“Green Zone”

Rated R for violence and language.

 

Here is the problem: “Green Zone” is a fictional, action-packed, movie based on a nonfiction book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The nonfiction book, entitled Imperial Life in the Emerald City, is a serious analysis of the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq immediately after the invasion of that country. For some odd reason, in “Green Zone,” this creates, for me, a disturbing mixture of fact and fiction.

Director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon use the proverbial heavy hand with a provocative subject. What do I mean? Well, let me just predict that “Green Zone” probably will not be screened at a certain ranch down in Texas.

Greengrass and Damon entertained us in the “Bourne Ultimatum” and “Bourne Supremacy” (“Bourne Identity” was directed by Doug Liman). So, in “Green Zone,” one cannot be blamed for expecting Jason Bourne to have an adventure in Iraq. After all, the camera shakes just like in the Bourne film series. And the main character (Matt Damon), named “Miller,” has a similar disillusionment with authority and goes rogue, American style. But Roy Miller is not Jason Bourne.

In “Green Zone,” Damon plays a Chief Warrant Officer (Roy Miller) in command of a team searching for WMDs in Iraq immediately after the invasion. He gets “Intel” from his superiors, goes to the site, and finds…well, in one case…lots of pigeon excrement. Pretty soon, the frustrated Miller thinks the triple-secret informant (protected by what the film makes blatantly clear, “The Administration”) is full of the aforementioned “discovery.” He allies himself with a CIA Middle East expert, Martin Brown (played by Brendan Gleeson), and gets caught between these two warring factions: “The Administration” and the CIA expert who thinks “The Administration” is playing politics in a time of war.

“Green Zone” is fast-paced and has gritty, war time drama aplenty. Everybody sweats appropriately; there is plenty of testosterone spraying, chest bumping, and fists flying. All the acting is fine and dandy, particularly from Said Faraj, who plays “Freddy,” a one-legged Iraqi ex-soldier who gets caught up in the struggle among the various factions.

Despite these positive attributes, I think “Green Zone” will fade from memory rather quickly. This is no “Hurt Locker.” There is too much “obvious” politics. And the ending rings, I feel, unrealistic…far too “Hollywood.” I thought the shaky, jerky, camera meant “realistic” and therefore, no “pat ending.” No such luck in the “Green Zone.”

When messing with real political and historical events, particularly with recent ones, the filmmaker should take extreme caution and tell a (fictional) story within a (true) story. Blurring fact to make the fiction “work,” makes for a disconcerting experience. If it is a true story, name names and be up front about it. Adding controversial politics into the fictional mix spoils the stew. Redrawing real-life characters into black and white, bad and good, caricatures works in satire, but under the guise of a “real” story, it turns facile and simplistic.

On the other hand, this film has a political opinion and it makes it most effectively forcefully, and uncomfortably. One line of dialogue, by “Freddy,” causes just about every other line in the film to melt away by insignificance; it distils the point of the entire movie down to that one, powerful, even eloquent line.

So I have mixed feelings about “Green Zone.” I am at a loss to advise my readers. Escapism, it most certainly is not. Provocative, it most certainly is. Well done? Yes. Entertaining? Well, I honestly feel it may be dependent upon your political opinion in regard to the war in Iraq.

I think I miss Jason Bourne; he never put me in such a dilemma.

 

“Green Zone” earns three bow ties out of five.