Green Zone – Review

One of the many stains on the Bush administration is that they engaged into a war in a search-and-find WMDs, yet despite what we were fed on the news, as time rolled on and American causalities piled up, nobody found Saddam’s WMDs. It’s commonly regarded to as the source needed to start the war in Iraq, these mythical WMDs, and they were constantly a smoke-and-mirror for us to allow our government to do what they felt they needed to do. Saddam and his sons were people that needed to be out of governmental power, that’s for sure, but these ‘Where’s Waldo’ games on where those pesky WMDs were, tired and eventually angered the American people. Weaving facts and thrilling fiction is Green Zone, an adaptation of a non-fictional account by Washington Post journalist, Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

And no folks, this isn’t Bourne 4.

That assessment shows how popular the Bourne films are and how recognizable Paul Greengrass’s style is, but let’s end that point-of-view there. Green Zone is a political thriller that hinges itself through a myriad of facts (sometimes fictional facts) and action. Greengrass’s style of the ‘shaky cam’ feels pretty natural with this material, even though I felt it was tired in Bourne Ultimatum. The opening sequence is this blitz of movement with Saddam’s top general trying to evacuate his home amongst the U.S.’s “Shock and Awe” campaign. As he escapes, the camera pans up to a large overview of Baghdad being bombarded with bombs. Against the night, the flurry of reds and oranges from the blasts paints this wonderful scene. Scenes like this, and there’s a few more, really elevate Greengrass’s style to more than the cinema verite work his Bourne films had. I know many have complaints on his camera work, as I did in Bourne Ultimatum, a film that felt cold and distant visually, but in Green Zone he’s in top form again.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and in Green Zone the script does feature a few typical liberal ideas, something even a person like myself who was critical of the past administration’s doings, can admit too. But that’s part of the entertainment of this political thriller, that mixes action with some insights. Matt Damon is as good as he has been, as an idealistic soldier that just really wants to find those WMDs. But if we had more people like his Chief Miller, maybe the Iraq Invasion, err, War wouldn’t have been such a cluster. That’s one of the film’s benefits though, these ideas and questions in hindsight should spark conversation after wards. I’m sure many might take issues with way some characters act and their actions, but semi-urgency of the film, with what we know now, aids the film, for without it, might just be another forgettable action flick.

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