By Linda Winsh-Bolard
Body of Lies brings together Russell Crowe and Scott Ridley for forth time, and is the second cooperation between Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
Russell Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, Washington based CIA executive, whose main interest is terrorism. DiCaprio is Ferris, an operative in the Middle East region, a foot soldier, however good, to Hoffman’s supervision.
The operation is broad, unspecified, geared to capturing any terrorists. The latest object is the elusive Al-Saleem (very good Alon Aboutboul). The fights are brutal, callous and often badly managed. People die, people are tortured, and nothing ever changes.
Ferris appears as the astonishing lone warrior, who thinks out a plot to create a non-existing new terrorist organization to lure Al-Saleem out. He executes most of the plan by himself, in at least three countries, and survives blasts, torture and unspeakable things done to him and to his cooperatives. Ferris is growing doubtful about sending men to die. It rings false, because man of his skills would have been killing for a long time, with full understanding how small are his own chances to survive. Ed Hoffman is the scheming handler with eyes on the director’s chair. Flabby in body (Crowe gained 50 pounds for the part) and morals, he fully believes that enough technology must defeat the “barbarians”. Mark Strong plays Hani Salaam, head of Jordanian intelligence. Unlike his American counter partners, he is soft spoken, poker faced, unmoved by their demands as well as their threats and very efficient. Mark Strong had executed the role wonderfully. Equally enchanting is Simon McBurney as Garland, the computer expert, who makes wonders to happen with the help of glass of red wine and a good strawberry.
To move the plot forward, a pretty Iranian nurse joins the story. Aisha’s apparent kidnapping makes Ferris to give himself up in order to save her life (yes, I am aware that in real life the CIA would not fall this).
It has all the rights elements of a political thriller: plenty of hard language, bodies, blood and shootings, fast moving vehicles and running people, blasts and falling buildings, some smart subplots and very decent acting.
It portrays the Americans as arrogant, insolent, indifferent to anything but their own interests, whose personal selfishness far outweighs the supposed good of any country, employing huge man power, and amazing technology, but lacking any understanding of their opponents so profoundly that they are losing the war while winning single battles. It all sounds true.
Technology deserves a special mention: the satellite in action is something to watch, as is a man so possessed by trappings of power, that his phone never leaves him, even when he is with his kids. The satellite imagines are mimicking weapons used by Charlie Company in Battle of Sadr City, Iraq. An unmanned plane, called Shadow, would pinpoint the terrorist activities, show them on screen, and then Shadow would follow the terrorists, sometimes for long periods of time, before Predator, another plane, would strike and destroy the chosen target.
The opponents, film’s terrorists, use the same techniques as they did centuries ago - human contact, knowledge of their surroundings and a promise of better future. It keeps them often invisible. Watching it all play out, lies and deceits included, on a big screen, I thought that nothing has changed since Kit Carson rode to exterminate the Apache. Nothing but the technology of destruction: cars instead of horses, satellite rather than mirrors. Nevertheless, the premise is the same, as is the execution.
That is where the film fails: it is unable to pass on a message that people of other cultures might have very different priorities and desires, and find noting appealing in what is being forced on them. They fight because they believe they have to. The callous indifference to human life, as shown by Hoffman’s character, a stand in for a faceless power, extends to all humans, regardless their nationality, faith or gender. But we don’t quite get the taste of it.
Since the conflicts remain external, the film is shallow, human interaction is detached, cold, and does not cross over to touch us. We simply do not care that much what happens to anybody. As Hoffman says: there are no innocents here.
It is also rather predictable, and when it all came together, I was bored. I knew I should not have been, this is large production, plenty of special effects, stardom at every corner, yet I was bored. An action film cannot commit a worse sin than being boring.
Roger Ferris Leonardo DiCaprio
Ed Hoffman Russell Crowe
Hani Mark Strong
Aisha Golshifteh Farahani
Bassam Oscar Isaac
Garland Simon McBurney
Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Ridley Scott. Written by William Monahan, based on the novel by David Ignatius. Camera: Alexander Witt, Editing: Pietro Scalia,
