johnlink ranks GREEN ZONE (2010)
Matt Damon teaming back up with BOURNE director Paul Greengrass for an Iraq War conspiracy theory action-thriller? Sign me up!
I watched GREEN ZONE (2010) on 12.12.10. It was my first viewing of the film. TRAILER HERE
This is not JFK. That is to say, this is not a film suggesting that it may be true. Instead, this is a film which uses recent historic events (search for WMD), mixes it up with some pretty common public perception (its awfully fishy that all the intelligence was wrong) and makes a conspiracy theory out of it (the government knew all along).
This film doesn’t say any of it is true. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t think so. It merely suggests a possible fictional version of events, and adds enough truth to make it all seem, at least, plausible.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. I have no problem with fictional stories about Iraq. And I would love to see someone attack the true story of the US making the choices to go in (and I know some documentaries have). But the way this film mixes truth and fiction is questionable. All that said, I still enjoyed the heck out of it. I just wish they made a choice to go one way or the other more clearly.
So the movie itself? Intense. We have Greengrass’ hand-held style bouncing around Damon and his battery-mates as they search for WMD. The action sequences are breathtaking, though some of the night scenes do move so much as to lose the action at times. Some people can’t stand that. I don’t mind it so much, as the intention is to make us feel as though we are running along and maybe we don’t get to see every money shot.
Damon gets some good support from OFFICE actress Amy Ryan and HARRY POTTER’s Mad-Eye Moody. Greg Kinnear is not bad in this, but his government agent villain is fairly one-dimensional and he doesn’t bring much unique to the table here. This is a Damon vehicle, for sure. It is impressive how deftly he moves from Will Hunting to Jason Bourne to a more determined, but human, US soldier.
I do like that this film gives a very human face to the Iraqi hero, in the person of Khalid Abdalla. His Freddie (of course, the US soldiers Americanize his name) is probably the most interesting character in the film.
The verdict on this one is that it is highly watchable, but doesn’t enter into SYRIANA territory for me. It wants to get there, but it doesn’t quite make it.
SCORES
FILM: 4; MOVIE: 8; ACTING: 6; WRITING: 5
4+8+6+5+0=23
FINAL SCORE: 5.75
johnlinkmovies 