Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe collaborated for the first time on the historic action film Gladiatorand his team proved truly fruitful, as the film grossed $465 million worldwide and won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe. This is despite the film's many inaccuracies, which have been documented endlessly over the years.
Gladiator put the Crowe-Scott team in good stead, but the partnership would not continue until 2006 A good yeara left turn for the romantic comedy that proved to be a flop, grossing just $42 million. Scott and Crowe came back from that disappointment with 2007 American gangsterco-starring Denzel Washington as real-life crime figure Frank Lucas. Praised by critics (as reflected in its recent 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), the film marked a box office recovery for the Crowe/Scott team, grossing $269 million – although, again, the film had many inaccuracies, as confirmed for the real. Luke.
Crowe and Scott's Body of Lies gets high marks for accuracy, outside of a large stretch
Leonardo DiCaprio co-starred in the 2008 film
Body of Lies was a box office flop for Crowe and Scott, grossing just $118 million, but the film still gets a good rating for realism from a counterterrorism expert. The spy thriller stars Crowe as the head of the CIA, the superior officer to Leonardo DiCaprio's field agent, who collaborates with Jordanian intelligence to track down a notorious Al-Quaeda terrorist.
Accusations of inaccuracy leveled against Gladiator and American gangster probably means little to Scott, who almost always prioritizes dramatic effect over “realism.”
A former CIA agent himself, John Kiriakou broke down Body of Lies to Insiderand found much praise in the film's depiction of intelligence work on the ground (starting at 17:33 in the clip): First of all, Kiriakou gave the film praise for portraying intelligence cooperation in a realistic light:
So this was entirely true of life. Intelligence liaison cooperation happens every day in every capital city in every country in the world. It is beneficial for everyone to have a bonding relationship, even with a country of which we may be enemies. Leonardo DiCaprio went to the Jordanian intelligence service and said we needed a source within Al-Qaeda, and handed the file over to his Jordanian counterpart. Counterterrorism is easy, right? Almost everyone will cooperate on counterterrorism.
The expert then detailed a scene in which an Arab member of Al-Qaeda is recruited to be a spy, explaining why the sequence gets it right in terms of realism:
A white guy with blond hair and blue eyes isn't going to infiltrate al-Qaeda, but this guy will. And another myth emerging in Hollywood is that the CIA is capable of directly infiltrating foreign terrorist groups. This is simply not true. Half of the people at the CIA who speak Arabic have blond hair and blue eyes, are African-American, and speak Arabic with an American accent. You're not going to infiltrate a terrorist group that way. What you need to do is recruit access agents who can do this on your behalf.
Body of Lies contains a blatantly ridiculous scene, according to Kiriakou. The expert says the film goes too far when DiCaprio stages a daring false flag operation against an American facility:
Can you imagine writing a telegram to headquarters and saying, “I have an idea for an operation: are we going to blow up the American embassy?” You can implement a false flagging operation. A false flag operation occurs when you do something and blame someone else or allow someone else to take the credit. But no, not like we saw in the clip.
Kirkiakou gives Body of Lies a high rating, although I find some of the plot totally unbelievable:
The relationship story is so good. I would give it an eight. The only reason I wouldn't give it a nine or ten is because the bombing of this American facility is crazy.
Our Take on Body Of Lies' Highly Precision Score (And That Caveat)
The film should have sacrificed some realism for more drama
Accusations of inaccuracy leveled against Gladiator and American gangster probably means little to Scott, who almost always prioritizes dramatic effect over “realism.” Body of Lies in fact, it is more faithful to reality than those films, at least according to one expert, but that may not have worked in the film's favor. Gladiator and American gangster they may be less accurate in terms of realistic detail, but they are also much more effective as films.
The one blatantly absurd plot point hinted at in Kiriakou's collapse – the false flag bombing of an American facility – is actually one of the film's most dramatic moments. Perhaps Body of Lies I should have bet less on precision and more on hard-hitting drama. A highly accurate score from an expert is a great compliment, but the only number that matters is the box office gross, and that's where Body of Lies falls short.
Source: Insider