Green Zone

BOTTOM LINE: "Green Zone" may not be a Bourne film as suggested in the previews, but it proves to be a great thriller, with an honesty and authenticity that questions the purpose of the Iraq War and the mis-handling of it by the Americans to get a victorious headline and to achieve their objective of removing Saddam Hussein.

THE GOOD: Matt Damon plays Chief Roy Miller of the US Army, who is searching Iraq with his team for Weapons of Mass Destruction in the weeks following the initial invasion in 2003. Miller is frustrated because every site they inspect based on the intelligence comes up empty, and he begins to question what is happening. This does not go down well with his superiors, although he has CIA station chief Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) on his side who knows that the "intel" is faulty. Following his instincts, Miller goes out on his own to find out what is happening and discovers a scandal that goes right to the heart of the reasons why America invaded Iraq. "Green Zone" is an excellent thriller, largely due to its honesty and authenticity, both in setting the scene and in its performances. Damon in particular does not just act like a soldier, he IS a soldier and he makes you believe it. The rest of the cast is also perfectly on song. The staging of the sequences and the attention to detail is meticulous and engaging. Despite not being filmed in Iraq, director Paul Greengrass creates images that really make you believe you are seeing the real thing, and the use of computer generated images to fill in the blanks is barely noticeable. The integration of the invasion bombing at the beginning of the film is virtually identical to the real footage we saw on television. Greengrass steadies his camera a lot more than in his previous films, and despite so much of it being handheld, the images are always clear and we always know exactly where we are. Another great aspect to watch is that this film gives you as good an insight as any film in to how life is like for soldiers on the ground in Iraq; it will make you feel angry about why they were sent there in the first place, which goes to the film's central point that officials in Washington used WMDs as an excuse to invade the country and get rid of Saddam. Even the way the American media was sucked in to the lie is covered, with a subplot involving a journalist who reported on WMDs based on the faulty intelligence. Miller asks her at one point: "did you ever bother to check the validity of your source?" to which she replies, "he was a high ranking official in DC? He had the data!". "Green Zone" is a winner, and is engaging from start to finish.

THE BAD: The only issue with the film that robs it of an overall dramatic punch is that we all know what happened in Iraq. We know there were no WMDs, so we know that Miller's journey can only end either with his death or not finding the WMDs. Despite Greengrass' best efforts to enhance the drama and thrills of the story, the film is handicapped by us knowing that Miller's search is futile. The only dramatic climax we get is Miller telling Pentagon Chief Clark Poundstone "I know what you did", punching him in the mouth, and Miller sending what he knows to every news outlet in America. Aside from this, "Green Zone" is absolutely worth watching on the big screen.

For the original review, follow this link: http://www.allaboutmovies.net/filmreviewgreenzone.htm Todd Murphy is a staff reviewer at the film/DVD review web site, http://www.allaboutmovies.net - for all the latest reviews on the newest releases. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Murphy