Green Zone

Not a film about gardening.

Directed by Paul Greengrass (Bourne films) with a screenplay by Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, Robin Hood 2010) inspired by the book 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone' by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Green Zone takes us back to the beginning of the war in Iraq and the hunt for those damned elusive Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his team are sent to various locations around Iraq looking for WMDs based on supposedly solid intelligence. Obviously, they don't find anything. After three failed attempts, Miller starts getting suspicious and starts asking questions. It seems the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy also covers verifying where such pieces of intelligence come from.
Miller and team set out to find the source of the information from General Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor) the 'Jack of Clubs' in the infamous deck of cards. With help from a local known as 'Freddie' (Khalid Abdalla) they scour the city in a desperate search for answers. Sounds simple but when you've got high ranking government officials who know about the fake intel and fabricated the truth as a means to an end, things tend to get out of control.
This is yet another Greengrass film that should be accompanied by a health warning. That damn queasy-cam really ruins films for me. Maybe I should have taken some ginger tablets before hand, I will make sure I do in future before I see any more of his films. There's an edge-of-your-seat chase in the movie but I missed most of it, instead having to stare at the back of the seat in front of me! When I was watching the screen, the picture was shaking so violently I could barely work out what was going on. Having said that however, Paul Greengrass sure does know how to film epic chase sequences, all three Bourne films each had amazing car chases jam packed with crashes and remarkable self defensive driving skills. The one in this movie, that I unfortunately missed part of, was truly amazing. I wish I saw the whole thing! Some of the night shots were really grainy though I don't know it that was just the cinema's projector...
Vocal supporter of the film Michael Moore tweeted 'It is the most HONEST film about Iraq War made by Hollywood.' He also points out the fact that 'It's been stupidly marketed as action film' And he's right. Sure there's loads of action on the screen but that's not what the movie is about. Damon's character puts it perfectly 'the reason we go to war matters.' It's a shame that we can only look at this film in retrospect of the George W. Bush administration's monumental cock-up and fabrication of the truth. Then again, if this film was made a few years ago, it might have opened a few more pairs of eyes and saved everyone a whole bunch of trouble. I just hope there are more Roy Miller's in the world to stop and ask questions.
Things I learnt: aside from the need for anti-nausea tablets as a precautionary measure, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon make a great couple, those army guys do carry a whole bunch of stuff around with them, don't trust anyone!
Seven out of ten, maybe more if I was able to watch more!