What went wrong with “Greezone”? Why did the film, which seemed like potential Oscar fodder get pushed to a lame March 12 release date? We decided to read the script and investigate to glean why these decisions were made.
Writer-director Paul Greengrass knows his way around politically-infused, shaky-cam, dramas (“United 93,” “Bloody Sunday”) and actioners (the ‘Bourne’ flicks). Greengrass has street-cred; he writes lean action-heavy scripts that lend themselves well to his faux vérité style of filmmaking. Based on the book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” written by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and adapted by Greengrass himself, “Green Zone,” like “United 93,” places human faces on a well known moment in recent history and tries to give us a sense of what it felt like to be there.
The Synopsis: A Chief Warrant Officer and CIA Chief of Station hunt down a person of interest in the race to find WMDs immediately following the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003. Think “Syrianna,” but based on real events that you already know a lot about.
The Longer Gist: After doing his job, following orders, and understanding what he’s supposed to do, Chief Warrant Officer Miller (Matt Damon) begins to see the forest for the trees and takes note of the badly managed, underfunded occupation he’s helping execute. He maneuvers a reassignment for his unit and becomes security for the CIA Chief of Station, Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), who lives in the Green Zone; a weird oasis in the middle of a war zone. Our earnest muscle, Officer Miller, pursues the truth of Iraq’s WMD and in the process gets a lesson in neo-conservative, foreign policy.
Yeah but in a Good Way: This script is all plot and slim on character, but not to its detriment. The ever-present, harsh reality of the Iraq war and all that has been published and said about it weighs heavy. The plot, a mild thriller, helps move us through the history lesson, but the history lesson is in no way overt or heavy handed. The characters are slim, but have enough meat on the bone to seem real and plausible. Officer Miller, Station Chief Brown, and New York Times journalist, Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan) give us a better understanding of just how bad things were in the early days. The story moves fast and never gives any character enough time to make a speech or to sum up everything in one monologue and thank god, because so often in political films that type of speech ruins things (see also “A Few Good Men,” “Lions for Lambs” and just about every other flick made by a Hollywood studio about this or the previous gulf war). Miller, Brown, and Dayne give just enough for us to understand who they are, what baggage they bring, and where they’re headed.
We Know What Happens In the End, so getting there better be interesting, enlightening, or fun. “Green Zone” scores a two out of three. It’s interesting, because (like “The Hurt Locker” or “Road to Guantanamo”) we get a very real sense of what it’s like for the military and or Iraqis. It’s enlightening because we get a strong sense of how politics of obstruction and an over-hungry new media make for horrible fuck-buddies (sex ruins everything). But, calling “The Green Zone” fun ain’t happening. There is nothing fun about artillery rounds shaking coffee cups before breakfast, a soldier’s nerves during house raids, bodies hanging out of burned-out cars on city streets, collateral damage, etc. There are brief moments of humor, funny jokes between soldiers, and something about a tiger loose in one of Saddam’s son’s palace, but nothing will likely ever make “The Green Zone” fun. And rightly so.
The Devil is in the Details: The details of life on the ground in Iraq for all involved are what keeps this script firmly rooted in reality. Outside the Green Zone, are humvees without armor, above-the-law military actions, and a country up to its neck in awful. Inside the Comfort Green Zone, people may still be living and working smack dab in the middle of a botched occupation, but the middle has palace-sized, marble encased rooms, swimming pools, journalists in bathing suits, and a buffet with bacon cheese burgers and pork belly sandwiches being served by Muslims attendants. These details, these facts about life in Iraq at that time, ratchets up your distaste for the situation and firmly place you behind our hero and his quest for the sad truth.
This is How She Fucks Us: Officer Miller has the subtle hots for Times reporter Lawrie Dayne. Maybe it’s because the ratio of men to women at the bar that night was 8 to 1, maybe it was because she looked so hot in that one-piece by the pool, or the champagne bottle they shared at at the park, either way, they nowhere near act on it and barely let it register past a raised eyebrow. Dayne is the only female character and its nice to know she’s not there to act as a moisturizer for the harder, dryer characters. If anything, she’s there to further chafe things as evidenced by this gem uttered by CIA Chief of Station Brown after he asks Officer Miller if he’s sleeping with Dayne, “You should, because she’s fucking us. Here’s how they work it. White house gets a bogus piece of intel from Zubaidi, they leak her the story, New York Times prints it. And the next day the Vice President’s on Meet the Press quoting the story she wrote that they leaked to her in the first place.” Sounds about right.
This Could Have Been Somebody: This might have been one of this year’s 10 Best Pictures if Universal hadn’t recently decided to bump its release date from fall to spring. Given the script’s strong points and the creative people involved, Universal could have a solid, slow-building critical hit on its hands. Maybe they moved its release because they’re afraid Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Hurt Locker’ has already been crowned winner of the Iraq-related drama prize. Maybe it’s too much Matt Damon this fall. He’s also in Clint Eastwood’s “Inviticus,” and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant.” Maybe it’s something worse: Universal isn’t totally convinced of its Oscar capabilities and they have a hole to fill in their late Q1 2010 schedule. “Green Zone” becomes the sacrifice for business reasons.
We’re still looking forward to this one. We are. It’s straightforward, well structured, and lean where it needs to be. It has its genre trappings and its archetypal characters, but its respectable attention to detail and realism could make for a solid, dramatic, shaky-cam ride into the heart of the beast that is the true legacy of the Cheney-Bush era.
Note this version floating around the web is the Greengrass’ version before screenwriter Brian Helgeland (“L.A. Confidential,” “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” the upcoming “Robin Hood”) took a turn at it, but most people don’t seem to have that version and it’s unclear how different the two versions are. – Andrew Hart