Green Zone (2010)

You won't be disappointed!

Strong and Moving!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The story is adding drama and killings that were a bit much. Otherwise, good acting and realistic scenes.

With the team up of star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass having proven successful with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, it perhaps isn't surprising that the two would team-up again so soon after what was initially seen as the final film in the Bourne franchise. What the pair made was a film that dealt with many of the same themes of distrust and questionable US government motives. The difference? This one was set firmly in the recent past in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That film was Green Zone and the results were compelling.Green Zone is on the surface a fairly straightforward thriller. Damon plays Roy Miller, a US Army chief warrant officer leading a team around Iraq in search of the WMDs that were the cause of the invasion. Miller's team comes up empty again and again causing the soldier to raise questions with his superiors. His hunt for answers leads him through a series of characters ranging from a Defense Department Special Intelligence official, a CIA officer, a journalist who did the initial reporting on WMDs, and a series of Iraqis. It also takes in those things audiences have come to expect from Greenglass and Damon: chase sequences, firefights, and a driving narrative.The film is anchored though by a solid cast. Like with the Bourne films, Damon's performance as Miller is the heart of the film as he takes the viewer along on a journey across the width and breadth of the early days of the conflict from battling it out against snipers at a suspected WMD site to inside the titular Green Zone where American officials are trying to determine the future of Iraq back onto the streets for the film's conclusion. Damon portrays Miller as a good soldier trying to do his duty and, in the process of doing so, discovering some less than appealing truths along the way and its that everyman quality Damon has which sells it solidly.The supporting cast is solid as well. They range from Greg Kinnear as a DOD official Poundstone who is trying to dictate the future of Iraq from inside the Green Zone, Amy Ryan as the journalist trying to get the scoop of interviewing the WMD source, Brendan Gleeson as the local CIA chief, an almost unrecognizable Jason Issacs as a special forces soldier, and Khalid Abdalla as Iraqi who ends up becoming Miller's translator. None of these roles (or those of the members of Miller's team) are especially showy but together they present a compelling cast of characters that populate the world of the film.It's that world that is the soul of the film. Greengrass and screenwriter Brian Helgeland use the thriller plot to explore the invasion of Iraq and its immediate aftermath. It highlights the incredible disconnect between the reality of what was happening in the streets and those making decisions inside the comfort of the Green Zone (and by extension in Washington as displayed in one scene early on in the film). While the film takes cues both from journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book Imperial Life In The Emerald City and the later revelations about the source of WMD claims and the planning for a new Iraq, it remains a solid thriller albeit one that beautifully illustrates the differences between the reality and the perception in the early months of the war.Perhaps no scene better illustrates this than one approximately midway through the film. Damon's Miller visits the Green Zone decked out in full desert camo uniform with a couple of his men in tow to speak with Gleeson's CIA chief. They arrive only to find themselves standing by the pool at the Republican Palace that was until recently the preferred residence of Saddam Hussein. Except it has the air, not of a war zone, but some vacation resort with people drinking beer and eating pizza as beautiful women in bikinis walk by.It's a startling moment for character and viewer alike and it highlights nicely how the situation in Iraq became the way it did.

Movie Review: "Green Zone" (2010)Director Paul Greengrass reunites with leading actor Matt Damon performing fully-geared-up to war-conspiracy exposing Chief Captain Miller of U.S. military special forces, telling the story of the first months in the Iraq invasion in March 2003, which should have been clean-cut mission operatives, but then had been produced stretched tours for thousand of U.S. American army-signing citizens over six years until January 1st 2009 give-back regarding the title-given governmental capital area in the eastern parts of Baghdad to make sense out of an hostile take-over based on an hyper-theoretical atomic threat for the western hemisphere through the Iraqi government, led by already-deceased former-president Saddam Hussein (1937-2006), when "Green Zone" presents itself as one of most ambitious high-scale modern warfare film production eve- conceived by Hollywood's dream-factory represented by distributor Universal Pictures associated with driving completion-forces by London-based production company "Working Title" represented by managing producers Eric Fellner & Tim Bevan, who are able to raise an 100-Million-Dollar production budget, which gets put entirely into realistic war zone scenarios paired with highly-advanced military equipment and thriller elements-striving military internal affair conspiracy of forging mission Intel for profitable home-based business ventures, especially recalling "Jarhead" movie directed by Sam Mendes in season 2004/2005 in thematically-scratched oil resources of this middle eastern region, when Director Paul Greengrass focuses on Matt Damon's character in bringing order in the chaotically-received high-standard 35mm handheld cinematography by lighting cameraman Barry Ackroyd, whose peaked body of work remains unsurprisingly emotional distant after Kathryn Bigelow major directing effort with "The Hurt Locker", when "Green Zone" does not seem to convince fully on whirling Baghdad-citizens story-interventions with picture-carrying Matt Damon under Greengrass' direction with respect of what had been possible to bring the utmost enduring stress situations for U.S. American soldiers to life, who deserve a full-bodied cinematic motivations of a "Brother in Arms" fighting cause as given with a more recent Mark Wahlberg led "Lone Survivor" (2013), when supporting characters as CIA-agent playing Brendan Gleeson and further U.S. army administration-executing characters portrayed by Amy Ryan and Greg Kinnear do not get the chance to punch necessary beats to make "Green Zone" a satisfactory war-action-movie without overly-done patriotism, but then again shallow mass-audience-seeking depth of an unless highly-potential screenplay by supreme screenwriter Brian Helgeland.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Matt Damon plays a fantastic role and really helps engage the audience to what his true personal mission is within the film. The film helps the audience understand what modern warfare is like without a lot of trigger happy American junkies shooting constantly through the film. It helps enlighten the public about the corruption and the conspiracy behind the Iraq war as well as showing the true superpower of the USA. There are no real faults with the film and it is one of my personal favourite films about modern conflict. The film is definitely a must watch to anyone who takes any interest in current affairs and modern war however if you like an all out fighting film with a lot of nail biting battles then this film probably isn't going to be a favourite. It does have its fair share of fighting but the more gripping context is the ideal behind why Miller wants to investigate into WMD's. Overall it is a fantastic film and i would recommend it to anyone.