Matt Damon stars in this gripping war-time thriller, directed by Paul Greengrass (director of the popular Bourne movies). Green Zone is full of high action but is also full of intrigue and political controversy.
Like many films about the Vietnam War, films about Iraq and the War on Terror have tended to have a contradiction at their heart: where the heroes are inevitably American, but the sympathies of the writer are not with the government and policy decisions that sent the American heroes into this situation in the first place. The solution has often been heroes and villains both being on the US side, and the same is found in this film.
The Plot
Damon's character, Chief Warrant Officer Miller, has been given the job to find Weapons of Mass Destruction. He begins the film, just as Baghdad falls and the Ba'athists flee, confident that such weapons will be found. That confidence is quickly eroded and there is particular concern about the intelligence that named the sites they search.
A CIA officer, played by Brendan Gleeson, shares Miller's concerns and is at odds with the politicians. However, his solution to the crisis in Iraq (making a deal with elements in the Iraqi army so that they could hold the country together) is also portrayed as far from straight-forward. Miller's Iraqi translator's reaction to such a scheme demonstrates the complexities of the situation.
When it is eventually revealed just where the intelligence was supposed to have come from, there is essentially a conspiracy theory put together, although a rather convincing one. There is a moment towards the end of the film, where a potential solution is prevented by an understandable killing, and the camera pans out to show fires and shots appearing all around the city of Baghdad, where perhaps the movie should have ended. At that point, the futility of war, and hopelessness of that post-invasion situation in Baghdad was most stark.
The final plot resolution was less satisfactory partly because it ultimately emphasised the extent to which this was fictional (everything in the story may have happened, but its resolution decidedly did not). However, this does not detract from a very good story and gripping drama.
The Green Zone
The depiction of the Green Zone itself is perhaps one of the most surprising elements of the film. Of course it was widely known that the US administrators and top brass were located in one of Saddam's old presidential palaces. Of course people commented on the hypocrisy that lay behind essentially continuing the much-maligned practice of Saddam's great luxurious wealth compared with the suffering of his people outside his compounds. But the Green Zone was rarely shown with bikini-clad sun-bathers luxuriating around a pool while Baghdad burned. This is one of the very powerful images in the film.
The Politics of Green Zone
Although occasionally clumsy (Ba'ath officials always wearing suits and ties is almost like the baddies wearing black hats...) Green Zone is a mature and thoughtful film. It is critical of US policy in Iraq, especially on the nature of intelligence regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, but it is also realistic about the reality of pre-War Iraq. It neither seeks to tell a romantic story of "liberation" nor of glorious "resistance" but is prepared to focus on grey areas, which is a brave thing for a blockbuster film to do. Of course this approach did find its critics, at Fox News and elsewhere.
This is a thought-provoking film that is well worth watching, especially in the light of the reality of Iraq today, where US combat troops are set to withdraw at the end of August but where also civilians continue to die in greater numbers than in Afghanistan.
Duncan Hall - Duncan Hall is a semi-professional acoustic musician and lecturer in Government & Politics
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