Green Zone | |
---|---|
Directed by | Paul Greengrass |
Written by | Brian Helgeland |
Based on | Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Barry Ackroyd |
Edited by | Christopher Rouse |
Music by | John Powell |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Universal Pictures [2] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 115 minutes |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $100 million [2] |
Box office | $94.9 million [2] |
Green Zone is a 2010 action thriller film [4] directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Brian Helgeland, based on the 2006 non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The book documented life within the Green Zone in Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [5]
The key players in the film are General Mohammed Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor), who is hiding in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq, and US Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon), a Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) leader who is searching for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Miller finds that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate. His efforts to find the true story about the weapons are blocked by US Department of Defense official Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear). The cast also features Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, and Jason Isaacs.
The film was produced by Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Relativity Media, Working Title Films, Antena 3 Films, Dentsu, and KanZaman Productions. [3] [1] Principal photography began in January 2008 in Spain, later moving to Morocco and the United Kingdom.
Green Zone premiered at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan on 26 February 2010, and was released in Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Singapore on 11 March 2010, followed by a further 10 countries the next day, among them the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. The film generally received mixed critical reviews and was a box office bomb, having grossed only $94.9 million against a production budget of $100 million plus $40 million in marketing. [2]
On March 19, 2003, Iraqi Army General Mohammed Al-Rawi flees his residence amid the bombardment of Baghdad. Before leaving the compound he passes a notebook to his aide Seyyed, instructing him to warn his officers to get to their safehouses and wait for his signal.
Four weeks later, US Army CBRN Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller and his platoon check a warehouse for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. After a firefight with a sniper, Miller finds that the warehouse is empty, the third consecutive time an official mission has led to a dead end. Later, at a debriefing, Miller makes the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate and anonymous. High-ranking officials quickly dismiss his concerns. Afterwards, CIA Officer Martin Brown tells him that the next place he is to search was inspected by a United Nations team two months prior and that it, too, has been confirmed empty.
Meanwhile, US Department of Defense official Clark Poundstone welcomes returning Iraqi exile politician Ahmed Zubaidi at the airport. Wall Street Journal reporter Lawrie Dayne questions Poundstone and needs to speak directly to "Magellan" (based on real-life informant "Curveball"), but Poundstone brushes her off.
Meanwhile, while checking another unpromising site, Miller is approached by an Iraqi who calls himself "Freddy", who tells him that he saw some Ba'ath Party VIPs meeting in a nearby house. They include Al-Rawi and his officers and aides in Baghdad, who are discussing the current situation. Al-Rawi decides to wait for the Americans to offer him a deal and attack if they do not. As the meeting ends, Miller and his men raid the house. Al-Rawi narrowly escapes, but Seyyed is captured. Before Miller can extract much information, Seyyed is taken away by Special Forces operators who get in a fight with Miller's team. However, Miller keeps Al-Rawi's notebook.
Miller goes to Brown's hotel in the Green Zone, where he tells him what happened and gives him the notebook. Brown arranges for Miller to enter the prison where Seyyed is being interrogated. Dayne then approaches Miller, who questions him about the false reports of WMDs. Miller bluffs his way in to see Seyyed. Near death, after being tortured, he tells Miller that they "did everything you asked us to in the meeting." When Miller asks what meeting he is talking about, he says one word: "Jordan." Miller then confronts Dayne about the bogus intel she published, but she refuses to identify Magellan, her source. After Miller tells her he suspects Al-Rawi is Magellan, Dayne reluctantly confirms that Magellan met with a high-ranking official in February in Jordan.
Miller realizes that Poundstone's men are hunting Al-Rawi and can think of only one reason: Al-Rawi confirms there was no Iraqi WMD program and is now a major liability. Poundstone confiscates Martin's notebook, which contains the locations of Al-Rawi's safe houses. When Miller tries to arrange a meeting with Al-Rawi, he is abducted by Al-Rawi's men following Poundstone's announcement of the decision to disband the entire Iraqi Army. Al-Rawi tells Miller that he informed Poundstone that the WMD program had been dismantled after the Gulf War; Poundstone, however, reported that Al-Rawi had confirmed there were WMDs so the US government would have an excuse to invade. Poundstone's men attack the safe house, and Al-Rawi flees. Miller escapes his captors and races after Al-Rawi, finally capturing him, but Freddy suddenly shoots the general, telling Miller that "It is not for you to decide what happens here". With his only witness against Poundstone now dead, Miller tells Freddy to flee.
Later, Miller writes a scathing report. He confronts Poundstone in a meeting and gives him the report, but Poundstone dismisses it, telling Miller that WMDs do not matter. Poundstone then rejoins the meeting, only to see Iraqi factional leaders reject Zubaidi, the US's choice as leader of Iraq, as an American puppet and storm out. Afterward, Dayne receives Miller's report by email and a list of reporters for major news agencies worldwide.
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States appears in a cameo via television archive footage.
In January 2007, after completing The Bourne Ultimatum , director Paul Greengrass announced his intent to adapt a film of the 2006 non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a journalist for The Washington Post . Greengrass wrote a script based on the book, working with researchers Kate Solomon and Michael Bronner, who helped the director research for the 2006 film United 93 . The script was reported to be developed more in advance than the script for The Bourne Ultimatum, which had undergone changes during production. [15] Screenwriter Tom Stoppard was originally requested to write the script for Greengrass, but because Stoppard was too busy, [16] screenwriter Brian Helgeland instead collaborated with the director to shape the film's premise. [7] Greengrass expressed interest in casting in the lead actor Matt Damon, with whom he had worked on The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, [17] and the actor joined the project in June 2007. [18] Actors Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, and Antoni Corone were later cast in January 2008. [7] Greengrass said of the project's contemporary relevance, "Film shouldn't be disenfranchised from the national conversation. It is never too soon for cinema to engage with events that shape our lives." [17]
Director Paul Greengrass has said that he first thought about making a movie about the subject of the war in Iraq rather than telling a particular story. Although he initially supported Tony Blair's justifications of the war, he became disillusioned over time. Greengrass carried out extensive research into the background to the conflict, reading journalists such as Bob Woodward, Seymour Hersh, James Risen, Thomas Ricks, and Ron Suskind, in addition to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, whose book he optioned. He has even compiled a document, How Did We Get It So Wrong?, detailing what he learned. Although Greengrass initially wanted to make a smaller film, he eventually decided a bigger budget production would expose more people to the ideas in the film. [11]
Addressing some of the contentions in the film, Greengrass has said that the arguments about disbanding the Iraqi army portrayed in the film represent debates that actually took place by US policy makers. The issue of the culpability of the Fourth Estate, i.e. the mainstream (news) media, or MSM, in taking intelligence at face value, although embodied by a single character, represents a broad based failing in both the US and UK, but for Greengrass the fault ultimately lay with those trying to manipulate them. [19]
Greengrass has said that both the Bourne films and Green Zone reflect a widespread popular mistrust of authority that was engendered by governments that have deliberately lied and have let their citizens down over the Iraq war. [20] The confusion surrounding the absence of WMD in Iraq also provided an ideal scenario for a thriller, in which the protagonist battles for the truth. [19]
Production of Green Zone was originally slated to begin in late 2007. [15] Instead, it began at the Los Alcázares Air Base in Spain [21] on January 10, 2008, [7] moved to Morocco, and finished filming in the UK in December 2008.
The original motion picture soundtrack was composed by musician John Powell, a frequent collaborator of Greengrass. Jorge Adrados mixed the sound elements for the chorus, while Jon Olive edited the film's music. The soundtrack for the film was released on March 9, 2010, by the Varèse Sarabande music label. [22]
Green Zone: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Film score by John Powell | ||||
Released | March 9, 2010 | |||
Length | 52:41 | |||
Label | Varèse Sarabande | |||
John Powell chronology | ||||
|
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Opening Book" | 2:32 |
2. | "1st WMD Raid" | 2:39 |
3. | "Traffic Jam" | 2:59 |
4. | "Meeting Raid" | 4:33 |
5. | "Helicopter/Freddy Runs" | 2:43 |
6. | "Questions" | 3:25 |
7. | "Miller Googles" | 1:55 |
8. | "Truth/Magellan/Attack" | 3:50 |
9. | "Mobilize / Find Al Rawi" | 5:17 |
10. | "Evac Preps Part 1" | 8:36 |
11. | "Evac Preps Part 2" | 3:24 |
12. | "Attack and Chase" | 5:26 |
13. | "WTF" | 1:16 |
14. | "Chaos/Email" | 4:17 |
Total length: | 52:41 |
Green Zone opened in Australia and Russia on March 11, 2010. It was released in the United States and some other countries on March 12, 2010.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in United States on June 22, 2010. [23] The initial Blu-ray Disc includes audio commentary with director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon, deleted scenes with a video commentary by Damon, Greengrass and his son Kit, several featurettes, BD-Live, My Scenes and Digital Copy on disc. [24]
The film opened at No. 2 in the United States with $14.3 million in 3,003 theaters, averaging $4,765 per theater. [2] In the UK the film was the third most popular film of its opening weekend, selling £1.55 million worth of tickets (£2.07 million including previews). Comparing the relative opening weekend results of Green Zone and Shutter Island between the US and UK, Green Zone did twice as well in the UK as on the other side of the Atlantic.
Given its budget of roughly $100 million, in addition to its $40 million in marketing, Green Zone has been referred to as a flop for its production company Universal Studios. [25] The Guardian stated that the film would be unlikely to recoup its production costs through box-office receipts alone. [26] Green Zone has grossed $94.9 million in total worldwide ($35.1 million in the United States and Canada plus $59.8 million elsewhere). [2]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 53% based on 186 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass return to the propulsive action and visceral editing of the Bourne films – but a clichéd script and stock characters keep those methods from being as effective this time around." [27] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [28]
The action in "Green Zone" is followed by Greengrass in the QueasyCam style I've found distracting in the past: lots of quick cuts between hand-held shots. It didn't bother me here. That may be because I became so involved in the story. Perhaps also because unlike the "Bourne" films, this one contains no action sequences that are logically impossible.
Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 4 stars and wrote that Green Zone is "one hell of a thriller." [29] James Berardinelli of ReelView gave the film 3.5 stars, stating that the "most rewarding aspect of Green Zone is the manner in which it interweaves fact and fiction into an engaging whole." [30]
A.O. Scott, writing for The New York Times, praised Greengrass's direction, writing in his review that "There is plenty of fighting in Green Zone, most of it executed with the hurtling hand-held camerawork and staccato editing that are hallmarks of Mr. Greengrass's style. From Bloody Sunday through the second and third Bourne movies ... this director has honed his skill at balancing chaos with clarity." [31]
Empire's Mark Dinning awarded the film 4/5 stars, concluding that "There is a murky morality in the whole sorry saga of Iraq. Some of the motivation is money, some of it is a genuine — if confused — desire for good. Reel can’t quite match real in portraying this aspect, but Green Zone will nevertheless provoke thoughts as well as thrills — it’s an honest, compelling, smart blockbuster that dares to deliver on several levels. And in that, at the very least, star and director are bang on target." [32]
Ilana Ozernoy in Newsweek criticized the film's "popcorn-crunching conventions" and simplification of the source material, writing "if Green Zone were an exercise in bubble-gum pop, I would have chewed happily. But it is Greengrass's insistence on making the thing look and feel authentic that made it all the more unbelievable." [33]
Writing for The Boston Globe , Wesley Morris was critical of the film's mixture of style and tone. "If tremulous 100-yard-dash camerawork is Greengrass’s voice, this sort of movie might not be the song for him. Helgeland’s script doesn’t just suspect conspiracy. It’s certain there is corruption. And righteousness doesn’t suit the illusory objectivity of the director’s docu-realism." [34]
In the UK, Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph conceded that "with all we retrospectively know about the wool-pulling to make the case for war, it's a kick to follow a main character on the ground who smells a rat"; he nevertheless criticized the film for lacking credibility in its portrayal of a rogue hero who never faces a reprimand and never suffers paranoia. [35]
More enthusiastically, Andrew O'Hagan in The Evening Standard called Green Zone "one of the best war films ever made" because "it does what countless newspaper articles, memoirs, government statements and public inquiries have failed to do when it comes to the war in Iraq: expose the terrible lies that stood behind the decision of the US and Britain to prosecute the war, and it does so in a way that is dramatically brilliant, morally complex and relentlessly thrilling." [36]
The film was nominated for a Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture but lost to another Matt Damon film, Hereafter . [37]
Green Zone is seen as a political film, [38] [39] portraying the CIA in Iraq as the good guys while the Pentagon, more generally, the White House, as the bad guys. [40] Film critic A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times that "the inevitable huffing and puffing about this movie's supposedly left-wing or 'anti-American' agenda has already begun". [40] US military veteran Kyle Smith labeled the film "slander" and "egregiously anti-American", as he wrote on New York Post. [41] An article on Fox News.com states, "Given this set-up, audiences are encouraged to root for Miller's rogue activities and against the government, represented in the film by a corrupt Pentagon chief played by Greg Kinnear." [41]
Richard "Monty" Gonzales, the person on whom the character of Roy Miller was loosely based, commented that both sides of the political spectrum have reacted disproportionately and any political controversy is unwarranted. [42] Gonzales worked as one of the film's military advisors over two years on the condition that the film would be faithful to the experience of American soldiers in Iraq. [43] Gonzales wrote that, on the one hand, the film captures the critical intelligence blunders prior to the war and de-Baathification program that ensured that the conflict was costly and complicated. He nevertheless maintains that a reading of the film that reflects a genuine conspiracy by sections of the Federal government of the United States is incorrect. He sees the film as an exciting "Bourne-in-Baghdad thriller". [42] Matt Damon cites Gonzales' motives for working on the film as being "because we need to regain our moral authority." [44]
James Denselow, writing for The Guardian , praises the film's portrayal of the conflict, saying "ultimately what gives the film its credibility is that it avoids any simplistic idea that Iraq could have simply been 'got right'. Indeed Miller's vision of exposing the WMD conspiracy and the CIA's plan to keep the Iraqi army is undermined by the film's wildcard – a nationalist Shia war veteran who turns the plot on its head before delivering the killer line to the Americans when he tells them: 'It is not for you to decide what happens here [in this country].'" [45]
Greengrass defended his film in an interview with Charlie Rose, saying, "The problem, I think, for me is that something about that event strained all the bonds and sinews that connect us all together. For me it's to do with the fact that they said they had the intelligence, and then it emerged later that they did not." [41] Matt Damon also defended the film, telling MTV News, "I don't think that's a particularly incendiary thing to say. I think that's a journey that we all went on and a fundamental question we all asked and it's not partisan." [46] Filmmaker Michael Moore commented: "I can't believe this film got made. It's been stupidly marketed as an action film. It is the most HONEST film about the Iraq War made by Hollywood." [47]
Matthew Paige Damon is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He was ranked among Forbes' most bankable stars in 2007, and in 2010 was one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was a fact-finding mission sent by the multinational force in Iraq to find the weapons of mass destruction alleged to be possessed by Iraq that had been the main ostensible reason for the invasion in 2003. Its final report, Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq WMD, was submitted to Congress and the president in 2004. It consisted of a 1,400-member international team organized by the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency to hunt for the alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological agents, and any supporting research programs and infrastructure that could be used to develop WMD. The report acknowledged that only small stockpiles of chemical WMDs were found, the numbers being inadequate to pose a militarily significant threat.
Brian Thomas Helgeland is an American screenwriter, film producer, and director. He is best known for writing the screenplays for the films L.A. Confidential and Mystic River. He also wrote and directed the films 42, a biopic of Jackie Robinson, and Legend, about the rise and fall of the infamous London gangsters the Kray twins. His work on L.A. Confidential earned him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 action-thriller film featuring Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne character. Although it takes the name of the second Bourne novel (1986), its plot is entirely different. The film was directed by Paul Greengrass from a screenplay by Tony Gilroy. It is the second installment in the Bourne franchise, a direct sequel to The Bourne Identity (2002).
Jason Bourne is the title character and the protagonist in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations. The character was created by novelist Robert Ludlum. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity (1980), which was adapted for television in 1988. The novel was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 2002 and starred Matt Damon in the lead role.
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 action-thriller film directed by Doug Liman and written by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron. Based on Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel of the same name, it is the first installment in the Bourne franchise, and the film stars Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. In the film, Jason Bourne (Damon) suffers from psychogenic amnesia and is forced to fight to unlock his identity and his mysterious connection to the CIA.
The Bourne Legacy is a 2004 spy fiction thriller written by Eric Van Lustbader. It is the fourth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum and the first to be written by Lustbader. He has also written other novels in the series, The Bourne Betrayal, The Bourne Sanction, The Bourne Deception, The Bourne Objective, The Bourne Dominion, The Bourne Imperative, The Bourne Retribution, The Bourne Ascendancy, The Bourne Enigma, The Bourne Initiative and The Bourne Nemesis.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, known by the Defense Intelligence Agency cryptonym "Curveball", is a German citizen who defected from Iraq in 1999, claiming that he had worked as a chemical engineer at a plant that manufactured mobile biological weapon laboratories as part of an Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. Alwan's allegations were subsequently shown to be false by the Iraq Survey Group's final report published in 2004.
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 action-thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass. Although it shares its name with Ludlum's titular 1990 novel, its plot is entirely different. The third installment in the Jason Bourne film series after The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004), the screenplay was written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi and based on a screen story of the novel by Gilroy. Matt Damon reprises his role as Ludlum's signature character, former CIA assassin and psychogenic amnesiac Jason Bourne.
Paul Greengrass is an English film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist.
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone is a 2006 book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
Igal Naor is an Israeli actor, sometimes credited as Yigal Naor.
Barry Ackroyd is an English cinematographer and director. Ackroyd has frequently worked with directors Ken Loach and Paul Greengrass. He worked on Kathryn Bigelow's 2008 war film The Hurt Locker, and with Greengrass on the critically acclaimed 2013 biographical thriller Captain Phillips, the former earning him a BAFTA Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. In 2014, Ackroyd became the president of the British Society of Cinematographers.
The Bourne franchise consists of action-thriller installments based on the character Jason Bourne, created by author Robert Ludlum. The franchise includes five films and a spin-off television series. The overall plot centers around Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin suffering from dissociative amnesia, portrayed by Matt Damon.
John Powell is an English composer best known for his film scores. He has been based in Los Angeles since 1997 and has composed the scores to over 70 feature films. He is best known for composing score for films, including Face/Off, the Bourne film series, the Happy Feet films, United 93, X-Men: The Last Stand, Wicked and its sequel, Evolution, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Migration, Drumline, Hancock, The Call of the Wild, Bolt, eight Blue Sky Studios films, and nine DreamWorks Animation films.
The 25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings were attacks in Baghdad, Iraq which killed 155 people and injured at least 721 people.
The Bourne Legacy is a 2012 American action-thriller film directed by Tony Gilroy, and is the fourth installment in the series of films adapted from the Jason Bourne novels originated by Robert Ludlum and continued by Eric Van Lustbader, being preceded by The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). The film centers on black ops agent Aaron Cross, an original character. In addition to Renner, the film stars Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton.
Jason Bourne is a 2016 American action-thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse. It is the fifth installment of the Bourne film series and a direct sequel to The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Matt Damon reprises his role as the main character, former CIA assassin Jason Bourne. In addition, the film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Riz Ahmed, Ato Essandoh, Scott Shepherd, with Julia Stiles reprising her role as Nicky Parsons.
Captivate Entertainment LLC. is an American film production company, founded by Jeffrey Weiner and Ben Smith in 2009. It has a first-look deal with Universal Studios and it is based on the Universal Studios Backlot in Universal City, California. The company is best known for managing the movie rights of Robert Ludlum's books and producing the 2012 film The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton.
Green Zone may refer to: