Green Zone

It seems the curse of the Iraq War film has struck again. No one seems interested in being reminded of a war which was handled very badly. This film points out the biggest problem with the war.

The whole Weapons of Mass Destruction issue in the Iraq War is a very touchy issue. The fact we were told Saddam had them but then could not be found when we invaded has become one of the USA's biggest mistakes. 'Green Zone' attempts to address the issue but not in the best way. Being a big Hollywood production with Matt Damon in the lead the film is more interested in action rather than the politics. One critic has said that this is a small independent film that has been made as a big blockbuster. With Paul Greengrass as director and Matt in the lead, the studio thought they would get another Bourne film, sadly they did not. The issue of WMD's is the driving force of the film but is handled in a very general sense. The film left me with very mixed feelings. While I liked the fact that they give you some details about the WMD's I would have liked a lot more details about the 'whys' and 'hows' of the issue. At the beginning of the film when Miller and his team are searching for the WMD's I could not help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. But the biggest problem I had was why is Miller the only soldier who thinks that something is wrong? Surely there were others who want to find out what is really going on. This being a Paul Greengrass film and the fact he has previously directed 'Bloody Sunday' and 'United 93' I expected more. However it might be a case of too much studio interference.

Matt Damon is an excellent actor but here he is let down by lackluster material. He is in his action hero zone so is mostly running around shooting and fighting. As mentioned above if the film addressed the WMD issue more seriously then Matt would have had more to work with. Greg Kinnear once again plays slimy very well.

To paraphrase Elvis Presley there needed to be 'A little less action and a little more conversation'. While it gives some good reasons for why WMDs were not found for me it did not go into enough depth on the issue.