10s Movie Review - Green Zone

Director: Paul Greengrass

Genre: Action

Runtime: 114 minutes

Year: 2010

Starring: Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan

Description: Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer (Matt Damon) to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons of Mass Destruction in an unstable region.

Review: It is 2003, the American have now invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein is said to have weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. On of the teams that had to look for these weapons in Iraq is led by Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller. The government has obtained the locations of the weapons from a source secret to the outside world, which calls itself ‘Magellan’, However, when Miller’s team seems to miss the mark for several times, Miller begins to doubt the information. CIA agent Martin Brown shares Miller’s concerns, but high-raking government official Clark Pounstone stick with his informant. Miller decides to cooperate with Brown to get to the truth. Meanwhile, reporter Lawrie Dayne tries to find out Magellan’s identity.

The alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction; it was one of the main reasons why America invaded Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime. “Green Zone”, based on the (non-fiction) book “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, focuses on the search for these weapons. However, it is certainly not only about the search itself, but also about the conspiracy around it. Because in (the fictitious) “Green Zone” it soon turns out that things are dirty: the government bases the search on information from an invisible informant but nothing is found in any of the designated places. One of the people responsible for searching these locations is Chief Roy Miller, played by Matt Damon. When they yet again find nothing at the location they are searching, Miller starts distrusting the source and it’s up to him to get to the bottom of it all.

“Green Zone” is directed by Paul Greengrass, who also directed Matt Damon in “The Bourne Supremacy” and The Bourne Ultimatum”. Both strong films. “Green Zone” doesn’t reach that same level, but it’s still a skillfully made political action thriller. The film’s story is fictional, but contains elements that are based on the truth. The film is very realistic.

Rating: 3/ 5