Review 279: Green Zone

Green Zone is an excellent war film, one that takes daring risks and that has more on its mind than just adrenaline pumping set pieces.

Based on the non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his platoon are on a mission in 2003 during the Invasion of Iraq to find the countries reported stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Traveling from one dangerous site to another, Miller and his team fail to find any chemical agents or other weapons. Instead, they discover an elaborate coverup in which the most elusive weapon is truth.

The plot is fantastic. What director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon set out to do with Green Zone and achieve so well is to have the gumption to make a war film that's critical of America.
It's a thriller with a point to argue: It touches on the ramifications of Bushes publicity stunt of victory against Sadam and how the whole war in Iraq was merely based on lie and the impact it had on the Iraqi people and neighbouring Middle Eastern countries.

Green Zone could be seen as Paul Greengrass' response to how the Americans handled aftermath of the Iraq War and what incompetent decisions they made that had dire consequences.

Paul Greengrass's direction is outstanding (once again crafting simply gripping action scenes with wondrous hand held camera work), the cinematography is beautiful and not only captures the beauty of Iraq but also the grim war torn environment that it is, the score by John Powell is spectacular, the locations are gorgeous, the production design is superb, the costumes are excellent, the action scenes are tense, suspenseful & exciting, its fast paced

The acting is terrific all round, Matt Damon Roy Miller and Jason Bourne are world apart but they share some fundamental similarities in that they're both protagonists who are U.S. government officials who question authority but they deal with their respective situations in a very different way.

Brendan Gleeson

Amy Ryan

Greg Kinnear's Clark Poundstone is essentially the U.S. government personified

Jason Issacs

As Roger Ebert eloquently put it: "Green Zone is one hell of a thriller!" 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.