As you might guess from the title, I was not a big fan of the film Body of Lies and I regret watching it on our fifth wedding anniversary, of all times! The reason I wanted to see it was because of its depiction of the Jordanian intelligence services as well as the fact that it takes place in Jordan.
What really annoyed me about the whole charade was the director’s decision to film in Morocco and pretend it is Jordan. Who did Ridley Scott think he was fooling when he made the decision to film in Morocco and digitally insert the King Abdallah mosque in a number of shots in an attempt to make it look like Jordan? Did he expect Jordanians or people that visited the country not to notice? Or did he just not care? In addition to the fake scenery, all the extras in the movie looked North African rather than Jordanian. And in more than one instance I noticed Saudi car tags in the streets of "Jordan."
Then there was the scene where Russell Crowe is surprised that DiCaprio wants to stay in Jordan. He asks him something along the lines of "Why? Do you want to eat couscous all day?" I mean, give me a break! Jordanians don’t eat couscous. He should have said Mansaf if anything. Anyway, I’m surprised a movie so centered on Jordan with such a big budget did not employ some cultural consultants or film there. The actor who played the head of Jordanian intelligence was okay but I got irritated by his fake accent. As for the Arabic spoken during the movie, please don’t get me started. It was a mélange of North African, Egyptian, Palestinian and I don’t know what.
In a nutshell, the movie was not worth my money, especially in economic times like these. My advice: Don’t watch it.
I fully agree with your review of this film. Your comments might save some people from trying to watch it. I went to see it, but – quite aside from being so fake and having dreadful politics – it was such a TEDIOUS film. I left before the end, which I hardly ever do.
Why is it that cous-cous is the mark of a fake Arab production?
I wrote a critical review of the honor-killing memoir, “Burned Alive”, by Souad. This book took over from “Forbidden Love”, but it is another fabrication. (See my article “Burning Questions” for a short review of some of the author’s notable lies.) The author of “Burned Alive” claims to be a Palestinian, and describes how she went to a wedding on the West Bank and they served – cous-cous. Of course. It is the only dish mentioned.
I remember “Cheyenne Autumn” – one of the great John Ford’s last directorial efforts. He used Navaho Native Americans instead of Cheyenne actors. I’ve read, probably in one of Tony Hillerman’s fine mysteries, that the Navaho actors spoke in their native tongue and made rude remarks and jokes about the non-Navaho actors they were working with! When the movie played on the rez, it ran forever! No one fluent in Navaho missed seeing and hearing those inside jokes no white-eyes could fathom.
Am in Jordan, I wana eat couscous all day : )
It had good continuity and pacing, but after that I was glad that I didn’t have to go through what a Jordanian would have in that. I get a small bit of that irritation in too many movies where they don’t bother to shoot for, at least, similar landscapes.
In one old western flick, as only one example, Liberty, Texas was surrounded by mountains, when in fact, that little town is in the Piney Woods of the otherwise flat East Texas. The list is a long one with the movies and way out of it backgrounds, etc.
It’s true, I don’t expect everything to be 100% accurate, but the least I expect is some accuracy that only requires minimal research a 10 year old child can do.
It’s a movie, not a documentary. Movies are for entertainment, which calls for you to suspend your own reality and enter the movie’s reality. Surely, you don’t expect the setting and props used in all the other movies you’ve seen before are accurate? They never are. You can, understandably, expect accuracy in documentaries, but not in movies. Fakery is a given in the movie industry, no?
Typical hollywood ignorance, nothing new.
Not only do Jordanians not EAT ‘couscous’, they have an aversion to even saying the word, mish?
I just can’t stomach films with Italian/Arabic accents anymore.
I agree. I wasn’t impressed with the film at all.
Exactly my feelings regarding this flick!