MOVIE REVIEW: GREEN ZONE

GREEN ZONE

Four of Seven Cows

Anyone who has ever served in the military recognizes Hollywood’s long tradition of being clueless about all things martial, from hand grenades that look more like Molotov cocktails when they explode, to ludicrously non-regulation hair, uniforms, and behavior. All of this exposes an ignorance that often borders on contempt, causing many who have served to enter the theater prepared to cringe at the first insult.

             

Recent movies like The Hurt Locker have reversed this trend somewhat, delivering a visceral realism that seems more authentic and characters that are more believable and thus more respectful. If you need an example of how things have changed watch The Hurt Locker back-to-back with Clint Eastwood’s Heartbreak Ridge and tell me which one seems absolutely cartoonish.

             

Which brings us to Green Zone, Matt Damon’s newest movie. Whereas Hollywood once reflexively made the military the bad guys, here it’s a war-hungry diplomat that’s sinister. It’s hard to avoid the feeling that this was an overtly political movie before it hit the focus groups, as the accusatory subtext is that we were intentionally deceived into war by the Bush administration.

             

It does not seem unlikely that plot-line was watered down to blaming one corrupt diplomat for the purposes of public consumption. Well, I’ve never said this before, but if that’s the case then hurray for public consumption. We can argue all day about why we went to Iraq and never agree, but when I go to a war movie I just want to see our guys shoot people and blow stuff up. I’m simple like that.

             

So, disposing with the political subtext, is Green Zone a good movie? Well, it’s a bit of a wash. Green Zone is certainly simplistic, with a large dollop of creative license taken for the purposes of plot, but it does avoid making me want to punch somebody – if just barely. The behavior of Damon’s character seems implausible, as does his access to those at the top of the military, intelligence, journalistic and diplomatic hierarchy. You don’t need to be a veteran to suspect that the world just doesn’t work this way, and you’d be right. But Damon can pull off the serious-tough-guy thing, as he’s shown in the Bourne series, and if you’re willing to ignore the silly stuff it’s not a bad flick.

             

There’s language and violence – this is a war movie, after all. If you’ve already seen Alice In Wonderland and Crazy Heart, it’s not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. I give Green Zone four cows.