The Green Zone: Video Review | The Part-Time Critic

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Green Zone: Video Review

For more of my thoughts on The Green Zone HERE is a link to my review of Roger Ebert's review of the film

4 comments:

Scott Mendelson said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; March 13, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Scott Mendelson said...: Deleted and resent to fix a blatant typo.

A two-minute review running 3:56? Hmm...

I rather agree with you. As a fictional thriller, the movie had me up until the bloated action climax and the wish-fulfillment fantasy of the epilogue. I just wished they had tossed a bone towards the more complicated politics of the time (although EVERYONE knew that disbanding the Iraqi army was suicide at the time). Oddly, by simplifying the situation, they end up letting pretty much everyone (us included) off the moral hook, since it's all apparently the fault of Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan colluding. And what a gutless move to change Ryan's paper from the left-leaning New York Times to the right-leaning Wall Street Journal.

Oddly enough, as a piece of historical fiction, viewed in the same lens as something like The Patriot, I rather enjoyed the first 80% of the picture. It's well-cast, fast-paced, with snappy dialogue and suspenseful set-pieces. Alas, by simplifying the history and not dealing with the morality of invading in the first place, Greengrass ends up acquitting the very people he had intended to condemn.

For a better look at the same stuff, try the documentary No End in Sight. Haven't seen Traitor, but perhaps I'll check it out.; March 13, 2010 at 5:30 PM
Kyle Leaman said...: Yea, three reviews in and I'm already going past the two minute mark! Perhaps some re-thinking is in order.

I found 'Traitor' to be a much better film than advertised. It's not an 'Iraq' film, but it does ask some of the better questions about the war on terror, consistently trying to explain both sides and at times taking both.

I've tended to stay away from the early documentaries on the Iraq War just because I don't know if they were distant enough from the early criticisms of the war to to have good perspective. 'No End In Sight' though sounds good enough to check out.; March 13, 2010 at 6:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Interesting review Kyle, I haven't seen the Green Zone, and probably won't--but I will see Traitor! I'm loving the video-reviews, hearing you speak is good, and I don't mind that the "two minutes" was more like four. :); March 17, 2010 at 10:32 PM