{"id":1368,"date":"2009-01-06T23:40:27","date_gmt":"2009-01-07T04:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=1368"},"modified":"2022-09-19T11:02:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T15:02:35","slug":"ridley-scott-body-of-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-body-of-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"A Clash of Faiths: Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ridley Scott’s follow up to the gentle comedy of A Good Year<\/em><\/a> and the crime drama American Gangster<\/em> (partly modeled, I think, on Michael Mann’s epic Heat<\/em>), returns to the politically-themed yet still action-oriented territory he first visited in Black Hawk Down<\/em>. The key difference here is that, like Peter Weir’s The Kingdom<\/em> and Pete Travis’ Vantage Point<\/em><\/a>, Body of Lies<\/em> is set in a fantasyland safely divorced from the very, very real events that inspired Black Hawk Down<\/em>. All of these films have the air of gritty realism, but still indulge in the wish fulfillment of a very cinematic war on terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body of Lies<\/em> can be seen as completing a kind of Middle East trilogy for Scott, after the aforementioned Black Hawk Down<\/em> plus the Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven<\/em><\/a>. Screenwriter William Monahan wrote both Kingdom of Heaven<\/em> and Body of Lies<\/em> (adapted from the novel by David Ignatius). But of the three, the latter is clearly the least serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Russell
Mesopotamia, and step on it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No doubt movie studio executives have calculated down to the last cent that world audiences are still too sensitive to actual terrorist attacks like London and Madrid in order to buy tickets for dramatic recreations on the big screen. Instead, most mainstream terrorism-themed movies are basically entertainments that only have the feel<\/em> of serious import, and none of the substance. Body of Lies<\/em> invents analogous terrorist attacks such as a sleeper cell blowing up their own London flat, and later, the bombing of a U.S. marine base in Turkey (I hope O’Neal – Demi Moore – from Scott’s G.I. Jane<\/em><\/a> wasn’t stationed there). Vantage Point<\/em> is a little more creative in imagining a worst-case-scenario of a presidential assassination, but has no interest in the repercussions beyond a Rashomon-like recounting of the immediate aftermath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So audiences get films like this, where shadowy CIA operatives sneak around Iraq and Jordan, saving the world from Islamic fundamentalism. They have seemingly limitless resources but no government oversight, and anything is possible with a little computer hacking. Meanwhile, more serious and realistic movies are ignored, like In the Valley of Elah<\/em><\/a> and the truly excellent but emotionally devastating United 93<\/em>. In comparison, Scott’s Black Hawk Down<\/em> was unafraid to recreate actual events still raw in the American public’s memory: the catastrophic marine incursion into Somalia in 1993. And even to limit the scope to Scott’s own oeuvre, Kingdom of Heaven<\/em> is a much smarter consideration of the clash of faiths in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leonardo
Leo meets cute with an Iranian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Body of Lies<\/em> is Russell Crowe’s fourth film with Scott, following Gladiator<\/em>, A Good Year<\/em>, and American Gangster<\/em>. Here, he packs on some serious poundage to enter the same schlubby mode he debuted in Michael Mann’s The Insider<\/em>, seasoned with a little of the crass bastard he played in A Good Year<\/em>. Leonardo DiCaprio, on temporary loan from Martin Scorsese, sports a scrappy beard but still looks like a teenager. The pretty boy is constantly getting beaten up, cut, bruised, and losing fingers. But he meets cute with pretty Iranian nurse Aisah (Golshifteh Farahani), so that’s alright, then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ridley Scott’s follow up to the gentle comedy of A Good Year and the crime drama American Gangster (partly modeled, I think, on Michael Mann’s epic Heat), returns to the politically-themed yet still action-oriented territory he first visited in Black Hawk Down. The key difference here is that, like Peter Weir’s The Kingdom and Pete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[1516,35,1479,174,65,1481,66,36,61,67,44,1480],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-stars","category-movies","tag-1516","tag-action","tag-golshifteh-farahani","tag-iran","tag-leonardo-dicaprio","tag-london","tag-middle-east","tag-ridley-scott","tag-russell-crowe","tag-terrorism","tag-thriller","tag-turkey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/body-of-lies-feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-m4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1330,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-someone-to-watch-over-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":0},"title":"Material Witness: Ridley Scott’s Someone to Watch Over Me","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me (1987) is more of a drama than a police thriller, refreshingly focused on its characters over suspense and action alone. Mike Keegan (Tom Berenger) is a salt-of-the-earth Queens detective assigned to protect material witness Claire (Mimi Rogers) from assassination. Keegan is a modest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/someone-to-watch-over-me-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/someone-to-watch-over-me-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/someone-to-watch-over-me-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/someone-to-watch-over-me-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/someone-to-watch-over-me-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5763,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-and-cormac-mccarthy-make-an-odd-couple-in-the-counselor\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":1},"title":"Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy make an odd couple in The Counselor","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott were bound to be an odd couple in any case. All the richly composed and poetic dialogue in the world doesn't disguise the fact The Counselor is basically a grimy, scuzzy, sleazy, feel-bad potboiler. There is an element of pulp to several of McCarthy's novels,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz in The Counselor","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1335,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-black-rain\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":2},"title":"Michael Douglas vs. the yakuza in Ridley Scott’s Black Rain","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Ridley Scott's police thriller Black Rain (1989) opens in New York City at a time when The Meatpacking District actually was a meatpacking district. Tough cop Nick (Michael Douglas) is a ridiculously aggressive, foul-mouthed tough guy who tools around the city astride his crotch rocket. The despised Internal Affairs department\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/black-rain-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/black-rain-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/black-rain-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/black-rain-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/black-rain-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1342,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-white-squall\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":3},"title":"Jeff Bridges battles the elements in Ridley Scott’s White Squall","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"By 1996, Ridley Scott had worked in almost every typical feature film genre: most notably historical drama (The Duellists, 1492), science fiction (Alien, Blade Runner), and police thrillers (Someone to Watch Over Me, Black Rain). But White Squall straddles several genres, sometimes all at once: coming-of-age melodrama, adventure, courtroom drama,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White Squall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/white-squall-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/white-squall-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/white-squall-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/white-squall-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/white-squall-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1355,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-kingdom-of-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":4},"title":"Repent Later: Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Ridley Scott's video introduction to the Director's Cut edition of Kingdom of Heaven claims it is more than a merely extended version of the film. The Director's Cut represents his intentions, and is \"the best version\" of the film. The most significant restoration he singles out is a subplot involving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kingdom of Heaven onesheet image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Kingdom-Of-Heaven.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Kingdom-Of-Heaven.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Kingdom-Of-Heaven.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Kingdom-Of-Heaven.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Kingdom-Of-Heaven.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1325,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-legend\/","url_meta":{"origin":1368,"position":5},"title":"Girls and Their Unicorns: Ridley Scott’s Legend","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"November 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Ridley Scott's 1986 fantasy experiment Legend features a very young Tom Cruise (before he was \"Tom Cruise\"), costarring opposite vats upon vats of glitter. Cruise's performance is bizarre and high-pitched, composed of crouched poses and unfocused stares. But to be fair, how else would any actor portray an uncivilized wild-child\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1 Star"","block_context":{"text":"1 Star","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/1-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ridley Scott's Legend","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/legend-ridley-scott-unicorn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/legend-ridley-scott-unicorn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/legend-ridley-scott-unicorn.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/legend-ridley-scott-unicorn.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/legend-ridley-scott-unicorn.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5931,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions\/5931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}