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Syriana

Play trailer Poster for Syriana R Released Dec 9, 2005 2h 8m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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72% Tomatometer 196 Reviews 67% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is an American lawyer in charge of facilitating a dubious merger of oil companies, while Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), a Switzerland-based energy analyst, experiences both personal tragedy and opportunity during a visit with Arabian royalty. Meanwhile, veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) uncovers an assassination plot with unsettling origins.
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Syriana

Syriana

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Critics Consensus

Ambitious, complicated, intellectual, and demanding of its audience, Syriana is both a gripping geopolitical thriller and wake-up call to the complacent.

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Critics Reviews

View All (196) Critics Reviews
Zadie Smith Daily Telegraph (UK) Syriana is an American movie that reaches out beyond itself. Watching it made me feel hopeful -- a rare sensation in a cinema. Jan 17, 2018 Full Review Victoria Segal New Statesman ... If you can avoid getting too hung up on the details, Syriana is a brave attempt to blitz the goody-baddy dynamics of cold-war film-making and concentrate on the ambiguities of modern geopolitics. Sep 26, 2017 Full Review J. R. Jones Chicago Reader This is intelligent, committed, and politically provocative, though its narrative puzzle box may prompt you to throw up your hands and let ExxonMobil go on running the world. Mar 30, 2009 Full Review Michael Clark Epoch Times This movie is certainly not for all, or even most tastes. If you prefer something light, breezy, and uncomplicated, don’t even waste your time. It gets up in your face and under your skin and grows only more confrontational and damning as it progresses. Rated: 5/5 May 13, 2022 Full Review Micheal Compton Bowling Green Daily News A complex thriller that challenges its audience with a fascinating story woven among several plot threads. Rated: A Nov 19, 2019 Full Review PJ Nabarro Patrick Nabarro I'm hard-pushed to think of a more cynical and self-critical American picture, and one that so radically and empathetically portrays the genesis of Islamic suicide bombers. Rated: 3/5 Dec 16, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (1000+) audience reviews
Faiz D Syriana is a powerful, complex movie that's well acted. It is not for everyone as it requires the audience to be extremely attentive, and may even require multiple viewings to be able to fully understand it. It is about "the degree to which governments and corporate conglomerates place the ambition to control the world's oil supply above the well being of their citizens and employees. In this game, there are only bad guys, and what separates the villains from the protagonists is not a question of who's good and who's bad, but rather how bad each is willing to be." Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/13/25 Full Review Philip J. M Don't sleep on this incredible movie, a real and devastating invitation into understanding empire. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/25/25 Full Review Kal S A remote control and a really switched on friend will be your biggest assets when watching this film, so you can keep pausing to ask, ‘Sorry, who is that guy again, and what did he just say? And what country are we in now?’ There’s a good film in there somewhere which will challenge your beliefs about the good guys and the bad guys—what a shame it got lost in its own cleverness. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/20/24 Full Review David H I enjoyed the film, but I found it a little hard to follow in places. Traffic was a better film. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/14/23 Full Review Jona I Dizzying, which is some of the point. But there's still a difference between being effective and just plain ol' losing your audience in the maze of your own self-importance. A good performance from Clooney, but Oscar-winning???? .....Hmm. Methinks, they just wanted to honor him somehow for stepping up his game in the industry with all his directing and producing. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 08/25/23 Full Review Gareth v An intellectual, though provoking film that revoles around three interwoven stories on the murky waters of geo-politics. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 06/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Syriana

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Cast & Crew

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Stephen Gaghan

Director

George Clooney

Robert Baer

Matt Damon

Bryan Woodman

Jeffrey Wright

Bennett Holiday

Amanda Peet

Julie Woodman

Chris Cooper

Jimmy Pope

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Syriana

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Movie Info

Synopsis The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is an American lawyer in charge of facilitating a dubious merger of oil companies, while Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), a Switzerland-based energy analyst, experiences both personal tragedy and opportunity during a visit with Arabian royalty. Meanwhile, veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) uncovers an assassination plot with unsettling origins.
Director
Stephen Gaghan
Producer
George Clooney, Ben Cosgrove, Jennifer Fox
Screenwriter
Robert Baer, Stephen Gaghan, John Bowker
Distributor
Warner Bros.
Production Co
Warner Brothers
Rating
R (Violence|Language)
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 9, 2005, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Feb 1, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA)
$50.8M
Runtime
2h 8m
Sound Mix
Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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