'Rambo'-like 'Green Zone' just revisionist history of Iraq conflict
Matt Damon's muscular and fast-moving action film "The Green Zone" may be marketed as an Iraq war thriller, but it's really a classic example of revisionistic wish fulfillment.
Just as Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo and Chuck Norris' Colonel Braddock re-fought the Vietnam War to fulfill our wishes of victory, Damon's chief warrant officer performs a similar task in Iraq.
We wish there had been someone in America - anyone - with the smarts and critical thinking skills to see through the government's elaborate scam of the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, and go public with the truth.
In routine Hollywood movies, this person would be played by a fearless, skeptical journalist risking his/her life on the front lines of danger.
But the watchdogs of the mainstream American news media were too busy enjoying their safe status as embedded lap dogs. ("Green Zone" features a Wall Street Journal reporter who falls into lock-step with the administration's war drums. Later, she feels really bad about it.)
So, "The Green Zone" gives us a fearless and skeptical U.S. soldier who not only serves as a stand-in for the detective/investigative reporter character, he gives Jason Bourne a run for his nausea-inducing, whip-panned, shaky-cam action sequences.
Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (a Bourne-again Damon) suspects something fishy in Iraq soon after the 2003 U.S. invasion when his squad secures three locations where WMD are supposed to be, but they find nothing.
At a military briefing, Miller points out that their intelligence is highly flawed.
Smug commanders admonish him to stop thinking and follow orders.
"Reasons don't matter!" a G.I tells Miller.
"They matter to me!" Miller shouts. So, he does the only thing a true patriotic American action hero can do under these dire circumstances:
He goes rogue!
As the only U.S. soldier who apparently has no commanding officer to answer to, Miller goes on his own mission to discover what's going on.
He forms an alliance with a crusty old CIA agent named Marty Brown (Brendan Gleeson) and adopts a one-legged patriotic Iraq citizen, Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), as his personal interpreter.
The Wall Street Journal reporter (Amy Ryan) tells Miller that one of Saddam Hussein's trusted lieutenants, code-named "Magellan," was the inside source who confirmed the existence of Iraq's WMD program.
Who is Magellan?
Miller wants to know.
Magellan's identity is of no interest to Clark Poundstone (a smarmy Greg Kinnear), Washington's man in charge of intelligence. All he wants is to dismantle every facet of Iraqi life and reassemble it as a western democracy.
A piece of cake, right?
"The Green Zone" is directed by Paul Greengrass as a bookend of sorts to his riveting fact-based 9/11 thriller "United 93."
His new thriller has been "inspired" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran's nonfiction book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," which means the movie has little to do with its source.
"Green Zone" packs a visceral you-are-there authenticity, thanks to convincing locations (shot in Morocco, the United Kingdom and Spain by "Hurt Locker" cinematographer Barry Ackroyd), and sharp special effects that bring the battle-scarred country to vivid reality.
John Powell's heavy percussion score drives the suspense, even as Miller's rogue exploits grow incredulously sillier.
"The reasons we go to war always matter!" Miller screeches as he hammers home the story's point.
Later, patriot Freddy tells Miller, "It isn't for you to decide what happens here!"
Perhaps that's the film's wish fulfillment for Iraqis.
"The Green Zone"Rating: #9733; #9733; #189;Starring: Matt Damon, Brendan Gleeson, Greg KinnearDirected by: Paul GreengrassOther: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for language, violence. 115 minutesFalse13312000A U.S. soldier (Matt Damon) goes rogue to find weapons of mass destruction in Paul Greengrass' action film "Green Zone." False