Wide Angle 16 - Body of Lies

Anyway, today’s Wide Angle is right off the frying pan. Saw this fantastic movie yesterday called “Body of Lies”. It is directed by Ridley Scott (American Gangster fame) and has a strong star cast of Leonardo Decaprio (another sizzling role – no limits to what he can do) and Russell Crowe (simply outstanding in this role). The movie is primarily about spies and the games they play and is set in the modern context of terrorism and the associated geo politics. The setup is the Middle East and it almost completely plays out there with very real characterizations and locales. I really enjoyed this movie which is about 2 and half hours long and I am assuming this would be available on DVDs everywhere because it was released in 2008. Let us look at the movie now.
The central character in the movie is CIA agent Roger Ferris (Leonardo) who is fluent in Arabic and other mid eastern languages. He is a very daring and tough agent who relies more on human intelligence in the field and also in developing strong relationships. The other character in this movie is Ferris’s handler and veteran agent Ed Hoffmann (brilliant depiction by Russell Crowe). He is a more cerebral spy using gizmos, tactics and technology to control and maneuver his way in the spy world. There is constant cooperation and tussle between these two regarding handling of operations and resources. The third character in this movie who makes an impression is the head of Jordanian Intelligence Hani Salaam.
The movie begins with a bomb blast in Manchester, UK where some terrorists blow themselves up during a police raid on them. The thread leads back to a very powerful terrorist chief called Al-Saleem who inspires and manages terrorists in the West. Hoffmann and Ferris are both chasing Al-Saleem. The terrorists have shun all modern forms of communication by not using cell phones, mail etc.. They only communicate via verbal exchanges and manually exchanging CDs etc. Ferris raids a safe house in Iraq of Saleem’s group and retrieves some CDs. These show that the terrorists are holed up in a safe house in a busy marketplace in Amman, Jordan. Hoffmann directs Ferris to go to Amman and take up the Intelligence operations there.
Ferris takes over the operations of the Amman unit by chucking out the ineffectual chief there and starts his play. He gets in touch with Hani Salaam and establishes a link with him asking him to provide surveillance through his agents around the safe house. Hani is a very strong and effective intelligence chief and has tight control over everything that goes on in his country. He tells off Hoffmann in one scene when Hoffmann says he will have to speak to the King of Jordan (it is a monarchy) and Hani says “In the matters of intelligence, I am the King in Jordan”. Hani agrees to help Ferris in return for his word that he will not lie to Hani ever.
Ferris has the operation of surveillance going when suddenly Hoffmann sends his man and the operation is about to get busted. Ferris gets bitten by dogs in this process and has to go to hospital for rabies injections. There he meets a local nurse and falls for her. He starts seeing her and develops a romantic relation with her (all without touching her since this is the Middle East). The exchanges between them are very delicate but loaded with meaning for e.g. Ferris asks her for a date this way ,”How would you like to have a conversation with me outside of this hospital?”. Later on, she tells him that he should meet her sister so that they can continue conversations with her approval. The sister is unhappy with American policy and openly taunts him on that. After the lunch, they both go down and he extends his hand for shaking with her but she says no because the entire neighborhood is watching.
Back to the main narrative, Hani develops an asset in the Saleem group in the safe house in a very ingenious way thus getting an informant. Hoffmann tries to kidnap this guy for information (Americans as always are in a hurry) who escapes and tells the group who then escape the safe house by burning everything. Hani is furious on Ferris and asks him to leave the country in 12 hours. Ferris goes to Langley and confronts Hoffmann and abuses him a lot. He says that Hoffmann is a desk guy and doesn’t know anything about intelligence on ground. He cools down and tells his new plan to Hoffmann. The plan is to stage manage an attack on American forces and show as if it is by another powerful terrorist group. This would prompt Saleem to break radio silence and come out. Using ingenuity and technology, the CIA manage to frame a Jordanian architect called Omar Sadiqui and show as if he is heading a terrorist group.
An attack on American forces is stage managed in Turkey and on the net, Sadiqui is shown as taking the credit. Sadiqui is bombarded with congratulatory messages and even Al-Saleem calls him. The CIA is a step closer to Al-Saleem. In the meanwhile, the terrorists kidnap Sadiqui and get it out from him that Ferris had met him etc. Ferris is now in trouble and to get to him, the terrorists kidnap the nurse and her family. Ferris is asked to travel in a van across the Syrian border into the desert. The Americans are watching all this via satellite with Hoffmann watching over. Three vans come to fetch Ferris and they raise a cloud of dust around Ferris. He is then put in a van and the three vans go in opposite directions when they come out from under the cloud. Hoffmann cannot make out which one to follow – goes to show how human intelligence can beat technology.
Finally, Ferris is tortured by Saleem and his men and just when he is about to be killed, Hani and his soldiers burst in and kill all terrorists and arrest Saleem. Ferris is fed up with the games and leaves the CIA and settles down in the Middle East.
The movie has excellent characterizations – Ferris I already described, Hoffmann is excellent as a Machiavellian spymaster. He is a potbellied slouch with spectacles and speaks from below the rim of his specs. He wears a sweater and has a family with wife and two kids. He mostly speaks on hands-free phone and devises devious plans and gives cold blooded murderous directions while doing the simplest tasks like dropping his daughter to school, watching her soccer game, taking his son to the bathroom etc. He is always unruffled and a touch arrogant because of his power as an American spymaster.
The second powerful and interesting character is Hani – he exudes authority and fear. Always dressed in immaculate suits, handsome and tall with piercing eyes, he is a man in absolute control. He is the embodiment of Eastern values where trust, friendship etc. play a role in every transaction and which is what Ferris has come to know and respect but Hoffmann with his very Western sensibilities does not care about.
There is not much I learnt from the movie except that spy games are very complex and no country is right or wrong in what they do. Generally, in International relations, it is not friends or enemies that count but self interest i.e. your country’s interests that should matter. For example, an American Secretary of State said this about their Foreign Policy “United States has 5% of the world’s population and has access to 50% of the World’s resources, and our policy should be to keep it that way”. This is what Great Powers do, we have a long way to go before we reach that level but slowly we seem to be getting there. Go and watch this movie when you get a chance, nice thriller and some very good acting.