by Robert Sims, Special Contributor to TheMovieKit.com
Step 1: Remind yourself why we invaded Iraq. Oh, that’s right, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Or so we were led to believe by the powers that be in D.C.
Step 2: Buy into the conspiracy theory. And that isn’t too hard to do considering we are still patiently waiting for someone to present us with irrefutable proof that Iraq possessed enough WMD to blow the United States to smithereens. United 93 director Paul Greengrass makes it clear from the very start of this frenetic Baghdad-set thriller that he believes the Bush administration mislead us about those WMD — or, worse, outright lied to us. Really? Were we were too blinded by fear in the years immediately following 9/11 to question the “evidence” GWB’s cronies presented as us as justification for invading Iraq? Regardless, when we first see the buffed, hardnosed Matt Damon in action, his Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller’s a little pissed that he and his men have survived a sniper’s attack only to discover the supposed site where WMD were manufactured and stored is empty. It’s the third time Miller has received bad intel from the same source, an Iraqi chemist codenamed “Magellan.” The moment Miller starts to question the veracity of the intel, he runs afoul of Magellan’s handler, Pentagon official Clark Poundstone (a suitably slimy Greg Kinnear). This pencil pusher will do anything to keep Magellan’s identity a secret, including setting the Special Forces (led by Harry Potter’s Jason Issacs) on Miller if he continues to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong.
Step 3: Stock up on your Dramamine. If you saw United 93, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, you already know what you are in for with Green Zone. Greengrass is not a director who knows how to keep his cameras still. Still, his penchant to shoot in a shaky documentary style not only lends the shadowy proceedings a vital sense of urgency but also really makes you feel you’re running down some dark and dangerous alleyway in Baghdad alongside Miller. With all the bullets flying and bombs exploding, it can be disorienting at times. But that’s the intended effect: you never quite know what to expect at every turn, which is the danger that Miller faces with every step he takes in an alien and inhospitable country. Greengrass rarely lets you catch your breath, but that doesn’t mean he wants you to switch off your brain. He sets his angry cat-and-mouse game between Miller and Poundstone against the real-life events chronicled in Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book Imperial in the Emerald City, which details the politically motivated policies that established the framework for today’s post-invasion Iraq. It’s impossible to watch scenes of U.S. government officials arrogantly plotting to install an Iraqi exile as a puppet leader without contemplating all the costly mistakes that were made in the months and years following the invasion and have force the U.S. military to remain there ever since. More important, Greengrass gets us to think about why we invaded Iraq in the first place. “The reasons we go to war always matter,” Miller tells Poundstone. Was Hussein an enemy of the United States? Yes? Did he pose a true threat to us? That question remains unanswered. But the last image of Iraq that Greengrass leaves us with makes it clear that he thinks it was all about the oil.
Step 4: Think of this as the fourth Bourne adventure. Greengrass walked away from a proposed Bourne sequel months ago. Damon’s already made it clear that he’s unlikely to return as Bourne. And, quite frankly, do we need another Bourne? Didn’t The Bourne Ultimatum wrap things up as neatly as possibly? Let’s face it Roy Miller is Jason Bourne without amnesia. He’s a one-man army out to correct a wrong, and he won’t stop until he gets his job done. And that means going rogue. Miller’s a little more naïve than Bourne—the CIA assassin would never say, “I thought we were all on the same side”—but he’s fully committed to revealing the truth behind the deception that pits him against the men who were once his allies. Plus, Damon wears the same “don’t mess with me” game face he wore in the Bourne films and possesses many of the deadly moves that his signature tough-guy character would use to remain a free man.
Level of difficulty in watching Green Zone: If you sat through Greengrass’ Bourne sequels, Green Zone won’t leave your head spinning all that much. But this smart political thriller will make you feel angry that we still do not know seven years on whether we had a legitimate reason to invade Iraq.