Body of Lies

So I think this is going to be the second review of the day about a movie that I think probably should have been a television series instead. However, unlike Valerian, I can say I actually really enjoy this movie.

Body of Lies is a film that was released in 2008. I always try and put movies in context of the year they were made if I can and it shouldn't be surprising that this movie came out a year after The Bourne Ultimatum. At the time, that Bourne film was thought to be the last one and Warner Brothers, probably aware of that, wanted to release a gritty war movie like The Hurt Locker that was released earlier that year as well as a spy movie to fill the void some people had from the end of the Bourne trilogy.

Body of Lies follows the story of CIA case officer Roger Ferris (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his mission to track down a terrorist by the name of Al-Saleem (played by Alon Abutbul).

His work with the CIA takes him from Iraq, to Jordan, to Syria, all while receiving support, both good and bad support, from his boss back in the states, Ed Hoffman (played by Russell Crowe). That's the basic overview of the film because the truth is, a lot of stuff happens in this film.

Ferris starts with an intelligence gathering mission in Iraq with his informant played by early Oscar Isaacs, and then he goes to Jordan and works with Jordanian intelligence and their ruthless but cunning leader (played by Mark Strong). Along the way he develops a relationship with a Iranian woman named Aisha (played by Golshifteh Farahani). He develops a deep cover operation to root out this terrorist leader and his group.  It all feels very episodic... which again makes me think that this movie would probably be better as a mini series or a television show.

We have so many television shows being made off of movies that didn't really lend itself to being a television show. Taken is a great example of this where they had to turn it into a prequel to make an episodic format. Body of Lies truly does lend itself to the episodic TV format and I'm kind of surprised nobody has suggested it be made into a television show in the same vein of Homeland.

Hell I would love to even see it star Leonardo DiCaprio but I highly doubt that would happen. On the other hand we have mini series and television shows starring people like Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins so nothing is outside the realm of possibility.

I would love that because everyone in this cast really does a great job creating this gritty and exciting espionage thriller.

A little bit more context on the film, this movie came out in a time where we were in the midst of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This same year Barrack Obama was campaigning on ending the war in Iraq and while there was definitely fatigue and political commentary to be made on the war, Hollywood still couldn't resist making entertaining cinema surrounding the war on terror.

There's a little bit of commentary on the war in Iraq that is up front, but the thing I like more is the contrast between the characters of Ferris and Hoffman. Ferris represents the rational approach to these conflicts and the good intention that I think a lot of people did/do have towards the war on terror, to find and punish those who would go and hurt innocent people. Hoffman on the other hand is very much the flipside of the same coin where he has that same goal, but he's more interested in American interests, seeing the people of the Middle East as inhuman, and launching an American conquest to fight and win this war. The relationship between these two, as well as their collective and individual relationships with Mark Strong's character makes for a really intense and intriguing spy thriller.

But I think the problems with this movie comes in the movie Warner Brothers wanted it to be in the context of 2008.

On one hand Warner Brothers was posing this movie to be an Oscar contender like The Hurt Locker with great performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Mark Strong. It had interesting ideas about our situation in the Middle East, and it was gritty and realistic.

On the other hand it was trying to be the next spy action thriller like The Bourne Ultimatum with the high intensity action and gritty realism that would make you question if this was realistic or not. I just think Ridley Scott got his wires crossed a little bit in the movie he was trying to make.

And I like Ridley Scott. I think he's made some bad movies for sure and those seem to make people diminish his really good movies and overlook his flawed yet still decent films. I think Body of Lies falls into that category. I don't think Body of Lies is Gladiator, The Martian, or Blade Runner good, but it definitely is better than I think people give it and other marginal movies Ridley Scott does enough credit.

There are flaws for sure. The movie is a little disjointed in both its theme and its episodic nature, the romance in the movie seems a little bit forced at times, and it's probably selling you the idea that its realistic when I know for a fact it isn't.

If you want a good example of what this movie could be compared to, think of 13 Hours. 

Both movies have a really interesting international espionage premise that would make for either a really great action movie, or a really real drama. Instead of choosing one or the other, the director decides to go somewhere in the middle to try and achieve both objectives. You definitely see the points where the movie could have been a solid action movie and you definitely see the points where it could have been an Oscar contending war movie. But because it does both trying to succeed in both categories, it kind of fails in both.

Now I think that Ridley Scott got closer to that lofty goal in Body of Lies than Michael Bay did with 13 Hours, which is strange because 13 Hours lends itself more to a gritty war drama because its based on real events as opposed to Body of Lies which is based off of a fiction novel, but it still stands that they're very similar.

Another example of this is the 2018 film 12 Strong.

In my opinion, you have to choose which movie you want to create and what your end goal is before you make it. Accept that if you choose one or the other, you're going to get criticism by people who wanted to be the opposite of what you chose, but that's better than getting criticism from both sides when you don't meet either goal.

But those are my thoughts on Body of Lies. It's on Netflix now so I do recommend you still check it out. But have you seen it? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks and see you next time.