BOOK/MOVIE REVIEWS
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed." Francis Bacon
Top Films of `05
Reviewed by James M. Wall, Editor
The Christian Century
George Clooney had two films in release in 2005, both of which make my list of the year`s top ten films. The first, Good Night, and Good Luck takes a sharply focused look at a moment when TV journalist Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) exposed the shallowness of Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy`s obsession with communism. (McCarthy plays himself in archival footage). Clooney both directed and scripted the film and also plays a supporting role. He yields the main performance to Strathairn, who speaks in Murrow`s somber, clipped style for a dead-on portrayal. The picture, shot in black and white to evoke the era, captures a time when Murrow was at his professional peak. The film also depicts CBS`s reluctance to support Murrow, and its insistence that in return for his courageous documentary work he conduct celebrity interviews with pop stars like Liberace, an assignment he detested. The film is set primarily in small smoke-filled studios that highlight the toxicity of the era, a not-so-subtle reminder that lung cancer ended Murrow`s career prematurely. Jazz numbers sung by Dianne Reeves relieve the tension, Good Night, and Good Luck is the year`s best film, a tribute to journalism at its finest.
Syriana. The title of this film is never explained, but off-screen interviews reveal that U.S. policy makers informally refer to "Syriana" when they envision re-creating a "greater Syria" in the image of America. Clooney, who co-produced the film (based on Robert Baer`s See No Evil), plays an over-the-hill CIA agent who is betrayed by his superiors. The film parallels Traffic, a film by director-writer Stephen Gaghan about drug addiction. In Syriana, Gaghan uses the same format to highlight another addiction-Americans` addiction to oil-and to suggest that the U.S. motive for the Americanization of the region is control of its oil supply. He is unstinting in the harshness of his vision, most notably illustrated in the CIA-orchestrated murder of an Arab leader who dares to defy the U.S. by trading oil to China. The hostility to Syriana from conservative critics and columnists suggests that Gaghan has struck a nerve in American politics. What is surprising about Gaghan`s portrayal is that none of his Arab characters makes any reference to Israel, a false note in a film that portrays Arab anger at the U.S.
Munich. Fans of Pulp Fiction will recall that just before Samuel L. Jackson`s character kills two men, he quotes several verses from Ezekiel 25. In his book Vengeance, the source for Munich, George Jonas cites the same passage ("and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them"). In the film, a secret Israeli Mosad hit team targets 11 Palestinian leaders in revenge for the deaths of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Israel has never acknowledged its role in the assassinations, and several pro-Israel books written in the 1980s deny the single-hit-team theory. But this did not deter Steven Spielberg, one of Israel`s favorite directors, from risking his pro-Israel credentials with a film critical of revenge as a national strategy. In the film, one Israeli gunman argues that the killings only extend the cycle of violence. The film explores complex political and moral questions so effectively that hard-liners on both sides have denounced it. Israel supporters strongly object to what they see as Spielberg`s "moral equivalency," the suggestion that both sides have their motives and that both sides are wrong in the way they act on those motives. Palestinian supporters say that the arguments on behalf of their longing for a secure homeland are overshadowed by major characters who insist that Israel must do "whatever it takes" for its own security.
The reviews are selected from the author`s article in Copyright 2006 Christian Century. Reprinted by permission from the February 7, 2005, issue of the Christian Century. Subscriptions: $49/yr. From P.O. Box 378, Mt. Morris, IL 61054.
