Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Backstabbing for Beginners Blu-ray Movie Review

Talk about your shades of gray. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 26, 2018

Sir Ben Kingsley has an inherently patrician quality that served him extremely well in his Academy Award winning performance as Gandhi, the sort of noble character where unquestioned moral qualities are at the core of an individual’s being. It’s interesting to see Kingsley put those same patrician qualities in the service of a decidedly more morally ambiguous sort, especially one who is prone to drop the f bomb on fairly regular occasions, but Kingsley’s depiction of a supposed Under Secretary of the United Nations named Pasha is one of the highlights of Backstabbing for Beginners, a generally riveting “ripped from the headlines” account of subterfuge and outright corruption that afflicted the United Nations’ so called Oil for Food Program(me). The Oil for Food Programme was created courtesy of a Security Council Resolution in 1995 in an attempt to get humanitarian aid to Iraqis while at the same time trying to keep Saddam Hussein from building up his military with the profits from the sale of oil. It was a noble cause, one which Secretary General Kofi Annan praised upon its closing in 2003 as having accomplished “one of the largest, most complex and unusual tasks ever entrusted to the Secretariat” (in a quote pulled from an actual United Nations press release covering the closure). The film’s actual focal character is Pasha’s newly hired assistant, a guy named Michael Sullivan (Theo James), a character based on the real life Michael Soussan whose autobiographical memoir of his adventures in the United Nations provided the source material for the screenplay by Daniel Pyne and director Per Fly (why they changed the character’s surname for the film version is anyone’s guess). Michael’s dream was to be a diplomat, following in his father’s footsteps, though wary of the fact that his father was in fact one of the victims of the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed a host of workers placed in Lebanon.

There’s some frankly amazing (not necessarily in a good way) archival footage early on in Backstabbing for Beginners that features a couple of Iraqi superstars (?) singing (?) an anthem in honor of Saddam Hussein, something that I assume came from state run Iraqi television and which in and of itself proves how cruel Saddam was to his citizenry (yes, that’s a joke, but maybe just barely). What’s really the issue, though, is Saddam’s repeated assertions of military power, something that the United Nations is intent on curtailing, even as it attempts to help a fragmented and in some cases desperately poor people. That said, the old adage about good intentions and a certain pathway to nether regions may spring to mind, as various underhanded activities surrounding the multi billion dollar United Nations enterprise start getting detailed.

Michael comes on the job after the mysterious death of his predecessor (in a thriller element that really only gets passing attention paid due to other pressing issues), and is immediately tasked with providing a summary of the Oil for Food Programme’s progress. When he presents his findings to Pasha, the elder statesman laments that Michael’s summary is War and Peace length (there’s an f bomb in there somewhere, I’m almost positive), and Pasha is especially concerned about a database of kickbacks that Michael has assembled. In fact, Pasha removes those pages from the summary and summarily puts them through the shredder. As Pasha makes clear soon thereafter as the pair journeys to Baghdad, while the truth is important and inviolable, choosing which truth (or perhaps more accurately how much truth) to share is the Art of Diplomacy, and he asks for Michael’s forbearance on certain matters.

Once in Baghdad, Michael gets a crash course in political expediency, watching first hand as Pasha more or less puts on a show for the assembled press by arguing behind the scenes with his superior (an underused Jacqueline Bisset), who is adamant that the graft and corruption afflicting the program be exposed. Pasha is willing to turn a blind eye (so to speak) in order to at least get some needed supplies to people, but even his motivations may not be completely honorable. The entire film tends to traffic in characters who have somewhat variant moral compasses, though you’d be hard pressed to call any of these people actual “villains” in any traditional sense, just as you’d be similarly hard pressed to call any of them actual “heroes”.

If the political aspect of Backstabbing for Beginners is often viscerally compelling (if also disturbing), unfortunately the film wants to traffic in a few clichés along the way, too, probably the least convincing of which is a predictable romance between Michael and a local translator Nashim (Belçim Bilgin). There’s also an almost ridiculous amount of conspiratorial shenanigans going on around the edges of this story, including supposedly spooky attempts to tail Michael and even bribe him. One of the kind of funnier elements involves a no nonsense CIA agent who first approaches Michael right after Michael’s been hired and tells Michael he doesn’t want him to out and out spy (“Oh, no, leave that to the professionals”), but who does in fact want Michael to keep his eyes and ears open “for God and country”, since there are already suspicions that a lot of illegal activity is going on in the Oil for Food Programme.

The film offers several standout performances, but it’s the central duo of James and Kingsley that make this piece click as briskly as it often does. No one really comes out of this story with honor completely intact, but there’s a feeling that in this relativistic world of shades of gray, even those who have hints of lighter whites might ultimately prevail.

Backstabbing for Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Backstabbing for Beginners is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. There are a number of interstitial uses of archival footage, some of which can be in slightly different aspect ratios, and much of which looks upscaled and/or otherwise pretty ragged (see screenshots 6, 8, 10, 17 and 19 for a few examples). Otherwise, though, this is a sharp and well detailed looking presentation that makes the most of its location work (Morocco filling in for Iraq). The palette is generally pretty natural looking, but since this is a politically charged thriller, there are the seemingly unavoidable blue graded scenes. A number of interior scenes are either lit or graded in a kind of amber hue, and in some of these moments shadow detail can be a little iffy. Fine detail is excellent in the many close-ups of faces.

Backstabbing for Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Backstabbing for Beginners doesn't provide a ton of opportunities for the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track to really exploit "wow" sonics, with elements like Michael's bookending narration being anchored front and center, and even a lot of the dialogue scenes offering immersion courtesy of background environmental sounds. Todor Kobakov's pulsing score resides quite winningly in the side and rear channels and helps to propel several key sequences.

Backstabbing for Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Truth Behind Backstabbing for Beginners (1080p; 8:12). I had hoped that the title of this piece meant that they'd interview the source author and divulge some of the real history, but this is actually more of a rote EPK with Per Fly offering some background on his involvement with the production.

Backstabbing for Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Backstabbing for Beginners has a fascinating premise, and its detailing of the internecine warfare that has afflicted Iraq for untold decades is handled with rather commendable clarity and even handedness. Things get more intentionally murky with regard to the Oil for Food Programme, but even here the film doesn't shy away from some of the more outrageous illegal activity that surrounded (and indeed suffused) the supposed humanitarian effort. Kingsley and James are focused and involving in these duplicitous roles, but some of the sidebars, like the unneeded romantic angle, don't really add much to the proceedings. Technical merits are strong, and Backstabbing for Beginners comes Recommended.