DVD reviews: Green Zone

Since Jason Bourne spoiled the fun by up and remembering everything, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have been at a loose end. While they figure out a new way to induce amnesia, the actor-director partnership hit on a stopgap solution: a Bourne movie without Bourne.

Actually, that’s not entirely fair. Green Zone does indeed feature Greengrass’ semblematic shaky cam, rapid-fire action sequences and world-weary leading bloke, but takes the gritty realism one step further. Based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a caustic look at post-invasion Iraq, Green Zone attempts what few Hollywood action flicks have thus far had the stones to do: it’s a popcorn blockbuster detailing exactly how the US dropped the ball.

Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Miller, a soldier tasked with finding weapons of mass destruction during the first months of the war. After visiting a number of sites, Miller begins to suspect not only might there be no chemical weapons, but that the intelligence directing them might be wrong, or worse, fraudulent. When he voices his concerns to his superiors, Miller is rebuffed and told to toe the administration line.

After accepting a tip from a concerned Iraqi citizen, ‘Freddy’, (Khalid Abdalla), Miller begins to unpick a conspiracy he sees as the heart of the US invasion.

What follows is a clever, condensed and watchable exposition of exactly how Iraq went to hell in a handbasket, replete with a thinly-veiled Paul Bremer III – Greg Kinner as ‘Clark Poundstone’ – and the crushing hubris of George W Bush declaring, “Mission accomplished”.

Although it’s smartly packaged as a thriller, chances are you might have heard how this all turned out (not well). Because you already know Miller’s attempt to fight the good fight is doomed, what you’re ultimately watching the unfolding of a tragedy, no matter how gripping.

Greengrass’s decision to reach a wider audience by presenting Green Zone as a blockbuster occasionally result in the laying-it-on-with-a-trowel effect, particularly by overplaying his hand with Abdalla’s justifiably pissed-off Baghdadi.

While the director’s distinctive hand-held cinematography and dedication to realism are effective techniques, the results won’t necessarily please home theatre fanatics. Heavy grain is engulfing through darker sections (which are frequent if not constant) and there appear to be a number of film stocks. Although it’s clearly an aesthetic choice, it means this isn’t going to be a reference disc. Compression or artefacts, however, are never evident.

Frequent Greengrass collaborator John Powell contributes his thumpingly percussive score, which when combined with the deep register of Green Zone’s many explosions, might go `some way to appeasing home audio nerds.

Extras, including a couple of short making-of docos, are solid but not stunning.

Despite these minor shortfalls, Green Zone is a thoughtful, tense thriller with enough under the surface to warrant repeated viewing. TG

Rating:

Sound: 3 ½

Vision: 3

Film: 4