex, disturbing drama. This is the first movie which I have watched with both the subtitles and the closed captions turned on at the same time. It works quite well as many times characters are speaking in Arabic or Urdu, and the subtitles provide translation. The many story lines are a little hard to follow at first, but ultimately they do gel. Clooney won an Oscar for Supporting Actor for his role. This is a very good, but very demanding film. Grade: B+