Brad Anderson, known for ‘The Machinist’, helmed ‘Beirut’, the chilly 2018 political thriller that plunges audiences, like his lonely widower, into a volatile Middle East. The story follows Mason Skiles, a diplomat who returns to Beirut to glimpse a post-apocalyptic backdrop. He must rescue his friend from a military faction, one among many sprouted up in war-torn and emaciated Beirut. The film, on the other hand, discovers the vibrant life in the streets of the Middle Eastern port city. However, if you’re asking if the movie is based on an actual historical turmoil, let’s dig deeper.
Is Beirut a true story?
No, ‘Beirut’ is not based on a true story. While the story is fictional, Lebanon’s volatile geopolitical conflict may have some truth in it. The rendering is precise and progressive. Many people from different countries have a share in the mess. No one looks innocent except the failed hero. Brad Anderson made the film based on an old script by Tony Gilroy, which the veteran screenwriter of ‘Armageddon’ began writing in 1991.
While making the romcom ‘The Cutting Edge’ Gilroy met producer Robert Cort, who happened to have a CIA background. The conversation started with Tom Friedman’s groundbreaking book ‘Beirut to Jerusalem’, which had just come out. They had some discussion and Robert thought that a diplomat negotiator would make a great protagonist for a political thriller.
The story would be fictional, but the circumstances would be tangible. However, Gilroy took the 1984 kidnapping of CIA station chief William Buckley as the model for the story. William Buckley represented an almost perfect example of a high-ranking CIA official. He went deep into the spring of 1982, when Lebanon was a hotbed of conflict. Even Gilroy was amazed at some of the things he found, such as the corruption and instability in the PLO.
After ‘Argo’ saw success at the Academy Awards, set in Lebanon in 1979, Hollywood took a new interest in Middle Eastern thrillers, which were both commercial and critical. Producer Mike Weber has brought Gilroy’s old script back to life with his blessing. Brad Anderson became attached to the project, as did Jon Hamm, the acclaimed protagonist of ‘Mad Men’, a self-confessed Gilroy fan.
They talked about how geopolitical events reinforce each other. The interconnection of these events from the Lebanese Civil War to the Nine-Eleven intrigued Hamm. For his no-nonsense cold-blooded diplomatic demeanor, he enlisted the help of a true statesman. Other actors, such as Rosamund Pike, also did some preparation by taking up Robert Fisk’s history book ‘Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War’. She also delved into how the CIA treated its female employees in the 1980s. She noted the lack of representation of women and gender discrimination within the agency.
However, Gilroy got everything right in the story he initially called the “High Wire Act” – from the involvement of the US diplomats to the Lebanese militia commander turned minister, Bashir Gemayel. So if you need a crash course in the Lebanese Civil War, we’ll sort you out. Bashir Gemayel was at the center of the conflict. With the help of his Christian Freemason supporters, Gemayel and his party, the Falangists, came to power.
With the staunch Christian minority in power, the Islamist fanatic factions waged war against them. The PLO and the Syrian friendly were the main players, with many local and regional factions siding with their cause. There were boiling tensions and in 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon with the civil war at its height. Gemayel supported the position to serve his agenda and suppress the war, although his militia did not help the Israelis.
Gemayel, who was backed by the US, was playing too close to the fire, it seems. He became the country’s president on August 23, 1982, after heroically ending the war in Lebanon. On September 14, two days after his secret meeting with Israeli politician Ariel Sharon, Gemayel died in a bomb explosion. History progressed even further, but thankfully all the tension was gone by the time the movie came out. The people during the Civil War were old and their grandchildren were old enough to understand the ripples of history. Therefore, the film may be fictional. However, the story is wrapped in authentic linen.
Read more: Where was Beirut filmed?
