Body of Lies
Director: Ridley Scott
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 1.5
Anti-CIA movie with CIA advisors and Langley's permission: you just have to love the marriage between Hollywood and Washington (for further reading, be sure to take a peek at the piece in the Guardian by Matthew Alford and Robbie Graham, dated Nov. 14, 2008 … or even Bob Baer's statements). On-the-ground operative (an out-of-place Leonardo DiCaprio) has instructions sent to him by pudgy, somewhat goofy boss in Washington (Russell Crowe) about how to handle the search for an elusive Osama Bin Laden-esque figure - it turns out Crowe gives him bad guidance (read: "American hubris") and sabotages DiCaprio's 'good intentions' (read: "American democracy"). Dialogue is iffy and leans towards the preachy side, which I find odd since William Monahan's script for The Departed was outstanding - the confrontational scene between the Good Operative and the Bad Terrorist is particularly terrible ("The light is on you, motherfucker!").
