Someone could probably very easily make some kind of Orientalist reading of this movie. Actually, probably a lot of them. Like, how there's supposed to be this contrast between the way American intelligence operates and the way Oriental intelligence operates, where the Jordanian intelligence is controlled by one man, a guy who's almost a prince or royalty for all practical purposes, whereas American intelligence is run by normal guys, who have to run their whole thing literally while unpacking their kids from the mini-van for a soccer game. I think in the movie that whole "normal family" thing was supposed to highlight how this is all just a job for the Americans, their essentially employees or something... And I think, in some kind of vague sense, therefore "democratic," like how we are. Except, of course, Leo and Crowe seem to pretty much be doing whatever they want, beholden to nobody. I'm not sure if the movie was aware of that or not. I think not, but I might just not be giving it enough credit.
But, whatever, I don't feel like doing that. It was fun, and really the only thing that had me conflicted is that by using a "real" setting I'm pretty sure somebody thought they were making some kind of noble point. Which is too bad. Cuz that would be a hopelessly idiotic thing to think.
The only real problem, formally, was the end: Why have such an unrealistic ending when you could just as easily have given the audience an ending that was tonally identical but not factually problematic? I mean, you can't just quit being a super-deep spy by saying, "I quit" and then going to buy some at an outdoor market. Leo could have just as easily talked about quitting, and, like, meant it (Acting!) and everything, and done it all for the hot Jordanian nurse lady, and it would've been just as satisfying. Whatever.
No comments:
Post a Comment