August 1, 2010Green Zone (2010) **
Directed by Paul Greengrass
My tweet:
Green Zone (2010)- Greengrass' direction is slick, but a comment on Iraq through an action flick? Stupid idea, stupid film. ** out of 5
Other thoughts:
What a total miscalculation! Perhaps one of the best directors working today, who made one of the greatest films of the decade, United 93, which itself will probably become a valuable historical artifact, decides to criticize the lies and falsities that the U.S. government sold to the American people, which entrenched us in a brutal, long war in Iraq causing thousands of American military casualties, through a popcorn action thriller that couldn't be more trite and simplistic regarding the motivations of the antagonists. According to Green Zone, the war in Iraq is really the fault of a mid-level government official working with a Wall Street Journal reporter to deceive the U.S. government into believing that there is a WMD program in place by Saddam Hussein's government.
I can't imagine anyone satisfied with the political machinations of this film. Those on the right who support the war will call Green Zone petty, and those on the left will say that it trivializes the Bush administration's massive deception. This film would be comparable to someone saying that Hitler's cook lied to him so much about Jews that it made him into an anti-Semite.
Greengrass has some compelling action sequences using handheld camerawork masterfully, as we've come to expect from his previous work. Damon is solid as ever, and the supporting cast does nothing worthy of blame, except maybe signing onto this inane project in the first place. The plot is dull and at times ludicrous (Damon's character is able to uncover the most damning state secrets ever by reading the Wall Street Journal's webpage after doing a Google search), and the climactic action scene is reminiscent of a first-person shooter game from Nintendo 64.
Though for the most part, Green Zone's direction is slick, this film is a worthless abomination. So many have been killed because of the lies of an administration, and this fact shouldn't be watered down for a standard Hollywood blockbuster. People avoided the movie when it came out in theaters, and good for them.
3 comments:
Yeah, my own assessment isn't far off from this. I might feel slightly less harsh than you, if for no other reason than I truly enjoyed the direction and cinematography and also Damon's performance (he's not great by any stretch of the imagination, but he's still miles above his awful role in Invictus). The script took too many unacceptable turns though, and progressively unwound until there was a mess at the end.
My thoughts were that after 'The Hurt Locker' last year I thought we were going to see a change in war films. Thinking Green Zone wasn't going to be anything too special I at least thought the action would be good, though in my opinion even the action sequences were short and few. I totally agree with yours points about the plot.
http://maskedmovieman.blogspot.com/
that's good review thanks Brian.
it's inspired me to watch this film.
Review Film
Post a Comment