Syriana - What is the Price of Oil?

So I have been anticipating this film coming out for quite awhile, and that's saying a lot for me personally because I've been generally dissapointed with what Hollywood has been dishing out these days. I saw it the day after it came out, only because I was stranded in a snowstorm in Boston, and I have to say it's one of the most important films made in quite awhile. I can't say I loved it - although the acting was very good and liked the interwoven plots and directing style...I can't say I understood it all - as I had to ask my boyfriend, who was a history major, to explain quite a few parts to me, BUT I can say that it was an important movie because it really gives people a reality check as to price our society is paying for oil and gives us a preview of the price we'll be willing to pay in the future.

Before watching the movie, I watched a special on A&E called Movie Real: Syriana, where the director, actors, and experts discuss the issues that movie is trying to address. I think that this special should have been a required pre-requisite before seeing the film because I'm skeptical that the average American would walk away from the movie, and come anywhere close to "getting it." I wouldn't have understand the reference to "elephant" fields, without reading some recent articles. I also wouldn't have understood some of the geographical location references and so on and so forth. My friend in Hawaii actually said that a few people left during the middle of the movie, and it's not a bad film, I can only assume it went over their heads, which is unfortunate. (Nobody in my San Francisco movie theatre walked out...score!)

Anyways, in the A&E Special Clooney says his main point of the film was to get people talking about the issues the film explored and to start asking the tougher questions. I guess I would have preferred a movie that met the American people where the currently at, only because the movie would have appealed to a wider audience, but then again maybe the responsibility is on the American people proactively obtain this type of information on their own. Proactiveness? In America? Imagine that.

I was happy to see the link on Warner Brothers' Syriana website, launching a campain to reduce or dependence on oil. Here's the basic campaign spiel:

Our dependence on oil is bad news for our environment, economy, and national security, and it creates dangerous flashpoints in politically unstable regions around the globe. We already have the technology to start fixing the problem today with hybrid cars and renewable energies. These solutions reduce our oil demand, save money, and create new high-tech business opportunities. The energy decisions you make every day can have an impact.