Starring: Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Mark Pellegrino, Shea Wigham, Leila Behkti
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 109 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2018
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Beirut is a serious and sombre film. It is political, a dramatic look at American foreign policy, the role of Israel, the PLO. It was written by Tony Gilroy who has written some very interesting serious films like Michael Clayton, Duplicity, Nightcrawler. And the star is Jon Hamm, who made such an impression on television with Mad Men and has now established a film career.
While it is a film about espionage, it is not an action-packed film. It is an appeal to a more intelligent audience and it has disappointed those who are addicted to non-stop action and have found such dialogue tedious.
The film opens in Beirut — although the filming was done in Morocco, much to the upset of some Lebanese commentators. It is 1972, commentary made about coexistence in the country between Muslims and a variety of Christians, Jon Hamm appearing as an American host, Mason, a solid politician and negotiator. He is hosting a party with his wife, a young PLO 13-year-old boy who has been adopted, more or less, by the couple helping with the serving. Suddenly the party is interrupted, officials arriving, threats, the demand to surrender the boy because his brother has been one of the terrorists at the massacre of the Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. The tensions in the situation leads to some tragic consequences.
The film then moves to 10 years later, 1982, with Mason self-employed back in the US, still in grief about his wife’s death, alcoholic, and negotiator between companies and unions. Unexpectedly, a message comes from the State Department inviting him to return to Lebanon to deal with a hostage situation. The hostage is his close friend who was involved as an authority on the night of the party 10 years earlier.
Mason is somewhat reluctant but, drawing on his skills as a negotiator, he evaluates the situation with the local American authorities, the ambassador, the complexities of the demands by the PLO for Israel to return the terrorist from the Olympic Games who has been taken by the Israelis.
It is also sobering to watch this kind of story realising that this is the kind of thing that is going on in many countries, thinking of the Middle East, abductions, hostage demands, threats of retaliation, the need for the negotiators to have steady nerves and ability to think through situations and potential consequences.
The screenplay takes the audience through the various steps, contact with the Israelis, then discussion with the Israelis who deny having the prisoner, though not calling off further negotiations. There are the contacts with the PLO and their status at the time, and the presence in Lebanon.
Jon Hamm is quite credible in this role, a good man, a man who suffered, a man who has lost some confidence in himself but who draws on his resources to negotiate while respecting the demands and conditions of the respective parties. His co-star in the film is Rosamund Pike as one of the members of the team in Beirut. She is a presence. She is very serious (there is nothing to suggest any levity in the situation) and supports Hamm in the process.
There is a postscript at the end with a speech in a press conference by Ronald Reagan, the President talking about peace in that area of the world while there has been Civil War during the 1970s and impending 1980s invasions of Lebanon by Israel.
A story from past decades but still of immediate relevance.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
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