In the "Green Zone"

I finally got around to watching "Green Zone," starring Matt Damon reprising a Bourne-like role in the search for Iraqi WMDs in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003. I figured, hey, got to see what the hubbub was about. This was not a good film, although I wanted to like it. It was based - very loosely - on the 75th Exploitation Task Force (renamed as the "85th Exploitation Task Force") and one of its mission team leads, Chief Warrant Officer Richard Gonzales. Greg Kinnear plays a Paul Bremer clone, Amy Ryan does a lame Judith Miller, Raad Radi plays Chalabi, and Brendon Gleason is a stereotypical hard-nose CIA hand. They should all have found a better film in which to act.  

I'll advise my right-of-center buddies just to avoid this film altogether, since it's clear in the movie that the villain is the CheneyBush administration. There are campaign signs in the CPA headquarters, for crying out loud. Here's the deal. An Iraqi general, one of the top dogs in Saddam's gang, traveled to Jordan to talk to Kinnear/Bremer to say, hey, there are no WMDs in Iraq. The general wants to make a deal with the US government - when the invasion starts, the Iraqi army will fade away, the US gets Baghdad, and then the Sunnis get to take over the new government. Kinnear/Bremer lies about the Iraqi WMDs and pulls out of the deal, fakes the intel about WMD sites, which is why the WMD team can't find anything. Meanwhile Ryan/Miller is a naive journalist for the Wall Street Journal (not the NY Times?) who was suckered by the administration into writing the WMD fabrications. Faked intel, bad reporting? Theater imitates life.

At the very beginning, the WMD team gets into chemical protective suits and is using CAMs, and in that one scene, that's all they do with WMD searches. Then the film spins off into a "get the informer before the bad guys ice him" movie. If you didn't like the lack of realism in the military troops in "Hurt Locker," you'll really hate this movie. Damon's character doesn't answer to anyone, even though the hunt for WMDs is a top priority for CENTCOM and the US govt. His righteous indignation that people are blocking him from finding the WMDs and "saving people" is just damned annoying. Damon's team is actually composed of military veterans - they're the only believable actors in the film.  

This will sound strange, but I was really annoyed that the WMD team was searching in Baghdad for WMD materials and technology. To the best of my knowledge, there were no WMD teams in Baghdad. All the sites were outside of Baghdad, since it wouldn't be good if a chemical or biological munition or production site went "boom" near the capitol. But they had to put the WMD search in Baghdad so that Damon's character could go free-lance in his "find the Iraqi general" hunt in the same city. Weak stuff. We deserve a better Iraq-WMD hunt movie than this turkey.

Comments

[tammy swofford]

My spouse and I viewed the film and were disappointed. Any film where agenda supercedes script is distasteful to me. Fat boy Michael Moore certainly has a few Hollywood clones.

Chalabi? Parachuted in by our team early on and now his image in a film? sigh I agree with your assessment: a better film in which to act.

Art as manipulation. I have always hated it.

Tammy

[John]

"This will sound strange, but I was really annoyed that the WMD team was searching in Baghdad for WMD materials and technology."

[sigh] The WMD search site with the CAMs and the MOPP gear that turned out to be a "toilet factory" was clearly said (by Chief Miller in the general's briefing) to be in Diwaniyah.

I never stopped there, but have driven by it on MSR Tampa, and I clearly recall it being a couple hundred kilometers south of Baghdad on the way to Basra.[/sigh]

[J.]

Thanks for the clarification. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention to the names of the exploitation sites - the 75th XTF was in Baghdad in May 2003, but their missions were outside of the city. Annoyance going away...