Green Zone

Recently I saw Green Zone, which starred Matt Damon. Besides his involvement, there wasn't much to pitch the movie other than Paul Greengrass' attachment as director. The two worked together on the second and third Bourne installments. With the success of the latter though this was clearly a pretty good sell. I went into the movie hoping for a lot of the same stuff that made The Bourne Ultimatum spectacular, picturesque sets, intelligent, witty dialogue, and tons of action. In brief, the movie delivered just that, minus maybe the picturesque sets part of that (It was mostly filmed in Morocco, the United Kingdom, and Spain, but the backdrops seen in the movie were of decrepit areas of war ravaged Iraq).

Matt Damon has truly learned to embrace this type of role because he is seemingly convincing in his role as, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller. The way that he commands his squad in the early scenes of the movie is very believable. But, more about the film, right off the bat it's packed with action and it doesn't really let up for the first 45 minutes of the film either. Greengrass, or perhaps the Director of Photography, uses a camera style that benefits from the fast paced action where he has the camera basically next to the actors. This creates the illusion that the audience is right on top of the action, which is definitely really cool. I can only imagine what this movie would've been like shot in 3D (Intense! In a word). But, on a much more serious note, because I've read a few reviews about this movie, notably Roger Ebert's, that say it isn't merely just an action thriller, but that it has a point to argue. That point being that, and this is taken from Ebert's review,"The fatal error of the United States was to fire the officers and men of the Iraqi army and leave them at large with their weapons. The Iraqi army had no great love of Saddam and might have been a helpful, stabilizing force. Instead, it was left unemployed, armed and alienated". There's a scene with Damon and an Iraqi informant named, Freddy, about 40 minutes in that is truly moving and does well to sort of give a snapshot of Iraqi feelings towards the war and the Americans involvement.

The most surprising thing about this movie to me though doesn't have anything to do with any content that occurs during it's running time, but rather the very disappointing domestic box office numbers that it posted. Maybe it had to do with the marketing of the film or its competition, but it's a little saddening to know that studios will certainly be apprehensive to open their wallets for another Damon/Greengrass pic that isn't Bourne 4.

Anyways, I thought this was an awesome edge of your seat thriller, which also forced you to think about the Iraq war and reminded you to not blindly trust everything that your government tells you.