Green Zone, from director Paul Greengrass, tells the story of the U.S. Army's search for weapons of mass destruction in Baghdad in the early days of the Second Iraq War. The action follows Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) as he tries to discover why the intel his unit has been given about the location of WMDs does not match up with what he discovers in the field. Miller finds that his superiors in the army have no interest in helping him or even in listening to his concerns, so he sets out to unravel the mystery on his own. His only help is from a CIA agent who believes him and an Iraqi citizen who gets caught up in the action early in the film.
All of that is good and well for a movie marketed as the spiritual successor to the Bourne films, which also starred Damon, but upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Green Zone is not sure what type of movie it wants to be. As an action thriller, it is a rousing success: The pacing is great, the tension never lets up and the ending is satisfyingly climactic. Unfortunately, Green Zone also overstretches itself by trying to be a pseudo-historical documentary about the failings of the American government in Iraq.
The reason that those two goals are incompatible is fairly straightforward. To make the film appealing to the "guns and explosions" crowd, certain creative liberties were taken with the historical events that serve as the basis of the storyline. Damon's character has a little too much Jason Bourne in him to be believable. He hides information from superior officers, tricks some soldiers into allowing him access to a prisoner he needs to interrogate and manages to fight his way out of an enemy compound without even breaking a sweat. The other main characters are either heavily altered versions of real people or completely fabricated, and it becomes difficult to appreciate any of the intended political commentary when you know that a good portion of the events in the film unfolded differently in reality.
If you turn your critical thinking down a notch and just watch Green Zone as an action/thriller, then the experience becomes much more enjoyable. The characters, fictionalized though they may be, are consistent, and the film draws strength from not having any over-the-top villains. Everyone has reasons for their actions, and even if we disagree with their methods, we at least can follow their motivations.
The cinematography is impressive, from the raw power of the bombings lighting up the Baghdad skyline at the movie's start to the sunset over the Iraqi oil fields at the end. Green Zone offers one of the most intimate portraits of that war-torn country you can get, short of signing up for a tour of duty.
The style of the film is instantly recognizable to anyone who has watched the Bourne movies. Visceral, up-close gritty action with intentionally shaky camera work dominates most scenes. The effect draws the audience in and heightens the suspense, but it can be a little difficult to follow the action during some of the chaotic nighttime sequences during the movie's second half.
Even though Green Zone tries to be more than it should, the end result is still a very enjoyable film that is worth the price of admission to anyone who enjoys a good thriller and does not mind a little bit of Hollywood historical revisionism in an action movie.
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