Green Zone

Green Zone (2010)
Universal Pictures
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan

Green Zone teams director Paul Greengrass with Matt Damon for their third film together following the success of The Bourne Supremacy and the Academy Award winning The Bourne Ultimatum. Using the same techniques that made those films unique and creative, Greengrass has created a war thriller based on true events. Based on the novel, Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the film takes actual events, but changes the names of some of the participants. Matt Damon stars as Chief Roy Miller, the head of a Mobile Exploitation Team determined to find weapons of mass destructions (WMD) in Iraq. His team keeps coming up short due to faulty intelligence, but when the intelligence is questioned by Miller, he is told to keep his mouth shut and do his job. CIA Bureau Chief Martin Brown (Gleeson) knows that the intelligence is wrong and tries to help Miller. When a secret meeting of Iraqi leaders takes place, Miller finds a book with the names and locations of all the leaders. Brown and Miller use the information to uncover the truth about the faulty intelligence and the supposed WMDs, while trying to find out the identity of the Iraqi informant known as “Magellan.”

The story is a fictional account of WMD issue in Iraq, though many of the events that occur in Green Zone are based on true events. Chief Miller is based on Richard Gonzales, who was given command of the WMD team. As in the movie, his intelligence was also faulty and inaccurate. All of the characters have real-life representatives: Brown is based on Jay Garner; Pentagon Special Intelligence Clark Poundstone is Paul Brenner; Magellan is based on the informant Curveball.

As with other Paul Greengrass films, his method of filming includes shaky camera shots to intensify the action and realism of the sequences. This newer Hollywood method has come into much debate because some audience members are prone to motion sickness. The Bourne Ultimatum had a tremendous amount of shaky cam shots, and Green Zone is worse. There are far more shaky cam shots, faster cuts; the whole film is a blur. This helps the intensity of the film’s situations, but also hinders the film. It is hard to tell what is going on when the camera is going in every which way and the editing is so fast, that there is a new cut every two seconds. This is the biggest letdown of the film. While The Bourne Ultimatum won an Academy Award for its editing and cinematography, Green Zone uses the technique so much that it distracts audiences from the plot and action.

Green Zone shares many social messages with Greengrass’ Bourne films. All three of his films share a sense of paranoia of the government. Some would call Green Zone anti-war propaganda. It deliberately shows that the American government lied about WMDs in Iraq and used this excuse to invade the country. It is my opinion that this is what Greengrass believes to have happened. He is very anti-government and his films show this.

Besides the blatant anti-war messages, Green Zone works as a political thriller filled with messages of government conspiracies and paranoia. It is not as groundbreaking as other ant-war films such as Full Metal Jacket, but overall, Green Zone sends its message across. It is very realistic and political and sends a firm message to the American citizens that the government should not be trusted. The acting is top notch. Damon is believable in his role, and the other supporting cast gives it their all. Besides the sickness inducing camera work, Green Zone is a good war thriller that really hits home and will cause some major debates.

Rating: C+


July 2, 2010