IMDB plot synopsis: Discovering
covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer (Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller) to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons
of Mass Destruction in an unstable region.
ANALYSIS: Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is hunting down WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
in Iraq a few weeks after
US forces have taken over Baghdad. A mysterious source code-named Magellan has been giving bad intel about WMDs and
Roy
wants to know why. He tries to bring it up with his superiors, but they don't wnat to listen. Martin Pundstone
(Greg Kinnear) is responsible for getting Magellan as an assist. Martin Brown of the CIA knows something stinks and
he brings in Miller to find General Al Rawi, but Poundstone doesn't want Miller to get Al Rawi. Thrown in a female reporter
from the Wall Street Journal (who is printing stories about WMDs in Iraq), GREEN ZONE makes a great time filler
until Damon does the next Bourne film. The action sequences make the film
move quickly and not give the audience much time to breathe during those sequences.
Paul Greengrass directs Damon
for the third time in another great directing job from Greengrass (who directed two of the Bourne films). Damon
plays Miller as a man who just wants to do his job while Poundstone is all about covering his butt (and not shaking the mission
to liberate Iraq apart). Martin Brown wants to bring stability to Iraq by dealing with the Iraq military
while higher-ups like Poundstone think it is better to leave the military out and bring in a puppet to rule Iraq.
GREEN ZONE shows how screwed
up the aftermath of the liberation of Iraq was. No one wants to admit the intel about WMDs was bad. They want to tow the line.
Miller is the ultimate boyscout who will go rogue if it means it gets the job done. He has no time for missions that
bring no results. He tries to make an Iraq citizen work with him even if the Iraqi doesn't care all about what Miller wants. They're
at odds at what should be done with al Rawi when they catch up with him. They think their reasons are just even
if they don't meet up up. The Iraqi cares about his country while Miller wants stability to Iraq even if it means making
a deal with the Devil (Al Rawi). Also the film shows the destruction left in the wake of the liberation and the
conditions there (The Iraq citizens have it rough while the visiting forces live it up at a hotel). GREEN ZONE is a
fascinating thriller that fills the space between Bourne films that thrusts us into the real world.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Director Paul Greengrass and
Actor Matt Damon provide a very chatty audio commentary for the film that gives lots of details on the production of the film
and the story of the film. They also provide audio commentary for the deleted
scenes.
Four very interesting deleted
scenes, which can be played with or without audio commentary (and I still don’t understand why they present the scenes
twice without having the option to switch between audio tracks), add to the details of the world of THE GREEN ZONE, but ultimately
were cut because they didn’t fit the story director Paul Greengrass was editing together.
MATT DAMON: READY FOR ACTION- Matt Damon talks about working with actual military people and the military
guys in the film talk about how it is to work with him during the production
INSIDE THE GREEEN ZONE- a behind-the-scenes
featurette that focuses on Paul Greengrass directing the GREEN ZONE and how he likes to use imrpov and real military personnel
to make the movie feel more real
FINAL ANALYSIS: GRREN ZONE is tight thriller set in a real world that we know all too well where nothing is as simple
as black and white. Buy if you liked the Bourne films.
this DVD review is (c)6-25-2010
David Blackwell (containing the movie review from 3-16-2010) and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
