DVD Review #44 Green Zone

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Green Zone (2010) Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear Directed by Paul Greengrass

Michael Moore was probably right to say that this film was “Stupidly marketed as an action flick” and that it was “the most honest film about the Iraq war he has seen”. Green Zone really moonlights as an action flick while being much more effective as a cautionary tale about CIA wars. It also happens to be based on a lot of facts (based on both Iraq war vet Anthony Gonzalez and the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City) and though this particular story is fiction it’s not far from many truths that are generally accepted by most officials about the Iraq War and its WMD wild goose chase.

Green Zone is the story of Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (strongly played by Matt Damon) who is working to find WMD’s in Iraq now that Baghdad has fallen. The problem is that every time he puts his men in harms way to clear a site, the INTEL seems to be bad and there are no weapons (you couldn’t make up a story like this). After getting fed up with bad Intel Miller decides to “go rogue” and teams up with a savvy and “old school” CIA agent (played by Martin Brown and done well) that leads him in the right direction. The action in the film is actually really well done and the writing is very solid. I think I wanted a bit more from the storytelling aspect of the film, but in order to walk the line as this film attempts to walk between Action and message, I think they oversimplify and speed the time-frame up a bit too much. I forgive it for that because I certainly agree with the message and don’t turn a blind eye to the reasons we were sold on this war in real life. It does a good job at selling its message and entertaining, so for me it worked well. Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Jason Isaacs, and Khalid Abdalla all do a fine job in there respective supporting roles. Look (at the risk of offending people this is the only clear way I can put this) if you’ve turned a blind eye to the reasons we went into Iraq and are fine with the case the Bush Administration made for going to war then you won’t like this film, for the rest of us logical people, Green Zone is a very good movie.

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) Green Zone didn’t score that big at the Box Office but it will score well here on my Scale, a very good and fast paced film that is meant to remind us to take a second look at what media and politicians are feeding us…a strong 7.0 on the scale.