Paul Greengrass directs this Iraq war thriller loosely based on the book 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City' by Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Matt Damon stars as Chief Army Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a specialist soldier who joins forces with Wall Street reporter Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan) to expose the hotbed of covert and faulty intelligence surrounding the search for Iraq's cache of weapons of mass destruction. Greg Kinnear and Brendan Gleeson co-star.
| Starring: |
Yigal Naor, Said Faraj, Faycal Attougui, Aymen Hamdouchi, Matt Damon, Nicoye Banks, Jerry Della Salla, Sean Huze, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Michael O'Neill |
| Director: |
Paul Greengrass |
| Run time: |
114 minutes |
| Languages: |
English |
| Distributor: |
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MyMovies
If one was to master the art of raising expectations then they'd do a lot worse than to take a ...
If one was to master the art of raising expectations then they'd do a lot worse than to take a leaf out of Paul Greengrass' book. After a string of critical and commercial hits including United 93 and, of course, The Bourne Ultimatum, which, as it happens, will be his last foray in the franchise, has elevated Greengrass into the directorial stratosphere. The sense of anticipation then for Green Zone, his latest collaboration with Bourne star Matt Damon, was practically palpable. All the ingredients were there; a solid leading man, an action conceit, a race against time and all played against a suitably weighty, and contemporary, moral dilemma. So why isn't the film a resounding success? Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller - one of the Army's head bods in the hunt for WMDs in Iraq. The only problem is there appears to be a distinct lack of said weapons, frustrating the hell out of Miller and causing the tenacious soldier to start questioning his intel. The higher-ups are clearly getting the run around by their 'Magellan', the codename for their inside man in Iraq, and the outspoken Miller starts to draw the attention of the CIA (led by a rather gruff Brendan Gleeson), an insidious Pentagon suit (a brilliantly smarmy Greg Kinnear) and his Special Forces lackie (Jason Isaacs, criminally underused in a scene-chewing role). With a whiff of conspiracy in the air Miller and his team go rogue in an attempt to hunt down the insider and bring the uncomfortable facts of America's involvement in the country to the World's attention. Rather brilliantly Miller comes across as not entirely likeable. Damon channels a little bit of his Det. Sullivan from The Departed in his portrayal of the aspiring Army chief. Miller is tenacious but also naive and maddeningly stubborn. He'll side with whoever will get the job done in order to uncover the truth. Damon then is predictably strong in the role but is given a fairly run-of-the-mill plot from which to feed off of. A cursory glance at the broadsheets could have imparted knowledge of WMDs and their lack thereof in Iraq. We've all had time now to point the finger at America, who retorts that the ends justified the means. It's practically a given. Green Zone however feigns to deliver a 'complex' web of intrigue and even dares to offer up A BIG REVEAL...one that we've just been quietly assuming exists ever since the title faded in. Don't get me wrong, it's still keenly effective to note how one politico and one aspiring journo could all but bring a country to the brink of war with some little white lies but there just seems little meat on the bone. Greengrass has crafted a competent thriller to say the least. But it's not a great thriller. And therein lies the rub. Post Bourne we've come to expect greatness from the helmer but a final third dominated by a Black Hawk Down-lite siege (replete with trademark 'shaky' cam flourishes) can only offer a faint glimmer of what Green Zone could have been.
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Press Association
When American and British forces withdraw completely from Iraq - a military strategy which seems unthinkable seven years into the ...
When American and British forces withdraw completely from Iraq - a military strategy which seems unthinkable seven years into the campaign - the lasting legacy won't be peace and democracy. It will be a deep-rooted suspicion that the infamous weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the supposed justification for the invasion, never existed. The recent Iraq inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, provided no firm answers. Award-winning British filmmaker Paul Greengrass and actor Matt Damon, the driving forces behind The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, posit one scenario in this riveting thriller set. Based on the book Imperial Life In The Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Green Zone is a breathless two hours of adrenaline-pumping action and political manoeuvring that places as much emphasis on emotionally charged dialogue as the set pieces. The film opens with a deafening bang on March 19, 2003 in Baghdad as Saddam Hussein's trusted general, Al Rawi (Yigal Naor), flees his headquarters in the midst of an Allied blitzkrieg. Four weeks later, US Army warrant officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team careen through the war torn capital on the hunt for WMDs. Yet again, they draw a blank and Miller voices his frustrations, suspecting bogus intelligence. A tip-off from a disgruntled local, Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), leads Miller and his crew to a meeting of Saddam's high-ranking advisors including Al Rawi. The general escapes but another man is apprehended and Miller uses Freddy as a translator to interrogate the suspect about a notebook in his possession. "He says the book has names and locations of El Rawi's safe houses," reveals Freddy. Returning to base, Miller bypasses scheming Pentagon official Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) and his minion Major Briggs (Jason Isaacs), and delivers the book to local CIA chief Gordon Brown (Brendan Gleeson), who asks for discretion. "I thought we were all on the same side," replies Miller. "Don't be naive," mocks Brown. Green Zone is distinguished by Greengrass' tour-de-force direction, galloping through the streets of Baghdad with handheld cameras so we remain uncomfortably close to Miller as he risks his life for a country he was entrusted to tear apart. There is no better director of action sequences and we really feel like we are ducking for cover from enemy fire as pyrotechnic mayhem erupts around the cast. Damon delivers a passionate performance as a soldier with a conscience, who doesn't understand the full extent of the conspiracy. Kinnear and Gleeson relish their roles as duplicitous political pawns and Abdalla curries sympathy as the Iraqi interloper, enraged by the arrogance of his so-called American saviours. "It's not for you to decide what happens here," Freddy tells Miller. We are certain his words will fall on deaf ears because the West knows best. Doesn't it?
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