The Green Zone is an attempt to explain the origins of the Iraq War within the context of a Hollywood action film. For me, this combination does not really work. American thrillers typically operate in a fantasy world where anything is possible, but they also have certain rules. This film is an action film but it also tries to provide a history lesson.
Matt Damon plays Roy Miller, an honest, everyman who concludes that the pre-war intelligence was wrong and Saddam Hussein didn't have WMDs.Unfortunately nobody in authority wants to face up to this reality and they try and stop Miller getting the news out. This may have been shocking news in 2003, but given that we are now in 2010 it is no longer a surprise. In defense of the conspirators, everybody on the American side took it for granted that Saddam had WMDs and they would eventually turn up. Either way, it was only a matter of time before it became apparent that a mistake had been made.
Trying to introduce real events into the thriller genre is an interesting experiment but it is a little disorientating. Hitchcock believed that his audiences didn't really care about the elaborate plots used in his films, to him they were just MacGuffins, which helped propel the action. The director Paul Greengrass tries to make the MacGuffin the center of his movie and it doesn't work. The problem is that the participants in the conspiracy are based on real people. It is hard to believe that Paul Bremer, who had worked at a Washington think-tank before Iraq, was also an evil mastermind running his own special forces team.
The film loses the plot in other ways. Most Americans believed, rightly or wrongly, that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and the majority of US troops who invaded Iraq believed they were on a revenge mission. The WMD argument was mainly used to justify the war to people in the UK (where Greengrass lives) and on the UN Security Council. Polls show that over 60% of the US public now believe the war was a mistake.
The film is well made and fairly entertaining, but I ultimately found it annoying, basically I like my action films to be make-believe. I also prefer history lessons that are accurate. Greengrass clearly had an agenda, but I don't believe you can use action movies to explain complex issues like the origins of the Iraq War.
Matt Damon plays Roy Miller, an honest, everyman who concludes that the pre-war intelligence was wrong and Saddam Hussein didn't have WMDs.Unfortunately nobody in authority wants to face up to this reality and they try and stop Miller getting the news out. This may have been shocking news in 2003, but given that we are now in 2010 it is no longer a surprise. In defense of the conspirators, everybody on the American side took it for granted that Saddam had WMDs and they would eventually turn up. Either way, it was only a matter of time before it became apparent that a mistake had been made.
Trying to introduce real events into the thriller genre is an interesting experiment but it is a little disorientating. Hitchcock believed that his audiences didn't really care about the elaborate plots used in his films, to him they were just MacGuffins, which helped propel the action. The director Paul Greengrass tries to make the MacGuffin the center of his movie and it doesn't work. The problem is that the participants in the conspiracy are based on real people. It is hard to believe that Paul Bremer, who had worked at a Washington think-tank before Iraq, was also an evil mastermind running his own special forces team.
The film loses the plot in other ways. Most Americans believed, rightly or wrongly, that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and the majority of US troops who invaded Iraq believed they were on a revenge mission. The WMD argument was mainly used to justify the war to people in the UK (where Greengrass lives) and on the UN Security Council. Polls show that over 60% of the US public now believe the war was a mistake.
The film is well made and fairly entertaining, but I ultimately found it annoying, basically I like my action films to be make-believe. I also prefer history lessons that are accurate. Greengrass clearly had an agenda, but I don't believe you can use action movies to explain complex issues like the origins of the Iraq War.