More Blue than Green: A Review of Green Zone

More Blue than Green:  A Review of Green Zone


Political themes have long found their way into film.  In a film class I took at Northwestern, our instructor pointed out many of the anti-communist aspects prevalent in the 1960 film, Spartacus.  Fifty years later, politics are just as heated and people feel that movies are great way to express their opinions.  While I do see the benefits of using film to convey political messages, Green Zone goes too far.

The entire plot of the film is straight from the headlines.  Matt Damon is the head of an army regiment that is saddled with the task of finding WMD’s in Iraq.  Of course, they can’t find any, and of course the intelligence they have is faulty.  We’ve heard this all before.  In the end, (SPOILER ALERT) it turns out that a bureaucrat intentionally lied to force troops into an unnecessary war in Iraq.  The liberal agenda is not a undertone in the film it is the very plot.

Regardless of your political persuasion, the movie lacks depth.  There is no twist, no exciting new information, no intense fight sequences.  The plot is predictable because it is what the media has been telling us for years now (speaking of media, Amy Dayne’s somewhat corrupt journalist character happens to work for the Wall Street Journal, go figure).  Furthering the ties to actual occurrences, the film’s producer takes an open shot on President Bush as he is shown given a speech to military in the film, thus tying him to the conflict.

The cinematography is intentionally shaky and curt, presumably to give it more of a documentary type feel.  It is just another step in trying to convince people that these are actual occurrences.  The average civilian has no idea what life is really like in the camps in the Middle East and so however they are portrayed in movies is often the picture that is cemented into our minds.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this type of filmmaking is dangerous (although some might), but it does seem lazy.  At least the liberal message in Avatar was shrouded behind intense images and an entirely new civilization.  Again, it is clear that those who tend to vote blue will be more likely to agree with the film’s overall message (that Bush and his administration knowingly started a war in Iraq on faulty if not manufactured intelligence), but even then I have a hard time believing anyone will be entertained by this lack of creativity.


1.5 out of 5 stars


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-Nuss