GREEN ZONE (2010) MOVIE REVIEW
Updated: Jul 16
A preachy and somewhat condescending thriller that brings the action but misses the mark on its mystery.
By Nate Lemann
Paul Greengrass’s 2010 film “Green Zone” is condescending in a way that feels like the last breath of a wave of War in the Middle East movies Hollywood produced in the mid- to late-2000s. It wears its liberal heart on its sleeve, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, the film doesn’t use nuance or precision to deliver on it’s message, instead opting to use blunt force with the most on-the-nose dialogue. This film also feels misguided in its crusading spirit: to give the administration credit for a nefariously cunning conspiracy is giving them far too much credit. They didn’t care to put in the effort to perpetuate the lie of WMDs in Iraq; they just lied and once the jig was up, it didn’t matter to them because the damage was already done. It felt like if someone made a movie in 2000 to claim the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was a cover-up for the manipulation of housing market and not just a vain man making horrible choice after horrible choice. It gives too much credit to evil. Most evil is simple. To imply it is far more nuanced and cunning distracts us from the more blatant acts of wrongdoing. When you look for conspiracy after conspiracy, you lose site of the devil sitting right across from you.
The action is dynamic and while the cast is vastly underserved by the dialogue here, everyone here is well calibrated and gives fine performances. You really do miss the Gilroy touch here, the least heralded partner in Damon and Greengrass’s “Bourne” series. His ability to approach the deep complexities of spy work and the workings of a rebellion (as brilliantly showcased in the “Bourne” films and “Andor”) would have been very welcome here and may have taken this film to another level (though to be fair, to make a propulsive thriller from the dense and more mundane source material here was a tall task to ask of any writer). At the end of the day, this film looks and feels dynamic but they were just a more nuanced script away from making a classic here.
FINAL RATING: 2.5/5 Stars (Skip)
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