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Syriana vs Good Night And Good Luck

Film // Jim // 2nd April 2006

Typical. You wait ages for a liberal-leaning slice of Ebay funded political cinema involving George Clooney, and then two come along at once.
Having seen both, I can say that they are both worth watching but if you have a life and therefore a little less spare time on your hands than me which of the two is more deserving of your time? Lets put them head-to-head…

Coherence of plot

Politics and oil conspiracy thriller Syriana follows the route of loads of intermingling plot-lines, initially baffling but crystallises nicely towards the end. Mark Kermode has given it a right kicking in this regard, but I enjoyed the welcome hospitality of a load of Carlsberg Export while watching it and was more or less with it at the end.
Good Niight And Good Luck (hereafter known as GNAGL because I am lazy) doesn’t help the viewer out with its documentary feel and requires attention to detail, some knowledge of the whole McCarthy business will help. The book-ending of the movie with a speech by the main protagonist, crusading newsman Edward R Murrow, helps things along nicely
GNAGL: 7 out of 10
Syriana: 5 out of 10

Cast

GNAGL has a great ensemble cast and Straithern is superb as Murrow, however Syriana has all sorts of top notch personnel turning up included the majestic Mark Strong indulging in a spot of Clooney-torturing. Ouch! He won’t be biting his nails for a while.
GNAGL: 8 out of 10
Syriana: 9 out of 10

Gorgeous George Action

Ladies will no doubt enjoy smooth George in GNAGL, especially his sitting under the desk act which will no doubt kick start a few erotic fiction web sites run by women in cardigans who hug their nephews a little too tightly.
Syriana by contrast has Clooney doing the method thing, wearing a beard and some extra poundage, looking, well, old, hairy and fucked to be honest. Good job George, but the ladies ain’t going to like it. Trust me on this one; I’ve done the research.
GNAGL: 6 out of 10
Syriana: 3 out of 10

Clooney: "Smooth", "Fucked"

Music

Can’t remember the music in Syriana at all, had an efficient blandness to it. GNAGL uses the jazzy stylings of the house band to underscore the action to suitably atmospheric effect. Nice.
GNAGL: 7 out of 10
Syriana: 4 out of 10

Style

Syriana is extremely reminiscent of 24 in terms of style, it makes great use of a variety of disparate locations it is quite antiseptic and distant. GNAGL is retro cool in the extreme, plus the black and white photography is magic.
GNAGL: 8 out of 10
Syriana: 5 out of 10

Painfulness of political message

Although I am sure that a certain amount of artistic license has been taken with the story of Murrow vs McCarthy, GNAGL is presented in a factual manner using actual footage as if to say “look, this actually happened”. Also there are internal debates within the news team and with their superiors on the difference between journalism and editorialising for political purpose. Good Stuff.
Syriana, ironically is a touch black and white in contrast, the political message is pretty much hammered home with little ambiguity or subtlety. Not necessarily a bad thing – just that it doesn’t include or invite the kind of discussion inherent in GNAGL.
GNAGL: 8 out of 10
Syriana: 3 out of 10

Smoking

Barely a fag around in Syriana, probably not wise near all that oil I suppose. GNAGL is a tobacconist’s wet dream – everyone is smoking ALL THE FUCKING TIME, I felt bronchitis setting in just watching it, there’s even an advert for cigarettes in the middle of the film. Top marks.
GNAGL: 10 out of 10
Syriana: 3 out of 10

And the winner is...
GNAGL: 54
Syriana: 32

So there you have it, if you are going to watch just one Clooney related movie of a political bent, make it Good Night And Good Luck. Although as I said before both are well worth checking out if you have the time/inclination.

To my mind the big difference between the two films is that Good Night and Good Luck is an optimistic story, while Syriana is deeply, deeply pessimistic. Murrow won a victory against McCarthy and proved that a government can still be held accountable by its citizens when it starts to overstep the mark.
Syriana says this “Look the whole world is essentially corrupt and even if people try to do the right thing were all fucked. Might as well give it all up as a bad job and go and live in a cave in Wales or something”

Good Night And Good Links...

Info on McCarthy and the witch hunts

From the BBC's "On This Day" resource

Review Of Syriana

That Roger Ebert bloke really, really liked it

Negative review of Good Night And Good Luck

Took a bit of finding, but fuck me this bloke really hated it. The on set caterers seem to be the only ones spared his anger.