A highbrow action thriller that should appeal to the action-junkie as well as the discerning movie-goer, Green Zone joins the ranks of Three Kings and The Hurt Locker as modern war movies with heaps of smarts, as well as casting a critical eye on the big old US of A.
Whilst this is indeed another Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon excursion into taut thriller territory complete with hyper-kinetic camera work, Green Zone deserves far more than the Bourne-again moniker that the PR tags have emblazoned it with. For a start it contains an unusually starry tech crew as well as cast, whilst the pairing of Bourne vets Paul Greengrass (who also made the superb United 93) and Matt Damon will undoubtedly take centre-stage, lest not forget the admirable camera work by Barry Ackroyd (United 93) and script by Brian Helgeland (L.A Confidential) and star-supporting turns by critics-favourite Brendan Gleeson and the ever-underrated Greg Kinnear.
Matt Damon takes the lead as Roy Miller, an army chief warrant officer dropped into Iraq immediately after the invasion of Iraq with one job and one job only, to locate Saddam’s WMD’s, the main reasoning behind the controversial multi-billion dollar invasion that has taken place under the world’s glare. Coming up against an problematic army unit helmed by the sinister Briggs (Issacs) that are seemingly out to hamper Damon’s every move as well as a shady Pentagon chief (Kinnear) who’s keeping tight-lipped on essential information, Damon uncovers evidence to suggest that they could very well be on a wild goose chase, and the existence of WMD’s could be nothing more than a smoke-screen for the implementation of a controlled government.
The bravura touch that (ex-journalist) Greengrass implements in Green Zone is that we the audience know something that the main protagonist does not. Whilst in most movies we are nearly-always complicit with the lead characters in arriving to their conclusion, we know the answers to Green Zone before Damon even knows the questions that he should be asking. It’s a technique that generates a huge amount of empathy from our (audience) perspective and gives the film an almost tragic flair. Whilst it’s a fictional take on a non-fiction account of the Iraq invasion (trivia bods note - ‘Imperial Life in the Emerald City’ by Rajiv Chandrasekaran) the casual viewer should be able to separate narrative liberties from truth, although the end result is still utterly involving.
Whilst working as a political thriller, lest not forget that Green Zone is also one mighty action film, with numerous modern warfare combat scenes that compare to Black Hawk Down for ‘heart in your mouth’ moments, Greengrass directs you with aplomb, right into the middle of this urban nightmare. The last act is one sprawling action sequence and an early contender for scene of the year, technically Green Zone is astounding, unbelievably tense and one of the first must-see movies of 2010.
Jonny Dawson
