It is Matt Damon, again in uniform, not as a super soldier but as a Chief Warrant Officer looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. If the Americans and their allies could not find WMD after the Iraq War, could Matt Damon do the impossible? No! That is the bit on being honest.
When the Iraq War started, I suppose there were two groups of people. One who supported the war and another one did not. In fact, make it three: those who disliked the notion of war but eager to see a swift closure to the situation. Imagine a war spinning out of control that may have a widespread implication – socially and economically in a global scale. The question remains: If the reason of going into war was to dismantle WMD in Iraq and if none can be found after the invasion, what have the Americans and their allies achieved? How would those who supported the war feel? Perhaps that is why “Green Zone” is seen as anti-American or anti-war by some, an honest production by others.
Personally, my deeper query is as such: Did America go to war because of bad intelligence that WMD may exist or they went to war knowing that WMD does not exist? “Green Zone” has made some strong claims. And I am not certain to what extend does being faithful to historical facts lie.
Nor would I know if a Chief Warrant Officer on the ground be given such a great autonomy to pursue his personal objectives without having to notify the command center and his superior, able to reassign his people out of his team on the fly, able to initiate a personal transfer of unit also on the fly, and to embark on a solo life-threatening mission with zero intelligence and little military backup. I am not even talking about how a local Iraqi can walk in and out of a military prison by simply following an American in uniform.
But if one can overlook these incredible scripts and claims, the filming of “Green Zone” looks authentic. The Iraqi backdrop and the intense battle scenes, the partnership of Matt Damon and the director Paul Greengrass (Bourne series) – I would say “Green Zone” is an entertaining film. That is if you do not think about the scripts too much.
9 replies on “Green Zone – Far Fetched Or Being Honest?”
Did the US really go to war because of WMD? I personally do not think so. But is the US invasion of Iraq necessarily a bad thing? That is debatable. I think that the US had many other underlying reasons – oil being only one of them – that cannot be publicly given, and I think that these are necessary not only to the US but to the rest of the world.
Many people said US occupied Iraq because of oil but hey, imagine a world now with Saddam and terrorists.
Samuel – Yes, this is a debatable topic. Personally I would prefer diplomacy instead of warfare. It is hard to imagine what a world with a certain leader would be like. It is equally hard to imagine what a world without a certain leader world be like. Such as North Korea or Myanmar. And what’s so special about Iraq that US needed to invade and not the rest of the equally troubling countries, it could be the oil, it could be something else. In a way, WMD was the strong justification for war, I think.
Did you find the first two Bourne movies realistic? I didn’t. I thought Jason Bourne was pretty invincible.
Shyue Chou – I thought the Bourne series is a piece of fictional work? “Green Zone” makes it sounds like a story based on true event. That’s why I thought it would be better if it was more realistic.
It is. However, a lot of reviewers thought it was realistic!
Shyue Chou – Really?! I think realistic in terms of the backdrops and ambient, it was realistic? I can’t comment on how weapon handling and chain-of-command was being filmed though, as I have no soldiering background. All I can say is that most of the actors (in some films) who take on the role of a journalist don’t quite hold the dSLR in the correct way. Green Zone is one.
Was the film jerky though? I can’t take that sort of film.
Many actors don’t know how to hold a weapon either.
Shyue Chou – Somewhat jerky, in some parts of the films. Not throughout though. I suspect you may feel discomfort if you tend to have motion sickness with this sort of filming techniques.