War is hell and hell is other people, so it makes sense that the most hellish part of war isn't necessarily fighting the opposing forces but working with the people who are supposedly on your side, as seen in the controversy surrounding the war in Iraq. The whole situation has since developed a very nefarious ""Bourne"" movie tone to it with all of the unsavory intelligence wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes. As such, it should have been a given that ""Bourne"" series director Paul Greengrass and Jason Bourne himself, Matt Damon, would team up to tell that story in ""Green Zone.""
Based on the Rajiv Chandrasekaran book ""Imperial Life in the Emerald City,"" ""Green Zone"" takes us back to 2003, a simpler time when Americans thought their government could do no wrong and Martha Stewart was a nice person. Damon is CPO Roy Miller, one of the many men searching for the infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction. After coming up empty in countless searches, Miller becomes suspicious of U.S. intelligence, and, in true Jason Bourne fashion, tries to take down the conspiracy and reveal the lies spread by Pentagon bureaucrat Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear).
The connections between ""Green Zone"" and the ""Bourne"" films may be obvious, but they are hardly detrimental. Besides the stylistic similarities Greengrass brought to both projects, such as his signature handheld shaky cam, the meat of the story revolves around a military man seeking the truth after being dropped into an international conspiracy. But unlike Jason Bourne, Roy Miller of ""Green Zone"" isn't a psychologically modified badass killing machine, which anchors Damon's character much more firmly in reality.
But the lack of Treadstone superspies isn't the only way Greengrass and writer Brian Helgeland try to anchor ""Green Zone"" in the real world. Much more so than the ""Bourne"" trilogy, ""Green Zone"" is a direct commentary on the entirety of the Iraq War. Greengrass takes on the media through a slacking journalist, played by Amy Ryan, the military through the stubbornness of Miller's misled commanding officers and the Washington pushers and shovers represented by Kinnear's character, who is a very thinly-veiled version of Paul Bremmer.
As a political film, ""Green Zone"" would have been considerably more effective if it had limited itself to focus on its story and allowed the audience to infer its own condemnations, instead of directly laying out each and every one of them. Films like ""Apocalypse Now"" immersed you in the world that was Vietnam, and the antiwar message was understood through the characters' actions and emotions. Here, Miller goes through hardly any suffering and has barely any character arc at all. Instead, Miller's conscience comes in the form of Khalid Abdallah as his Iraqi translator, who while turning in a good performance, is forced to deliver some of the most on-the-nose messages a man can muster.
Thankfully, Greengrass still possesses his master touch as an action director, as ""Green Zone"" may not be very subtle but it is also never dull. The pacing of ""Green Zone"" is near perfect, and every chase scene is expertly staged to up the suspense and drama. Editor Christopher Rouse deserves much of the credit, as he brings the same fluidity here that he brought to ""The Bourne Ultimatum,"" despite the rapid-fire cuts.
""Green Zone"" doesn't execute its political message with particular finesse, nor is its message particularly daring in 2010 when the public has largely accepted that the invasion of Iraq was a poor decision. But Greengrass executes everything else well, creating a film that is every bit as engrossing as his work on the last two ""Bourne"" films. He may not imbue ""Green Zone"" with the depth of ""The Hurt Locker"" or even the resonance of his 9/11 drama ""United 93,"" but as a visceral successor to the legacy of Jason Bourne, ""Green Zone"" is very much a success.
