---
title: "Syriana"
year: 2005
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/syriana"
fi1m_id: "syriana"
imdb_id: "tt0365737"
tmdb_id: 231
wikidata_id: "Q687040"
fi1m_score: 72
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 11
published: "2026-10-10T18:57:41.797578+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-10T18:57:42.343519+00:00"
region: "SA"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Syriana (2005)

Directed by Stephen Gaghan · 2h 08m · Drama, Thriller

## Identity

Syriana

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/syriana
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** syriana
- **IMDb ID:** tt0365737
- **TMDB ID:** 231
- **Wikidata ID:** Q687040
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365737/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/231, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q687040

**Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 73 from 11 reviews

*In a sentence:* Clooney grows a beard, puts on weight and still cannot work out who he is working for

> Stephen Gaghan’s film about the oil trade is cold, dense and deliberately hard to follow, and the difficulty is most of the point. It rewards patience with a chill we have not shaken, and at its weakest it is a lecture.

## Synopsis

Bob Barnes (George Clooney) is a CIA officer who has spent his working life in the Middle East. Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), an energy analyst, lives with his wife Julie (Amanda Peet) and is drawn into the circle of Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig), heir to a Gulf emirate. In Washington, lawyer Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is put to work by Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) on business that touches the oilman Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper). In the Gulf, Mohammed Sheik Agiza (Amr Waked) is a cleric with a following among young men. The film moves between Washington and the Gulf without captions or a map, and it holds all of its strands to the promise of its tagline: everything is connected.

## Review

Stephen Gaghan wrote [*Traffic*](https://film.one/film/traffic) (2000), which followed the drug trade through several stories at once. Here he directs his own script and does the same for oil, across four stories and a good deal more map. A CIA officer, an energy analyst, a Washington lawyer and two young men in the Gulf are all, we are promised, connected. *Syriana* is a cold, dense, grown-up 128 minutes that will not hold your hand, and for most of its length it earns the effort it asks for. Where it fails, it fails by explaining too much, not too little.

Robert Elswit gives a Washington law office and a desert road the same slightly dusty look, and nobody is lit like a hero. Dan Weil gives the money its own colour, a hushed beige that runs through hotel suites, legal chambers and the prince’s tent. Louise Frogley puts Barnes in a jacket that looks slept in and Holiday in a suit that does not. Tim Squyres cuts between the strands with no captions and no map, and he will leave a scene a line before it reaches its point. For the first forty minutes that felt like rudeness. By the end it felt like trust.

Clooney, heavier and bearded, plays Barnes as a man who has been lied to by his own side for so long that he no longer bothers to be hurt by it; he murmurs, he waits, he does the job. Jeffrey Wright’s Holiday watches everyone and gives nothing away, and the film’s best scenes are the ones where he sits in a room full of louder men and works out which of them is for sale. Chris Cooper’s Jimmy Pope is a Texan who has never been told no. Christopher Plummer’s Dean Whiting is the man who tells people no on his behalf, pleasantly. Alexander Siddig gives Prince Nasir a tired decency, a reformer who knows exactly how his plans will be received in Washington and makes them anyway.

Woodman’s strand is the weak one. Matt Damon has to carry both a family’s grief and a seminar on Gulf economics, and the script keeps choosing the seminar. Amanda Peet is allowed to be angry twice and is then sent home; the film’s women are wives, and not for long. Elsewhere Gaghan has people explain the oil business to each other for our benefit, and one speech by a Washington lobbyist on why corruption is good for America sounds like it was written down first and performed second. The film is proudest of its ideas at exactly the moments it stops showing them.

We were lost early, and slightly resentful about it. Then a scene we will not describe, beyond saying that it takes place in a bare room and concerns Barnes, had us watching through our fingers; Gaghan holds on it longer than a thriller would, and Clooney barely acts it, he sits and takes it. And the two young men’s story, told almost without dialogue in a canteen, a dormitory and a classroom, became the one we cared about, because it is the only strand in which nobody explains anything. It is the one we carried out of the cinema.

Alexandre Desplat’s score is mostly held back, a few string figures and a low pulse that surface between scenes and then go, and it is the most tactful thing in the film. William Hurt turns up as Stan to deliver bad news in two short scenes, and does more with a shrug than Woodman’s plot manages in half an hour.

The paranoid thrillers of the 1970s gave their hero a conspiracy to uncover and a last reel in which to uncover it. Gaghan’s people never get that reel. Nobody in *Syriana* finds out; they discover they were already part of it, which is a bleaker joke and the film’s real subject. Most critics have called it demanding and most have liked it, and we are with them, with a caveat. Watch it alert and in one sitting, with nobody talking, and accept that you will not be able to say afterwards exactly who did what to whom. That is not a failure of attention. It carries a 15 and runs 128 minutes, and it wants all of them.

*Fi1m score 72, published 10 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come down in favour, and none against. The praise clusters on ambition: Gaghan takes several apparently unconnected stories and knits them into a single picture of the global oil trade, and the reviews admire the richness of its detail and the plainness of its settings. The ensemble is widely liked, with George Clooney’s quiet turn as Bob Barnes singled out more than once, and a few critics note that the film gathers real momentum once the strands begin to converge.

Almost every review, warm or cool, calls the film confusing. The favourable ones treat that as the design: a thriller meant to be as hard to follow as the business it describes. The cooler ones, Slant Magazine and The Guardian among them, find it overstuffed and hard to care about, and settle on a mixed verdict. The spread is narrow; the disagreement is only over whether the difficulty is earned.

## Straight answers

**Is Syriana worth watching?**

*Syriana* is worth watching for anyone prepared to sit alert through a cold, dense 128 minutes about the oil trade, and we scored it 72. It will not tell you who is working for whom, and that is the point; the weak strand is Matt Damon's, where the script keeps stopping for a seminar. Watch it in one sitting with nobody talking.

**How long is Syriana, and what is it rated?**

*Syriana* runs 2h 08m. It is a drama and thriller film.

**Where can I watch Syriana in Saudi Arabia?**

*Syriana* is not on any streaming or rental service in Saudi Arabia at the moment. It is available in 31 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Syriana, and is it suitable for children?**

*Syriana* carries a 15 in the UK and is not for children, but the certificate reflects adult subject matter and one hard scene rather than sustained violence. That scene, in a bare room and concerning Clooney's CIA officer, is held longer than a thriller would and had us watching through our fingers. The rest is talk, and difficult talk, which is its own barrier for younger viewers.

**How does Syriana compare to Traffic?**

*Syriana* is the colder and harder of the two, and [*Traffic*](https://film.one/film/traffic) is the better thriller. Both are Stephen Gaghan scripts following a trade through several stories at once, but Soderbergh keeps *Traffic* moving and gives it a clearer line through the maze, while Gaghan directs *Syriana* to leave you lost on purpose. Start with *Traffic* if you want momentum; choose *Syriana* if you want the chill.

**What should I watch after Syriana?**

After *Syriana*, try [*Traffic*](https://film.one/film/traffic) (2000, Fi1m 82): Gaghan’s earlier script, drugs instead of oil, with a clearer line through the maze. Then [*Z*](https://film.one/film/z) (1969, Fi1m 84): Costa-Gavras follows a political murder through a state that would rather it went away; and [*The Constant Gardener*](https://film.one/film/the-constant-gardener) (2005, Fi1m 82): A widower follows his wife’s work into the drug trade in Kenya; angrier, warmer.

### Reviews we read (11)

- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3.5/4): Ebert regarded the film as an ambitious, complicated political thriller. He singled out its tangled storytelling as a challenge to follow. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/syriana-2005)
- **Empire**, Colin Kennedy (4/5): Kennedy finds the film demanding and sometimes confusing, but ultimately absorbing and required viewing. He praises its tightening, converging storylines and irresistible momentum in the final act. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/syriana-review/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (80/100, inferred): Turan calls the film fearless, ambitious and entertaining, though deliberately confusing. He praises how its obfuscating storytelling draws viewers into the world of oil politics and conspiracy. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-23-et-syriana23-story.html)
- **Radio Times**, Adam Smith (4/5): The review presents the film as an ambitious, intricate political thriller, though its deliberate complexity may frustrate some viewers. It praises how Gaghan weaves seemingly disconnected stories into a portrait of corruption in the global oil industry. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-8q8upv/syriana/)
- **Total Film**, Total Film (4/5): The review calls Syriana a demanding, exhilarating thriller and one of the year's finest films. It praises the ensemble performances and the film's quiet, emotionally affecting moments. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/syriana-review/)
- **Time Out**, Trevor Johnston (78/100, inferred): The review presents the film as a startlingly ambitious geopolitical fresco. It highlights Gaghan’s shift from the war on drugs in Traffic to geopolitics. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/syriana-1)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (75/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film weighty, intriguing, and politically substantive, though sometimes confusing. He praises its immense richness of detail and credible, naturalistic settings. [Read](https://variety.com/2005/film/awards/syriana-2-1200520184/)
- **Screen Daily**, John Hazelton (64/100, inferred): The accessible page identifies this as a review, but its critical verdict is behind the paywall. The review’s specific praise or complaint is not visible in the supplied text. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/syriana/4025246.article)
- **Slant Magazine**, Jeremiah Kipp (2/4): Kipp finds the film overstuffed and confusing despite its important subject matter and ambition. He praises the ensemble performances, particularly George Clooney’s quietly assured portrayal of Bob Barnes. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/syriana/)
- **The Guardian**, Rob Mackie (50/100, inferred): The review presents the film as a dense, difficult-to-follow thriller, with a mixed overall verdict. It praises the realism of the torture scene involving George Clooney. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/jul/14/dvdreviews.drama1)
- **Eye for Film**, Chris (85/100, inferred): The critic finds it a breathtaking, harrowing thriller that raises difficult questions without taking sides. They praise its meticulous research and its ability to connect many perspectives on the global oil trade. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/syriana-film-review-by-chris)

## Details

- **Director:** Stephen Gaghan
- **Director:** Stephen Gaghan
- **Writer:** Stephen Gaghan
- **Cinematography:** Robert Elswit
- **Editor:** Tim Squyres
- **Music:** Alexandre Desplat
- **Production design:** Dan Weil
- **Costume design:** Louise Frogley
- **Producer:** Michael Nozik, Georgia Kacandes, Jennifer Fox
- **Cast:** George Clooney as Bob Barnes; Matt Damon as Bryan Woodman; Jeffrey Wright as Bennett Holiday; Chris Cooper as Jimmy Pope; Amanda Peet as Julie Woodman; William Hurt as Stan; Christopher Plummer as Dean Whiting; Alexander Siddig as Prince Nasir Al-Subaai
- **Runtime:** 2h 08m
- **First release (the US):** 23 November 2005
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller
- **Budget:** $50 million
- **Box office:** $94 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRSdGIOzSO0

## Where to watch in Saudi Arabia

Not streaming, renting or buying in Saudi Arabia at the last check.

Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IT, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, SE, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2006: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (won)

## If you liked this

- *Traffic* (2000), Fi1m 82: Gaghan’s earlier script, drugs instead of oil, with a clearer line through the maze — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/traffic.md)
- *Z* (1969), Fi1m 84: Costa-Gavras follows a political murder through a state that would rather it went away — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/z.md)
- *The Constant Gardener* (2005), Fi1m 82: A widower follows his wife’s work into the drug trade in Kenya; angrier, warmer — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-constant-gardener.md)
- *Michael Clayton* (2007), Fi1m 86: Clooney again, as a law firm’s fixer who finally reads the file — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/michael-clayton.md)
- *A Most Wanted Man* (2014): Hoffman’s last lead, a Hamburg spy whose patience is his method and his undoing

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/syriana