Body of Lies (film)
Encyclopedia
Body of Lies is a 2008 American spy film
directed by Ridley Scott
. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the CIA and Jordanian Intelligence to catch "al-Saleem", a fictional jihad
ist terrorist. Frustrated by their target's elusiveness, differences in their approaches strain relations between a CIA operative, his superior, and the head of Jordanian Intelligence.
William Monahan
's screenplay, based on the novel of the same name
by David Ignatius
, examines contemporary tension between Western and Arab societies and the comparative effectiveness of technological and human counter-intelligence methods. The film was shot largely on location in the United States and Morocco
, after authorities in Dubai
refused permission to film there because of the script's political themes. The film's photography sought to emphasize the contrast between the gold & dust of the desert and Arab cities, and the blue & gray of bureaucracy and Washington. Accordingly, they used natural light wherever possible. Marc Streitenfeld
arranged the musical score.
Scott's direction and visual style were praised by critics, but they criticized his formulaic handling of the story and use of conventions from the spy genre, such as surveillance shots from high altitude spy planes. The performances by Leonardo DiCaprio
, Russell Crowe
, and Mark Strong
as the three principals were particularly mentioned, including DiCaprio's involvement with his character, Crowe's put-on accent and weight, and Strong's urbane sophistication.
) is a CIA
case officer in Iraq, tracking a terrorist called Al-Saleem. He meets Nizar, a member of the terrorist organisation who is prepared to offer information in return for asylum in America. Despite his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe
)'s objections, Ferris agrees to shelter Nizar. Nizar is used as a pawn to draw out the rest of his cell, when he is captured Ferris is forced to shoot him to prevent his torture. Furious at Hoffman's refusal to act on the information Nizar provided, Ferris and his associate Bassam (Oscar Isaac
) go to search a safehouse in Balad, Iraq, which Nizar had told them of. There, Ferris observes men burning records and attempts to bluff his way in, but is exposed. In the ensuing shootout and chase, Ferris and Bassam's vehicle is hit by an RPG. Ferris and some salvaged discs are rescued by helicopter but Bassam is killed in the explosion.
Meanwhile, unknown terrorists plan to follow up off-screen bus bombings in Sheffield
with more attacks in Manchester
but blow themselves up when the police arrive at their house. Recovered from his injuries, Ferris is assigned to Jordan to continue searching for Al-Saleem (Alon Abutbul
) where he meets with Hani Salaam (Mark Strong
), head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department.
Hoffman finds an Al-Saleem safe house in Jordan and orders Ferris surveil it. Simultaneously, Hoffman organizes another 'side operation' via a local agency operative named Skip (Vince Colosimo
) and that he is to conduct an operation without Ferris' knowledge. Skip employs the use of an agency asset, Ziyad Abishi who blows cover to a terrorist from the 'safe house', as he flees to inform his colleagues of their exposure, Ferris makes chase and kills him in such a place and manner that one might believe the death to be random. Salaam (via 'back channels') corroborates the acceptance of killing by those whom remain at 'safe house'; and Ferris accuses Hoffman of running "side operations" which interfere and (at least) undermine operational integrity of primary operation and tells Hoffman to stop. While going to the hospital to receive rabies shots for bites suffered during the pursuit and elimination of terrorist, Ferris meets a nurse named Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani
), and he begins developing romantic feelings for her. The bombers strike again in an Amsterdam
flower market, and kill at least 75 people.
Having recognized one of the men living in the safe house as former small-time criminal Mustapha Karami (Kais Nashif), Salaam takes Karami into the desert and coerces him into working for Jordanian intelligence, threatening to set him up as a collaborator if he does not co-operate. Hoffman asks Salaam to use Karami, but he refuses, believing a greater return will come later. Unknown to Ferris and Salaam, Hoffman tells Ferris' CIA subordinate (Skip) to follow Karami and kidnap him. Karami escapes and notifies the terrorists in the safe house that it is being watched, and they abandon it. Ferris's partner is caught and Salaam accuses Ferris of having had knowledge of the move on Karami, and blames Ferris's duplicity with him for the destruction of the safe house. He exiles Ferris from Jordan.
Ferris returns to Hoffman in Washington, and they devise a new plan to find Al-Saleem. Suspecting he is motivated more by pride than ideology, they stage a fake terrorist attack and set up Omar Sadiki (Ali Suliman
), an innocent Jordanian architect, as its instigator, hoping Al Saleem will come out of hiding and attempt to contact him. Al-Saleem sees TV news coverage of the attack and takes the bait.
Salaam invites Ferris back to Jordan and shares his suspicions that Omar Sadiki is a terrorist, though Ferris feigns ignorance. Ferris later tries to save Sadiki from being kidnapped by Al-Saleem's henchmen but fails and sees his partner nearly killed in the subsequent car crash. Under interrogation, Sadiki denies any knowledge of the attack though he is later found beaten and killed. Ferris goes back to his apartment and finds out that Aisha has been kidnapped. He desperately asks Salaam for help, admitting he fabricated Omar Sadiki's terrorist cell and the attack. Salaam refuses to help because of Ferris earlier having lied to him.
Ferris offers himself in exchange to Aisha's kidnappers, and is brought to the middle of the desert, with Hoffman watching everything via a surveillance drone unmanned aerial vehicle
. Ferris is surrounded by a group of SUVs, which circle him to create an obscuring dust cloud before picking him up. The dust cloud Hoffman's view, so that he cannot determine which of the SUVs, now headed in different directions, is carrying Ferris. Ferris is taken across the border to Syria where he is to be interrogated by Al-Saleem. When Ferris asks Al-Saleem about Aisha, he is told that someone has lied to him and that he has been double-crossed. Ferris tells Al-Saleem that there is an infiltrator (Karami) in his organization who works for Ferris, and that, by association, Al-Saleem works for Ferris. Al-Saleem does not believe Ferris, beats him, turns on a video camera and orders his execution. Salaam and his agents arrive at the last moment, saving Ferris' life. Salaam visits Ferris in the hospital and reveals he had faked Aisha's abduction, and orchestrated Ferris's capture by Al-Saleem using Karami as a go-between. Thus, Ferris ultimately realizes that Hoffman had turned his back on him.
(2005), set during the Crusades. Body of Lies resumes this theme in the context of modern intelligence operations and terrorism.
The film puts two contrasting characters on the same side. Ferris, the CIA man on the ground, is a dedicated Arabist fluent in the language; he relies on trust, local knowledge and human intelligence. Hoffman, his superior, who is detached at home in Washington, D.C., and at the CIA in Virginia, is more machiavellian: he authorizes deceit, double-crossing and violence by telephone and without scruple. The New Yorker
interpreted him as "an American consumer of advanced technology and vast amounts of food".
Early in the film, Hoffman explains to his superiors that the terrorists' retreat to pre-tech age communication methods renders useless the high specification tools the CIA uses, and increases the worth of Ferris's human intelligence methods. They avoid mobile telephones and computers, preferring face-to-face communication and encoded written messages. By contrast, the Americans use sophisticated communication (Hoffman and Ferris are speaking regularly on the phone) and surveillance (high altitude spy planes offer a different point of view throughout) technology. David Denby in The New Yorker, said that this was Scott's suggestion that the CIA has the technology but not the human intelligence to properly fight terrorism in the Middle East.
Despite Hoffman's distance, the force and unintended consequences of his schemes are often borne by Ferris. The difference is underlined when, Ferris, suffering weakened credibility, injured colleagues and personal risk, is reminded by Hoffman that "we are a results-driven organization".
hired screenwriter William Monahan
to adapt the novel Penetration by David Ignatius
into a feature film, which would be directed by Ridley Scott
. In April 2007, with the novel re-titled Body of Lies
and the film similarly re-titled, actor Leonardo DiCaprio
was cast in the lead role. DiCaprio chose to pursue the role because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View
(1974) and Three Days of the Condor
(1975). DiCaprio dyed his hair brown, and wore brown contacts for the role. After DiCaprio was cast, Russell Crowe
was courted for a supporting role, to which he formally committed after Monahan's script was revised by Steve Zaillian, who wrote Scott and Crowe's American Gangster. Crowe gained 63 pounds to suit his role. The actor said as a result of the film's exploration of the American government and foreign policy, "I don't think it will be very popular, but that’s never been part of my project choice process." Mark Strong
, who plays Hani Salaam, the head of the Jordan
ian General Intelligence Department (GID) ascribed his casting to his performances in the 2005 films Syriana
and Oliver Twist
.
in the United Arab Emirates
, but the federation's National Media Council denied the director permission due to the script's politically sensitive nature. As a result, scenes set in Jordan
were instead filmed in Morocco
. The shoot took place over sixty-five days from September to December 2007. It was filmed in the United States and Morocco, where scenes set in ten different countries were filmed. Filming began on September 5, 2007 at the Eastern Market, Washington, D.C.
Practical locations were used throughout, part of the Capitol Hill
neighborhood was converted to resemble a wintry Amsterdam
to film a ten to fifteen second car bomb
explosion. Scenes set in the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virgina were filmed at the National Geographic offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland
; both buildings were set in woodland and "It was eerily similar in terms of architectural style,...", said Arthur Max, the production designer, "We were given several empty floors.” Locations in Baltimore
also stood in for Manchester, England
and Munich, Germany
, although the final cut of the movie did not have any scenes that took place in Munich.
Production moved to Morocco, where Scott, Max and Alexander Witt, the cinematographer had filmed several times before. Their previous experience meant they "knew every stone in the desert" and they were allowed access to many locations, including the Ministry of Finance, which was dressed as Jordan's secret service headquarters, Casablanca airport and a military airfield. The basketball stadium in Rabat
was used as the US embassy in Jordan: a CIA office set was built inside the stadium, favoured because its design allowed the cameras to shoot both interior and exterior vistas, thus showing the characters looking out on people and tanks passing in the streets. A nine-week shoot also took place at CLA Studios and in the desert around the city of Ouarzazate
.
camera operator on Black Rain (1989). He shot the film in the Super 35 format with spherical lenses, and explained that these lenses offer more flexibility for interior and night pictures than the anamorphic
alternative. They used Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 instead of Technicolor's OZ process, which did not perform well in tests in the Moroccan desert.
Scott is known for his skill at filming with multiple camera set-ups and Body of Lies used a minimum of three simultaneously. Witt explained the benefits, "Actors like multiple cameras because they’re always on-camera, so they’re always in character and not wasting time off-camera." One shot of DiCaprio alone in the desert, for example, still used three cameras: one hand-held above the actor, a second capturing a three-quarter back profile, and the third photographing a close-up through the first cameraman's legs. Richard Cronn, the gaffer
, attributed the success of this difficult approach to Scott's filmmaking intelligence, "Ridley will stand at the monitors and tell you what’s he’s looking for — he’ll look at four monitors and say, ‘I’m cutting from this to this to this.’ He knows exactly how he will cut it."
In line with the film's use of practical locations, the photography and design departments worked together to incorporate practical light sources such as "lots of bare bulbs, lots of primitive fixtures". In the climatic torture scene, filmed in an ancient, windowless prison cell outside of Rabat, they used only diegetic light: two strong torches carried by the actors playing the torturers. It was filmed with three cameras and bounce cards were used to reflect light onto the actors' faces. Just a little smoke was sprayed in to augment the atmosphere but not dull the contrast.
Scott has used many gradations of lens filter in the past, but declined to do so on Body of Lies. One obtains better finesse using the digital intermediate
during post-production
and does not risk losing light while selecting filters during expensive on-set time. The filmmakers strove for authenticity and realism in the images, and as such little colouration was added after, and the natural contrast of colours between the locations in Washington and Morocco were allowed to show through.
In the film, images from unmanned aerial drones show the viewer the point of view of CIA commanders in Washington, these were filmed using a helicopter mounted with a Wescam 35 on the nose of a helicopter, and Cineflex’s V14 surveillance system, hanging from the side. Its 1-40 zoom allowed the filmmakers to fly very high and then zoom out of Ferris strolling through a market-place, creating the film's final shot.
, who has now composed music for Ridley Scott for three features. He recorded the orchestral portions of his score at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers Studios. Of note is the presence of a song in the film named "If The World," performed by Guns N' Roses
, and taken from their long-delayed Chinese Democracy
album. The track plays over the beginning of the end credits, but is not included on the official film soundtrack. Streitenfeld also collaborated with Mike Patton
and Serj Tankian
on the song "Bird's Eye", which was written specially for the musical score of the film. It was not included on the soundtrack album but was released separately as a single.
to screen on the television networks TBS and Turner Network Television
.
The film was screened on 30 September 2008 at Michigan Technological University, and October 2, 2008 at Duke University, New York Film Academy, University of Maryland and University of Virginia. It was also pre-screened on 3 October at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
, at Michigan State University, at the University of Michigan, the University of Kansas, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago
on 7 October and at Carnegie Mellon University
, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
, The University at Buffalo, Columbia University, James Madison University, Syracuse University, the University of Colorado
, the University of Washington
, and Georgia Southern University
on 9 October.
Warner Home Video
released Body of Lies on DVD on 17 February 2009, the single disc region one included surround sound and subtitles in English, French and Spanish; the two disc special edition included commentaries by the director, screenwright and original novel author, and a behind the scenes documentary; the Blu-ray edition also included additional commentary on the film's themes.
reports the consensus that the film relies too heavily on the performances of DiCaprio and Crowe to lift it above a conventional espionage thriller.
Roger Ebert
, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film three out of four stars. He praised the "convincing" acting and "realistic locations and terse dialogue" but questioned the verisimilitude
of the story and concluded, "Body of Lies contains enough you can believe, or almost believe, that you wish so much of it weren't sensationally implausible." Kenneth Turan reached the same conclusion in the Los Angeles Times
, "The skill of top-flight director Ridley Scott and his veteran production team, not to mention the ability of stars Leonardo DiCaprio
and Russell Crowe
, ensure that this story of spies and terrorism in the Middle East is always crisp and watchable," he writes, "but as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention." Lou Lumenick
in the New York Post writes that, "There's nothing here we haven't seen in many other movies" and Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post summarised: "Body of Lies is an A-list project with B-game results. The movie might be set in the Age of Jihad
. But the rules of trust and mistrust are wholly familiar."
Critics observed the film's adherence to conventions of the spy thriller genre, Ebert called it "a James Bond plot" and David Denby
pointed out the "usual tropes of the genre—surveillance shots from drones, S.U.V.s tearing across the desert, explosions, scenes of torture" but praised Scott's superior management of space and timing. While Todd McCarthy in Variety praised the initial set-up and conceit of the plot device, he criticised the formulaic approach leading to a "cornball denouement". A. O. Scott
in the New York Times writes that director Scott's "professionalism is, as ever, present in every frame and scene, but this time it seems singularly untethered from anything like zeal, conviction or even curiosity." Joe Neumaier writes in the New York Daily News that what "aims to be up-to-the-moment — yet feels same-old, same-old." Kennedy called the love story between DiCaprio and Farahani contrived, saying that while DiCaprio seemed more at home in those scenes, it made the film seem "foolish". Ebert thought the cultural context of their relationship was well established, but that it essentially existed as a convenience of the plot, to set up the unlikely conclusion. Scott would have preferred the psychological tensions linking the three leading men were allowed develop further.
Mark Strong
's performance was mentioned by several critics, Scott called it "a marvel of exotic suavity and cool insinuation" and Ebert "particularly admired" his aura of suave control.
, which turned out to be No. 1 with a take of $17.5 million in its second week, and Sony/Screen Gems's Quarantine, which earned $14.2 million—about $2 million more than it cost to make. A Warners Brothers executive said he was disappointed with the film's opening and attributed it to its controversial storyline. Though Body of Lies fared better than previous pictures about the "war on terrorism
" such as Rendition
, In the Valley of Elah
and Lions for Lambs
, which all performed well below studios' expectations. In a fourteen week theatrical run in the United States, the film earned $39 million.
Outside North America it opened reasonably well. In Australia it was the highest earning film in its opening weekend of the 9–12 October 2008 with $2,104,319, ahead of Pixar animation's Wall-E
, which fell to second place, while Beverly Hills Chihuahua held third.
In the United Kingdom
, the film's earnings were the second highest, behind Quantum of Solace during the 21–23 November, its opening weekend. It earned GBP£ 991,939 in 393 screens. Overall, while the film has grossed only $40 million at the American box office, it has grossed $115,097,286 worldwide. In the United States, contemporary war films have performed relatively poorly. Warner Bros had hoped the large budget and Scott's direction could better them, but the film performed relatively poorly compared to his others; analysts ascribed this to the film's Middle East setting and exploration of terrorism, Brandon Gray pointed out that people read these themes in the news media already, and there is a perception that Hollywood films are biased. In total, the film earned USD 115 million in cinemas around the world, exceeding its production costs of USD 70 million.
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
directed by Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the CIA and Jordanian Intelligence to catch "al-Saleem", a fictional jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
ist terrorist. Frustrated by their target's elusiveness, differences in their approaches strain relations between a CIA operative, his superior, and the head of Jordanian Intelligence.
William Monahan
William Monahan
William J. Monahan is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was The Departed, a film which earned him a WGA award and an Academy award for Best Adapted Screenplay.-Writer and editor:...
's screenplay, based on the novel of the same name
Body of Lies (novel)
Body of Lies is an American spy thriller novel by David Ignatius, a columnist for The Washington Post. It was published by W. W. Norton in 2007. It was originally titled Penetration but was renamed after Warner Bros...
by David Ignatius
David Ignatius
David R. Ignatius , is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He also co-hosts PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues at Washingtonpost.com, with Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria...
, examines contemporary tension between Western and Arab societies and the comparative effectiveness of technological and human counter-intelligence methods. The film was shot largely on location in the United States and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, after authorities in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
refused permission to film there because of the script's political themes. The film's photography sought to emphasize the contrast between the gold & dust of the desert and Arab cities, and the blue & gray of bureaucracy and Washington. Accordingly, they used natural light wherever possible. Marc Streitenfeld
Marc Streitenfeld
Marc Streitenfeld is a German film score composer, known for his collaborations with director Ridley Scott.-Life and career:Born in Munich, Germany, Streitenfeld relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 19, first working briefly as a musical assistant for composer Hans Zimmer, then independently as a...
arranged the musical score.
Scott's direction and visual style were praised by critics, but they criticized his formulaic handling of the story and use of conventions from the spy genre, such as surveillance shots from high altitude spy planes. The performances by Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
, Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
, and Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
as the three principals were particularly mentioned, including DiCaprio's involvement with his character, Crowe's put-on accent and weight, and Strong's urbane sophistication.
Plot summary
Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprioLeonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
) is a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
case officer in Iraq, tracking a terrorist called Al-Saleem. He meets Nizar, a member of the terrorist organisation who is prepared to offer information in return for asylum in America. Despite his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
)'s objections, Ferris agrees to shelter Nizar. Nizar is used as a pawn to draw out the rest of his cell, when he is captured Ferris is forced to shoot him to prevent his torture. Furious at Hoffman's refusal to act on the information Nizar provided, Ferris and his associate Bassam (Oscar Isaac
Oscar Isaac
-Personal life:Isaac was born in Guatemala to a Guatemalan mother, Maria Estrada Nicolle, and a Cuban pulmonologist father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernandez. He was raised in Miami, Florida. While in Miami, he played lead guitar and sang vocals for his band "The Blinking Underdogs"...
) go to search a safehouse in Balad, Iraq, which Nizar had told them of. There, Ferris observes men burning records and attempts to bluff his way in, but is exposed. In the ensuing shootout and chase, Ferris and Bassam's vehicle is hit by an RPG. Ferris and some salvaged discs are rescued by helicopter but Bassam is killed in the explosion.
Meanwhile, unknown terrorists plan to follow up off-screen bus bombings in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
with more attacks in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
but blow themselves up when the police arrive at their house. Recovered from his injuries, Ferris is assigned to Jordan to continue searching for Al-Saleem (Alon Abutbul
Alon Abutbul
Alon Abutbul is an Israeli actor.In 2005, he was voted the 158th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.-Biography:...
) where he meets with Hani Salaam (Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
), head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department.
Hoffman finds an Al-Saleem safe house in Jordan and orders Ferris surveil it. Simultaneously, Hoffman organizes another 'side operation' via a local agency operative named Skip (Vince Colosimo
Vince Colosimo
Vincenzo Colosimo is an Australian AFI Award winning stage, television and screen actor. He has worked in both Australia and the United States.-Personal life:...
) and that he is to conduct an operation without Ferris' knowledge. Skip employs the use of an agency asset, Ziyad Abishi who blows cover to a terrorist from the 'safe house', as he flees to inform his colleagues of their exposure, Ferris makes chase and kills him in such a place and manner that one might believe the death to be random. Salaam (via 'back channels') corroborates the acceptance of killing by those whom remain at 'safe house'; and Ferris accuses Hoffman of running "side operations" which interfere and (at least) undermine operational integrity of primary operation and tells Hoffman to stop. While going to the hospital to receive rabies shots for bites suffered during the pursuit and elimination of terrorist, Ferris meets a nurse named Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani
Golshifteh Farahani
Golshifteh Farahani is a Crystal-Simorgh winning Iranian actress and pianist.- Early life :Golshifteh Farahani was born on 10 July 1983 in Tehran, the daughter of actor/theater director Behzad Farahani and his spouse, Fahime Rahiminia and sister of actress Shaghayegh Farahani. She started studying...
), and he begins developing romantic feelings for her. The bombers strike again in an Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
flower market, and kill at least 75 people.
Having recognized one of the men living in the safe house as former small-time criminal Mustapha Karami (Kais Nashif), Salaam takes Karami into the desert and coerces him into working for Jordanian intelligence, threatening to set him up as a collaborator if he does not co-operate. Hoffman asks Salaam to use Karami, but he refuses, believing a greater return will come later. Unknown to Ferris and Salaam, Hoffman tells Ferris' CIA subordinate (Skip) to follow Karami and kidnap him. Karami escapes and notifies the terrorists in the safe house that it is being watched, and they abandon it. Ferris's partner is caught and Salaam accuses Ferris of having had knowledge of the move on Karami, and blames Ferris's duplicity with him for the destruction of the safe house. He exiles Ferris from Jordan.
Ferris returns to Hoffman in Washington, and they devise a new plan to find Al-Saleem. Suspecting he is motivated more by pride than ideology, they stage a fake terrorist attack and set up Omar Sadiki (Ali Suliman
Ali Suliman
-Career:He starred in Paradise Now, which won the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film. In 2007, he appeared in the movie The Kingdom alongside Jamie Foxx. In the movie Lemon Tree he plays a lawyer, and the role of Omar Sadiki in the movie Body of Lies....
), an innocent Jordanian architect, as its instigator, hoping Al Saleem will come out of hiding and attempt to contact him. Al-Saleem sees TV news coverage of the attack and takes the bait.
Salaam invites Ferris back to Jordan and shares his suspicions that Omar Sadiki is a terrorist, though Ferris feigns ignorance. Ferris later tries to save Sadiki from being kidnapped by Al-Saleem's henchmen but fails and sees his partner nearly killed in the subsequent car crash. Under interrogation, Sadiki denies any knowledge of the attack though he is later found beaten and killed. Ferris goes back to his apartment and finds out that Aisha has been kidnapped. He desperately asks Salaam for help, admitting he fabricated Omar Sadiki's terrorist cell and the attack. Salaam refuses to help because of Ferris earlier having lied to him.
Ferris offers himself in exchange to Aisha's kidnappers, and is brought to the middle of the desert, with Hoffman watching everything via a surveillance drone unmanned aerial vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
. Ferris is surrounded by a group of SUVs, which circle him to create an obscuring dust cloud before picking him up. The dust cloud Hoffman's view, so that he cannot determine which of the SUVs, now headed in different directions, is carrying Ferris. Ferris is taken across the border to Syria where he is to be interrogated by Al-Saleem. When Ferris asks Al-Saleem about Aisha, he is told that someone has lied to him and that he has been double-crossed. Ferris tells Al-Saleem that there is an infiltrator (Karami) in his organization who works for Ferris, and that, by association, Al-Saleem works for Ferris. Al-Saleem does not believe Ferris, beats him, turns on a video camera and orders his execution. Salaam and his agents arrive at the last moment, saving Ferris' life. Salaam visits Ferris in the hospital and reveals he had faked Aisha's abduction, and orchestrated Ferris's capture by Al-Saleem using Karami as a go-between. Thus, Ferris ultimately realizes that Hoffman had turned his back on him.
Themes
Ridley Scott has made a previous film about the conflict between the Western and Arab civilizations, Kingdom of HeavenKingdom of Heaven (film)
Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic action film directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Marton Csokas, Brendan Gleeson, Kevin McKidd, Alexander Siddig, Ghassan Massoud, Edward Norton, Jon Finch, Michael Sheen and Liam...
(2005), set during the Crusades. Body of Lies resumes this theme in the context of modern intelligence operations and terrorism.
The film puts two contrasting characters on the same side. Ferris, the CIA man on the ground, is a dedicated Arabist fluent in the language; he relies on trust, local knowledge and human intelligence. Hoffman, his superior, who is detached at home in Washington, D.C., and at the CIA in Virginia, is more machiavellian: he authorizes deceit, double-crossing and violence by telephone and without scruple. The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
interpreted him as "an American consumer of advanced technology and vast amounts of food".
Early in the film, Hoffman explains to his superiors that the terrorists' retreat to pre-tech age communication methods renders useless the high specification tools the CIA uses, and increases the worth of Ferris's human intelligence methods. They avoid mobile telephones and computers, preferring face-to-face communication and encoded written messages. By contrast, the Americans use sophisticated communication (Hoffman and Ferris are speaking regularly on the phone) and surveillance (high altitude spy planes offer a different point of view throughout) technology. David Denby in The New Yorker, said that this was Scott's suggestion that the CIA has the technology but not the human intelligence to properly fight terrorism in the Middle East.
Despite Hoffman's distance, the force and unintended consequences of his schemes are often borne by Ferris. The difference is underlined when, Ferris, suffering weakened credibility, injured colleagues and personal risk, is reminded by Hoffman that "we are a results-driven organization".
Development
In March 2006, Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
hired screenwriter William Monahan
William Monahan
William J. Monahan is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was The Departed, a film which earned him a WGA award and an Academy award for Best Adapted Screenplay.-Writer and editor:...
to adapt the novel Penetration by David Ignatius
David Ignatius
David R. Ignatius , is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He also co-hosts PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues at Washingtonpost.com, with Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria...
into a feature film, which would be directed by Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
. In April 2007, with the novel re-titled Body of Lies
Body of Lies (novel)
Body of Lies is an American spy thriller novel by David Ignatius, a columnist for The Washington Post. It was published by W. W. Norton in 2007. It was originally titled Penetration but was renamed after Warner Bros...
and the film similarly re-titled, actor Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
was cast in the lead role. DiCaprio chose to pursue the role because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View
The Parallax View
The Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
(1974) and Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr...
(1975). DiCaprio dyed his hair brown, and wore brown contacts for the role. After DiCaprio was cast, Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
was courted for a supporting role, to which he formally committed after Monahan's script was revised by Steve Zaillian, who wrote Scott and Crowe's American Gangster. Crowe gained 63 pounds to suit his role. The actor said as a result of the film's exploration of the American government and foreign policy, "I don't think it will be very popular, but that’s never been part of my project choice process." Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
, who plays Hani Salaam, the head of the Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian General Intelligence Department (GID) ascribed his casting to his performances in the 2005 films Syriana
Syriana
Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, and executive produced by George Clooney, who also stars in the film with an ensemble cast. Gaghan's screenplay is loosely adapted from Robert Baer's memoir See No Evil...
and Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist (2005 film)
Oliver Twist is a 2005 British drama film directed by Roman Polanski. The screenplay by Ronald Harwood is based on the 1838 novel of the same title by Charles Dickens....
.
Location and design
Scott sought to film in DubaiDubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, but the federation's National Media Council denied the director permission due to the script's politically sensitive nature. As a result, scenes set in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
were instead filmed in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. The shoot took place over sixty-five days from September to December 2007. It was filmed in the United States and Morocco, where scenes set in ten different countries were filmed. Filming began on September 5, 2007 at the Eastern Market, Washington, D.C.
Eastern Market, Washington, D.C.
The Eastern Market is a public market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., housed in a 19th century brick building. It is located on 7th Street SE, a few blocks east of the U.S. Capitol between North Carolina Avenue SE and C Street SE. The Eastern Market is on the National...
Practical locations were used throughout, part of the Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
Capitol Hill, aside from being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues...
neighborhood was converted to resemble a wintry Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
to film a ten to fifteen second car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
explosion. Scenes set in the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virgina were filmed at the National Geographic offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Gaithersburg is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The city had a population of 59,933 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest incorporated city in the state, behind Baltimore, Frederick, and Rockville...
; both buildings were set in woodland and "It was eerily similar in terms of architectural style,...", said Arthur Max, the production designer, "We were given several empty floors.” Locations in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
also stood in for Manchester, England
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Munich, Germany
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, although the final cut of the movie did not have any scenes that took place in Munich.
Production moved to Morocco, where Scott, Max and Alexander Witt, the cinematographer had filmed several times before. Their previous experience meant they "knew every stone in the desert" and they were allowed access to many locations, including the Ministry of Finance, which was dressed as Jordan's secret service headquarters, Casablanca airport and a military airfield. The basketball stadium in Rabat
Rabat
Rabat , is the capital and third largest city of the Kingdom of Morocco with a population of approximately 650,000...
was used as the US embassy in Jordan: a CIA office set was built inside the stadium, favoured because its design allowed the cameras to shoot both interior and exterior vistas, thus showing the characters looking out on people and tanks passing in the streets. A nine-week shoot also took place at CLA Studios and in the desert around the city of Ouarzazate
Ouarzazate
-See also:* Tizi n'Tichka: The mountain pass that leads to Ouarzazate* List of Movies shot in Morocco-External links:* at IMDb...
.
Cinematography
Body of Lies was Alexander Witt's first credit as a director of photography; he had collaborated with Ridley Scott on six feature films previously, beginning as a second unitSecond unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
camera operator on Black Rain (1989). He shot the film in the Super 35 format with spherical lenses, and explained that these lenses offer more flexibility for interior and night pictures than the anamorphic
Anamorphic format
Anamorphic format is a term that can be used either for: the cinematography technique of capturing a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film, or other visual recording media, with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio; or a photographic projection format in which the original image requires an...
alternative. They used Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 instead of Technicolor's OZ process, which did not perform well in tests in the Moroccan desert.
Scott is known for his skill at filming with multiple camera set-ups and Body of Lies used a minimum of three simultaneously. Witt explained the benefits, "Actors like multiple cameras because they’re always on-camera, so they’re always in character and not wasting time off-camera." One shot of DiCaprio alone in the desert, for example, still used three cameras: one hand-held above the actor, a second capturing a three-quarter back profile, and the third photographing a close-up through the first cameraman's legs. Richard Cronn, the gaffer
Gaffer (filmmaking)
A gaffer in the motion picture industry and on a television crew is an electrician that can be head of the electrical department, responsible for the execution of the lighting plan for a production. Gaffer, outside of the motion picture industry, is a traditional British English word for an older...
, attributed the success of this difficult approach to Scott's filmmaking intelligence, "Ridley will stand at the monitors and tell you what’s he’s looking for — he’ll look at four monitors and say, ‘I’m cutting from this to this to this.’ He knows exactly how he will cut it."
In line with the film's use of practical locations, the photography and design departments worked together to incorporate practical light sources such as "lots of bare bulbs, lots of primitive fixtures". In the climatic torture scene, filmed in an ancient, windowless prison cell outside of Rabat, they used only diegetic light: two strong torches carried by the actors playing the torturers. It was filmed with three cameras and bounce cards were used to reflect light onto the actors' faces. Just a little smoke was sprayed in to augment the atmosphere but not dull the contrast.
Scott has used many gradations of lens filter in the past, but declined to do so on Body of Lies. One obtains better finesse using the digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
during post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
and does not risk losing light while selecting filters during expensive on-set time. The filmmakers strove for authenticity and realism in the images, and as such little colouration was added after, and the natural contrast of colours between the locations in Washington and Morocco were allowed to show through.
In the film, images from unmanned aerial drones show the viewer the point of view of CIA commanders in Washington, these were filmed using a helicopter mounted with a Wescam 35 on the nose of a helicopter, and Cineflex’s V14 surveillance system, hanging from the side. Its 1-40 zoom allowed the filmmakers to fly very high and then zoom out of Ferris strolling through a market-place, creating the film's final shot.
Music
The film score was composed by Marc StreitenfeldMarc Streitenfeld
Marc Streitenfeld is a German film score composer, known for his collaborations with director Ridley Scott.-Life and career:Born in Munich, Germany, Streitenfeld relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 19, first working briefly as a musical assistant for composer Hans Zimmer, then independently as a...
, who has now composed music for Ridley Scott for three features. He recorded the orchestral portions of his score at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers Studios. Of note is the presence of a song in the film named "If The World," performed by Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
, and taken from their long-delayed Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released in November 2008 on Geffen Records. It is the band's first studio album since "The Spaghetti Incident?" , released exactly 15 years before Chinese Democracy, and their first album of original studio...
album. The track plays over the beginning of the end credits, but is not included on the official film soundtrack. Streitenfeld also collaborated with Mike Patton
Mike Patton
Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
and Serj Tankian
Serj Tankian
Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist...
on the song "Bird's Eye", which was written specially for the musical score of the film. It was not included on the soundtrack album but was released separately as a single.
Release
The film was commercially released in the United States on 10 October 2008. The film has also been purchased by Turner Broadcasting SystemTurner Broadcasting System
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. is the Time Warner subsidiary managing the collection of cable networks and properties started and acquired by Robert Edward "Ted" Turner starting in the mid-1970s. The company has its headquarters in the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. TBS, Inc...
to screen on the television networks TBS and Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
.
The film was screened on 30 September 2008 at Michigan Technological University, and October 2, 2008 at Duke University, New York Film Academy, University of Maryland and University of Virginia. It was also pre-screened on 3 October at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities...
, at Michigan State University, at the University of Michigan, the University of Kansas, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
on 7 October and at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
, The University at Buffalo, Columbia University, James Madison University, Syracuse University, the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, and Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern University is a national public university located on a campus in Statesboro, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1906, it is part of the University System of Georgia and is the largest center of higher education in the southern half of Georgia offering 117 academic majors in a comprehensive...
on 9 October.
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
released Body of Lies on DVD on 17 February 2009, the single disc region one included surround sound and subtitles in English, French and Spanish; the two disc special edition included commentaries by the director, screenwright and original novel author, and a behind the scenes documentary; the Blu-ray edition also included additional commentary on the film's themes.
Critical response
The film has received mixed reviews from critics: a mediocre rating of 53% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports the consensus that the film relies too heavily on the performances of DiCaprio and Crowe to lift it above a conventional espionage thriller.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film three out of four stars. He praised the "convincing" acting and "realistic locations and terse dialogue" but questioned the verisimilitude
Verisimilitude
Verisimilitude is the quality of realism in something .-Competing ideas:The problem of verisimilitude is the problem of articulating what it takes for one false theory to be closer to the truth than another false theory...
of the story and concluded, "Body of Lies contains enough you can believe, or almost believe, that you wish so much of it weren't sensationally implausible." Kenneth Turan reached the same conclusion in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, "The skill of top-flight director Ridley Scott and his veteran production team, not to mention the ability of stars Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
and Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
, ensure that this story of spies and terrorism in the Middle East is always crisp and watchable," he writes, "but as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention." Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
Louis J. "Lou" Lumenick is an American film critic. He is the chief film critic and a blogger for the New York Post and has reviewed films there since 1999.-Life and career:Lumenick was born and raised in Astoria, Queens...
in the New York Post writes that, "There's nothing here we haven't seen in many other movies" and Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post summarised: "Body of Lies is an A-list project with B-game results. The movie might be set in the Age of Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
. But the rules of trust and mistrust are wholly familiar."
Critics observed the film's adherence to conventions of the spy thriller genre, Ebert called it "a James Bond plot" and David Denby
David Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
pointed out the "usual tropes of the genre—surveillance shots from drones, S.U.V.s tearing across the desert, explosions, scenes of torture" but praised Scott's superior management of space and timing. While Todd McCarthy in Variety praised the initial set-up and conceit of the plot device, he criticised the formulaic approach leading to a "cornball denouement". A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
in the New York Times writes that director Scott's "professionalism is, as ever, present in every frame and scene, but this time it seems singularly untethered from anything like zeal, conviction or even curiosity." Joe Neumaier writes in the New York Daily News that what "aims to be up-to-the-moment — yet feels same-old, same-old." Kennedy called the love story between DiCaprio and Farahani contrived, saying that while DiCaprio seemed more at home in those scenes, it made the film seem "foolish". Ebert thought the cultural context of their relationship was well established, but that it essentially existed as a convenience of the plot, to set up the unlikely conclusion. Scott would have preferred the psychological tensions linking the three leading men were allowed develop further.
Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
's performance was mentioned by several critics, Scott called it "a marvel of exotic suavity and cool insinuation" and Ebert "particularly admired" his aura of suave control.
Box office
Body of Lies earned USD 12.9 million on its first weekend in theatres in the United States, 40% less than expected. This placed it as the third highest earning film that weekend, behind Disney's Beverly Hills ChihuahuaBeverly Hills Chihuahua
Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a 2008 family comedy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is directed by Raja Gosnell and released on October 3, 2008...
, which turned out to be No. 1 with a take of $17.5 million in its second week, and Sony/Screen Gems's Quarantine, which earned $14.2 million—about $2 million more than it cost to make. A Warners Brothers executive said he was disappointed with the film's opening and attributed it to its controversial storyline. Though Body of Lies fared better than previous pictures about the "war on terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
" such as Rendition
Rendition (film)
Rendition is a 2007 drama film directed by Gavin Hood and starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Omar Metwally. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri who was...
, In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah is a 2007 film written and directed by Paul Haggis, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon. The film’s title refers to the Biblical valley where the battle between David and Goliath is said to have taken place....
and Lions for Lambs
Lions for Lambs
Lions for Lambs is a 2007 American drama film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor. It stars Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep...
, which all performed well below studios' expectations. In a fourteen week theatrical run in the United States, the film earned $39 million.
Outside North America it opened reasonably well. In Australia it was the highest earning film in its opening weekend of the 9–12 October 2008 with $2,104,319, ahead of Pixar animation's Wall-E
WALL-E
WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future...
, which fell to second place, while Beverly Hills Chihuahua held third.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the film's earnings were the second highest, behind Quantum of Solace during the 21–23 November, its opening weekend. It earned GBP£ 991,939 in 393 screens. Overall, while the film has grossed only $40 million at the American box office, it has grossed $115,097,286 worldwide. In the United States, contemporary war films have performed relatively poorly. Warner Bros had hoped the large budget and Scott's direction could better them, but the film performed relatively poorly compared to his others; analysts ascribed this to the film's Middle East setting and exploration of terrorism, Brandon Gray pointed out that people read these themes in the news media already, and there is a perception that Hollywood films are biased. In total, the film earned USD 115 million in cinemas around the world, exceeding its production costs of USD 70 million.