GREEN ZONE (English/18PL)Genre: Drama/War
Release Date: 11 March 2010
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Running Time: 115 minutes
Director: Paul Greengrass
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lloyd Levin, Paul Greengrass
Writers: Brian Helgeland; Rajiv Chandrasekaran (book)
Casts: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla
Plot: Green Zone", a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences. During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission. Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.
THE VERDICT
Watching the trailer and talking about another collaboration between Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon again are giving so much thought it is going to be another Bourne movie. Indeed, it feels like any Bourne movies after all. However, unlike Bourne, Damon plays as Roy Miller, a soldier who leads his small troop battalion to find WMDs following the fall of Saddam after Iraqi War 2003. It becomes crystal clear later that there were no WMD in Iraq and the war was started on faked-up intelligence. With nothing to prove and to justify the war itself, Miller decided to uncovered the truth on his own capacity.
It became so much of the world attention that till this day, not a single WMD was found in Iraq since the fall of Saddam. Cleverly beefed up the theme of that and taking in some elements and accounts from former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran's best-selling non-fiction book 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone', the movie plot paved in a very delicious outcome. Again, this movie is so-Bourne in many way. Action-oriented intensity, heavy plot, zoom-in and out camera work and fast pace with a blur kinetic movement - that sums up the whole thing - Bourne in Iraq.
Like many other works by Greengrass, the plot is fast but burdening for its heavy subject matter. If you are not familiar with the political status and the truth about Iraq War, you may find it hard to suit yourself into the mindset of Roy Miller himself. The movie acts like a double-edge sword - the need to dig out the truth and the need to justify what is right and wrong. Simply, this is a bold psychological action thriller and each time some sequence passed, you were made to ponder on what had just happen and what next to come.
Let's be assured, it is not the complexity that matters here but it truly measures the extent of the need to think and think about the movie. Just for that, I give a tremendous credit for writer Helgeland for giving me one hell of a thriller. The movie is also smart is interwaving facts and fictions into one harmonious plot. Despite that, many may deemed this as an assault to the administration back home and many had sarcastically labelled it as an "anti-America" movie. But you need to understand that there is no perpetual clarity of who is right or wrong. The movie simply gives you an ending dot that matters had happen and what would be the best option to resolve it? Oh yes, go live on!!
Matt Damon once again showing what his capability is. He is a fine actor of his generation and he amazing. Equally stunning is the British actor Khalid Abdalla's role as Freddy. Greg Kinnear's role as Clark Pundstone reminded many about the bureaucracy that occurs. However, I can't help myself to criticize the rest of the acting camps because some of them can even goes as far as been stocky and uninspiring.
Without much doubt, Green Zone is one of the best war movie. It is basically The Hurt Locker without bombs but with political stances. There is plenty of fighting, intensity and great hand-held camera-work that truly defines the excellency in film editing. Kudos to Greengrass!!
THE RATING:
Story - 4.0 stars
Casts - 4.0 stars
Cinematography - 4.5 stars
Effects - 3.5 stars
OVERALL - 4.0 stars
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 16.0