Snark Sharks

DiCaprio as CIA Agent Roger Ferris

Acclaimed director Ridley Scott recently released Body of Lies, another tense action/drama film that finds Scott doing what he does best; putting a riddled main character in a suspect system where they have to decide what really matters to them. Scott has mastered the technique of sending protagonists through emotional and physical ringers and with Leonardo DiCaprio filling the role of CIA Agent Roger Ferris in Lies the test continues this time in the Middle East where American ideals and Islamic culture clash in a crash of mistrust and duplicity.

Body of Lies follows Ferris from Iraq to Jordan with a brief stopover in Washington D.C. to confront his CIA superior Ed Hoffman, deftly played by Russell Crowe. Ferris is tracking down a notorious terrorist cell and finds himself caught between the covert operations of the CIA and the unorthodox methods of Jordan’s Intelligence chief Hani, a suave and unforgiving character played by Mark Strong.

Crowe & DiCaprio

Ferris is plagued by the usual secret agent blues; becoming too attached to his assignment, trusting suspect people, falling in love with a civilian and getting caught telling white lies to the wrong people for the right reasons. DiCaprio is convincing and focused in the role and continues the storied lineage of Scott’s rogue rebels.

Deckhard set the tone

After paying his dues in the BBC and making commercials (well paying work he and his kids still indulge in) Scott achieved notoriety with the release of Blade Runner a sci-fi thriller set in a dark futuristic Los Angeles. The film flopped in theatres but became a cult legend behind the powerful performance of Harrison Ford who plays LA Blade Runner cop Rick Deckhard, a semi-retired detective brought back to the force to hunt down human replicants and kill them.

Deckhard is Scott’s first damaged hero, a prickly character you cheer for even when he acts cold and makes mistakes. Deckhard embodies the Scott protagonist; someone somewhere he shouldn’t be and dealing with the shrapnel. Deckhard isn’t perfect in his mission, he falls for Rachael, a replicant played by Sean Young and is saved from certain death by an evil replicant played by evil actor Rutger Hauer. It’s a fitting end to Blade Runner and a perfect beginning for Scott’s leading men and women.

Ex-special agent Starling

Scott has made a number of films outside the war/action genre but he’s at his best when a badge carrying or uniform wearing character realizes the system he serves doesn’t always serve the greater good. In Hannibal, the charged sequel to Silence of the Lambs, Scott continues the psychological mind job on FBI agent Clarice Starling, the Julianne Moore version, by having her face the challenge of continuing a search for Dr. Hannibal Lecter or letting the twisted Mason Verger have his sickening revenge.

Again Scott forces the lead to make a choice between serving the code of their badge (taking a paid leave from the agency) and circumventing the law to stop a heinous crime. There’s no real way to win, and Lecter lectures a morphine-dizzy Starling at the end asking her if her incorruptibility and courage would be enough for the FBI to have her back, “those people you despise almost as much as they despise you.”

Wanna get away?

One of Scott’s best character arcs unfolds in the war flick Black Hawk Down when lead character Sgt. Eversman (Josh Hartnett) is literally dropped into a fire storm in war torn Mogadishu, Somalia and has to lead a chalk team from wrecked buildings to crashed helicopters and somehow out of the burning cauldron. The raid is an ill-fated recipe for disaster and the recently promoted Eversman watches it engulf an enraged city.

No matter what Eversman thought of the conflict before, he is shown to be a bit of an idealist in early scenes, when he feels the heat of .50 caliber shells falling down his spine his thoughts of helping starving civilians is suddenly lost in the chaotic clawing for survival. Scott takes a proud and principled person and makes him face a worst-case scenario that will forever change his perspective of why he does what he does.

Maximus pre-fall

For all Eversman had to endure as a solider he didn’t have to suffer the indignity of another Scott creation, General Maximus in the box office hit Gladiator. Scott continues his work with Crowe, and brings out the best in the testy Aussie by having him lose his wife and child, rank and freedom and pride to a conniving Commodus (wonderfully played by the now-retired Joaquin Phoenix).

A brilliant and courageous warrior Maximus is too humble to accept the responsibility of fixing Rome and as a consequence becomes enslaved by Commodus and is forced to battle criminals and barbarians in fights to the death. Scott uses the time period to tell a brutal tale of honor and justice and his main character is again in a situation he didn’t ask for but must answer to.

Who do you believe?

Though Body of Lies doesn’t break any new ground in the dynamics of secret agent thrillers; someone is lying to someone else and someone will regret it, Scott does give us a twist at the end by the choice Ferris finally makes. Where other Scott films end with a good idea of where our heroes stand Lies zooms out by measured degrees and what was clear becomes lost in the background.

The complexity of the main characters in Ridley Scott films is what makes each a compelling study of the human condition. When Ferris threatens to walk out on his assignment after suffering a betrayal of trust Hoffman informs the bruised agent “no one is innocent”. Scott doesn’t do innocence he dangles guilt in front of everyone and dares him or her to be honest.