Green Zone (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
Army Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is a reliable, dependable & sturdy WMD tracker in 'Green Zone', directed by Paul Greengrass. It is 2003, & Iraq is "liberated" (yeah, sure). When action starts, we find that Roy is getting more & more agitated that all the sites he & his team have been sent to secure have no Weapons of Mass Destruction. Why are Roy & his team being sent to incorrect spots? People are dying because of this process, so Roy deems is appropriate to get to the bottom of this habitually incorrect intel. Bush administration representative Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) poo-poos Roy's concern; arguing that the intel is correct; and that the source of the intel is provided by an informant named 'Magellan'. CIA operative Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) think Poundstone is full of sh*t, & intuits to Roy that there probably won't be any WMDs at his next informed site, either.
As it turns out, Martin Brown is correct. All the while, an Iraqi citizen nicknamed 'Freddy' (Khalid Abdalla) approaches Roy's unit with his own info about a high-ranking member of Iraq's Republican Guard arriving for a secret meeting at a nearby house. This man is the all-powerful General Al Rawi (Igal Naor), one of Saddam's main underlings. Both Brown & Poundstone want Al Rawi found ... though, for differing reasons. Why would America (as represented by all the Poundstones of our nation) be potentially be lying about the purpose of occupying Iraq? Roy asks Martin Brown if they aren't all on the same side; to which Brown stoically responds, "Don't be naive". And as Roy's personal investigation intensifies, he finds himself in the unlikely (literally), & uncomfortable position of being hunted by soldiers (on both sides). Can Roy dismantle the cover-up mission that would escalate us in the Iraq War? Or will he be killed first?
So this whole movie is basically a wish-fulfillment fantasy - could one disillusioned soldier really have done what Roy Miller did? Where would we have been 7 yrs. ago if Roy had uncovered America's REAL reasoning for being in Iraq in the first place? Would there have been nearly 2 million dead Iraqis? Would there be nearly 35,000 dead American soldiers? Would there be such poor goodwill towards America? By blending truth with fiction, 'Green Zone' (known as America's safety zone within Iraq) tries to be both a political message film as well as action entertainment. And while I didn't mind aspects of either, I don't think it was a completely winning combination. I suppose it is 'fun'(?) to speculate & dramatize whether the intel failure was the result of lies or incompetence. But the entire film came across, to me, as too heavy-handed, & too tampered with (to achieve an emotional pull).
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this film on a base level. Brian Helgeland wrote a decent fictional story with strong non-fictional elements. Paul Greengrass directs assuredly. The cast is solid. The frenetic editing did not make me as queasy as expected. The level of tension starts high, dips in the middle, & returns in the end. The action (stunts, chases, fights, choreographed chaos) is pretty cool. I could go on with faint praise forever. But something just rang false. Manufactured. Not challenging enough. Roy Miller is nothing more than your cookie-cutter noble man who seeks the truth, uncovers corruption, & becomes an obvious hero. The journalist played by Amy Ryan is a plot device & nothing else. So, too, was 'Freddy'; emerging from the shadows at just the right climactic moment. And Poundstone (and the rest of Bush's cronies) is a villain caricature of the highest order. I wanted to experience more gray areas in the script; & there are too many black & whites. Overall, though I was entertained enough as I watched it, 'Green Zone' is ultimately competent, shrug-worthy, & unremarkable.
As it turns out, Martin Brown is correct. All the while, an Iraqi citizen nicknamed 'Freddy' (Khalid Abdalla) approaches Roy's unit with his own info about a high-ranking member of Iraq's Republican Guard arriving for a secret meeting at a nearby house. This man is the all-powerful General Al Rawi (Igal Naor), one of Saddam's main underlings. Both Brown & Poundstone want Al Rawi found ... though, for differing reasons. Why would America (as represented by all the Poundstones of our nation) be potentially be lying about the purpose of occupying Iraq? Roy asks Martin Brown if they aren't all on the same side; to which Brown stoically responds, "Don't be naive". And as Roy's personal investigation intensifies, he finds himself in the unlikely (literally), & uncomfortable position of being hunted by soldiers (on both sides). Can Roy dismantle the cover-up mission that would escalate us in the Iraq War? Or will he be killed first?
So this whole movie is basically a wish-fulfillment fantasy - could one disillusioned soldier really have done what Roy Miller did? Where would we have been 7 yrs. ago if Roy had uncovered America's REAL reasoning for being in Iraq in the first place? Would there have been nearly 2 million dead Iraqis? Would there be nearly 35,000 dead American soldiers? Would there be such poor goodwill towards America? By blending truth with fiction, 'Green Zone' (known as America's safety zone within Iraq) tries to be both a political message film as well as action entertainment. And while I didn't mind aspects of either, I don't think it was a completely winning combination. I suppose it is 'fun'(?) to speculate & dramatize whether the intel failure was the result of lies or incompetence. But the entire film came across, to me, as too heavy-handed, & too tampered with (to achieve an emotional pull).
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this film on a base level. Brian Helgeland wrote a decent fictional story with strong non-fictional elements. Paul Greengrass directs assuredly. The cast is solid. The frenetic editing did not make me as queasy as expected. The level of tension starts high, dips in the middle, & returns in the end. The action (stunts, chases, fights, choreographed chaos) is pretty cool. I could go on with faint praise forever. But something just rang false. Manufactured. Not challenging enough. Roy Miller is nothing more than your cookie-cutter noble man who seeks the truth, uncovers corruption, & becomes an obvious hero. The journalist played by Amy Ryan is a plot device & nothing else. So, too, was 'Freddy'; emerging from the shadows at just the right climactic moment. And Poundstone (and the rest of Bush's cronies) is a villain caricature of the highest order. I wanted to experience more gray areas in the script; & there are too many black & whites. Overall, though I was entertained enough as I watched it, 'Green Zone' is ultimately competent, shrug-worthy, & unremarkable.