Body of Lies

When Sadiki runs from his apartment before he is kidnapped, the car plate numbers are not Jordanian, they are Saudi Arabian.

The film makers have gone to great lengths to import Dutch EMT and firefighter costumes for the Noordermarkt, Amsterdam scene.

Unfortunately, they haven't done the same for the fire trucks and ambulances.

They don't even slightly resemble the vehicles actually used in The Netherlands, but seem to be American.

Rabies injections are no longer administered via the abdominal wall but instead half the initial dose is injected into the region of the bite, with the remainder of the initial dose being injected intramuscularly away from the bite, typically the upper arm.

Booster injections are given 3, 6, 14 and 28 days after exposure to the rabies virus, not just every week for a month.

However, given that the hospital Ferris goes to is apparently not hugely modern, it is entirely possible that the staff there are not aware of the newer procedure and thus this may be a deliberate character error rather than a script mistake.

The area around Balad, Iraq is flat, not mountainous.

When the cars turn off the desert road when meeting "the man on the bicycle" you hear the tyres squealing despite it being a dirt road.

Before Ferris offers Nizar the orange, the passenger window is half-way up.

After Nizar refuses, the window is all the way up, and in the next shot, it is back to being half-way again.

In the kidnapping scene of Omar Sadiki all the cars license plates say Saudi Arabia in Arabic, but they say Jordan.

As the tactical response squad prepares to storm the bomb makers' flat in "Manchester, England" blurry but visible public notice markings from the Baltimore (Maryland, USA) urban housing authorities are seen on plywood covering abandoned row houses doors.

The distinctive stenciled spray-painted messages in half-foot-high red lettering typically says "NO TRESPASSING / PRIVATE PROPERTY / IN CASE OF / EMERGENCY CONTACT /" and then a Baltimore-area phone number.

When Roger goes to see Garland for the first time Garland pours him a coffee into a square cream colored mug.

When they are in the next room he is now drinking from a round green mug.

When Hoffman and Ferris are at a Jordanian airport, the scenery in the background reveals the airport to be Dulles International Airport, which is near Washington DC, not Jordan.

And later when Ferris is at the Dubai airport, the background is again Dulles.

The starting sequence is clearly not Manchester.

Apart from the fact it is not raining, the houses have flat roofing, whereas in Manchester the roofing of terrace house of that period, almost without fail, is pitched slate tile.

The pavement is also clearly side walk and the streets generally unconvincing.

The pull back aerial reveals numerous failings such as residential massing, spacing and lack of mid Victorian architectural design and urban form.

(at around 37 mins) As Ferris is leaving Aisha's apartment, there is the slightest reflection of a crew member sitting in a chair with a black cap observing the scene.

It is just visible after Ferris' reflection leaves the picture frame and he walks out the door while the light outside hits it.

When Ferris is in the safe house in the first part of the movie, his partner takes something out of the car, and the hand of the cameraman is clearly visible in a reflection on the side door of the car.

After bomb explosion in Amsterdam police cars arrive with the letters "Police" on them.

These police cars are not used in the Netherlands.

They have other cars with totally different color marks and the letters "Politie" on them.

When Roger Ferris drives to Aisha's house afraid of her has been taking by terrorist, for a second, in a left turn you can watch a Morocco's flag and also the front side of a Moroccan post office.

Almost every time Hoffman and Ferris are on the phone with each other, there is a bright daylight in the background of both, although there is 8 to 9 hours difference between Hoffman's location (Langley) and Ferris' location (various places in the Middle East).

The scene supposedly taking place at the Noordermarkt in Amsterdam was definitely not shot there.

During the early scenes set in Manchester many cars have had their registration plates removed to avoid giving away the location as the US rather than the UK.

However the shape of the gap left by the missing plates as well as the pattern of the screws indicates that the plates removed were the much squarer US plates than their standard, more rectangular, UK counterparts.

Most films about the Middle-East are filmed in Morocco.

In the Amman, Jordan, scenes of _Body of Lies (2008)_ (qv), almost nothing has been done to hide that.

The typical street patterns of Casablanca and Rabat are obvious, while Amman has a completely different outlook.

When Ferris finally decides to leave the CIA, and thus Jordan, Hoffmann tells him he will miss the couscous.

Couscous however is a typical dish of Morocco (where the film was shot), and does not exist in Jordan or anywhere else in the Middle-East.

'Couscous' exists everywhere in the Middle-East.

When Ferris gets Garland to write an e-mail from Sadiki's fake e-mail address to get Al-Saleem's attention, he starts out by saying"In the name of God, no (you know what), strike that - In the name of God, the merciful.

But when we see Garland's writing on the screen, he hasn't added "the merciful" to his text.

A CIA agent in Jordan hunts down a powerful terrorist leader while being caught between the unclear intentions of his American supervisors and Jordan Intelligence.

Http://eattheblinds.blogspot.

Based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius? 2007 novel, Body of Lies tells the story of a CIA operative, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), who uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan but he must first win the backing of his CIA superior, veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe).

Ridley Scott is one of the directors I really admire and I love his sci-fi films like 'Bladerunner' and 'Alien', they are true classics. This film 'Body of Lies' is a solid political terrorist espionage thriller, which doesn't really take sides or step on any toes.

Ridley Scott, at the age of 70, is still going strong and shows no signs of slowing down. Having helmed classics like "Gladiator", "Black Hawk Down", "Kingdom of Heaven", and "American Gangster" within the same decade, Scott adds another classic to that list this one.

This film is a pamphlet and as such is an essential film in our consciousness of reality the way it may be in this globalized world. It shows how the West cannot win the war in which we have engage ourselves without even thinking it over twice.

Ridley Scott is usually one you can depend on to make a good, sometimes fantastic, film, and it'll mostly be well-done. This definitely fits the last two mentioned qualities.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning A major terrorist plot is thwarted in Manchester, England, sparking fears that a new terrorist cell has sprung up and may be planning attacks around the world. It's not long, of course, before the major American intelligence gets wind of it and assigns Agent Ferris (Leanardo Di Caprio) to rendezvous with a source who claims to have information.

Very disappointing, the cliché dialog and a very stupid monologue ! not to mention that all the middle eastern countries were always pictured as poor, dirty, filthy and so on !