
I've been wanting to see this movie for the longest time and only recently did I get the chance. All I have to say is WOW! It is a brilliant piece of work mostly because it is based on true experiences. Although the movie was written by the same guy who wrote Traffic, he based most of the movie on a book (See No Evil) which follows the life of a CIA operataive.
The movie begins with George Clooney a CIA agent who is later hired to assasinate a future Arab king. America basically wants this king dead because he gave away the lucrative oil-drilling rights to a Chinese company and refused to do any futher deals with America. While in the middle east George Clooney's character Bob Barnes trades some missles with an acquaintance but becomes horrified to learn that a missle he traded may have fallen into the hands of a terrorist.
The big American corporation who lost the drilling rights to the middle east (Connex) descides to merge with a smaller corporation (Killen) in order to get drilling rights to what can be considered the second best natural oil reserve in Kazakhstan. However American officials must look into this merger before it can be legalized. So Connex hires a lawyer, Bennett Holiday who has the dubious task of finding 'shady' business practices and covering them up before American officials find out about it.
In addition to these two major plotlines a smaller yet thought-provoking story parrallels the movie about a group of young, unemployed Pakistani boys who find there way into radical Islam and later become suicide bombers.
With so many stories and plotlines to follow my favorite part of the movie is a conversation had by Killen CEO Danny Dalton and lawyer Bennett Holiday. Danny Dalton (insert any major CEO's name here) explains his policy towards buisness by stating, "Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm! Corruption is why you and I are prancin' around in here instead of fightin' over scraps of meat out in the street. Corruption is why we win."
I think this might be one of the best films I have ever seen. It is not an easy movie to follow but if you have the time and patience to watch it I highly recomend it.