Syriana (HD DVD)
The running time is 2 hrs. 6 mins..
I finally think I am able to make a coherent commentary on Warner Bros. DVD and HD DVD release Syriana. This is a film that I did not wholly grasp when I saw it in the theater. I knew I liked it, I just didn't think I caught everything it had to offer and there were a few plot points that I think I missed along the way. Now, after watching it about six times since I received both the DVD and HD DVD versions I am finally satisfied.
Syriana plays like the first half of a Tom Clancy novel. You are introduced to a myriad of characters and taken all over the globe as the story is laid out. And the story... Well, the story is oil. The film was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, the fellow that penned the Oscar-winning film Traffic. To simply describe Syriana, just think of Traffic and replace drugs with oil. Granted this is a simplified notion, but the films are equal in scope and size. Syriana is told on a grand scale as you can one minute be in the streets of Tehran with C.I.A. agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) and then the other you can be in Washington with attorney Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) as he works his way thru a major merger involving two oil companies.
As you would suspect all the characters in the film are unknowingly contributing to the same story, just from different angles. The difference with this movie as opposed to an ensemble piece like Crash is that it is not coincidence driven. Something doesn't happen here and then all of a sudden it has to do with something over here. Syriana has a natural flow to it and it is only in its intricacies that a viewer may get lost in the story, which is what makes it a prime candidate for home video. I knew the minute I saw it that I would not want to watch it in the theater again to get my grasp on the story, home video is where it was at and boy was I right.
At just over two hours long Syriana moves at a relatively brisk pace considering the weight of the subject matter. I mean, we are talking about a film concerning oil here. There aren't any superheroes or happy couples frolicking in the streets of New York. No Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton, this is a down in the trenches political picture and while it deserved its theatrical release, which ultimately earned George Clooney both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance, its real home is on video.
Aside from Clooney's performance, others that will blow you away are Matt Damon and Alexander Siddig, especially in one of the best scenes of 2005 as the two face off in the desert. Jeffrey Wright also lands a powerful performance as he just may be one of our most underrated and lesser known actors, but, oddly enough, one of my favorite performances of the film came from Amanda Peet. Peet plays Damon's wife, the role is a small one, but she carries it off like a real pro. It is a performance I have never seen from Peet and really separates her from the cutesy meaningless roles she has had in the past with such films like The Whole Ten Yards and A Lot Like Love. She shows here that she is prime for big girl roles.
On top of the picture you are going to get only a handful of special features, and if you buy the HD DVD you are going to get a couple extra ones. First to the features shared on both editions.
On both the DVD and the HD DVD you are going to get a few deleted scenes, a conversation with George Clooney featurette and a profile on Gaghan and how he came about writing the film. The deleted scenes do no more than introduce Clooney's character's wife, who is referenced in the film but never seen. The additional scenes work well as deleted scenes, but they weren't necessary for the film and would have probably slowed it down. The two featurettes I mentioned are actually quite good, for a film like this a little insider opinion comes in handy and Clooney has a lot to add as does Gaghan.
The HD DVD exclusive features include a conversation with Matt Damon featurette much like the Clooney one and a 26-minute making-of featurette that follows Gaghan and his team as they move all over the world including Morocco, Geneva, Dubai and oil refineries in the Middle East and directing actors in four different languages. It also continues where the other Gaghan feature left off, but it is more a look at Gaghan's directing style rather than how the film originated.
To compare the HD version and the standard DVD version is pretty much an unfair comparison. The HD DVD version is better on every level from sound to video quality. It may sound like a meaningless thing to mention, but the subtitles on the DVD version look horrible whereas on the HD DVD version they are crisp, clean and clear... far less distracting. Gaghan also has an amazing ability to capture the grit and the grunge in several scenes in this film and yet the gloss does come thru in a variety of scenes. This is truly a great film for the HD format.
The one thing that is crazy to even think of is that the idea for Syriana came when Gaghan was researching Traffic, and while he is researching a film on the drug trade and their power of addiction he asked himself what was the largest addiction Americans have, and instead of drugs or cigarettes he comes up with oil. It might not be the first thing that jumps into your mind when you think of addiction, but it is an involuntary addiction. It is not a necessity in all cases; it is an addiction that feeds our appetite for control and freedom. It is a highly interesting topic, which is why Syriana is such an appealing film.