A Good Movie? I Don't Believe It!

A non-fiction book called "Imperial Life In The Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone", written by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, was published in 2006.

The book showcases the 13 month tenure of presidential viceroy Paul Bremer as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority after the US invasion of Iraq in from May, 2003 to June, 2004.

In short, Bremer led an occupational administration in Iraq that remained stubbornly oblivious to the degenerating situation outside of the secure "green zone" in the center of Baghdad, filling vital reconstruction positions with Bush loyalists who really had no idea how to do their jobs.

The Iraqi army was disbanded, and millions of people were without electricity or water, so the CPA decided that the people of Iraq needed a revised tax code, the elimination of import tariffs and a smoking ban.

While life outside grew more desperate for millions of Iraqis, life inside the "green zone" seemed like an errie oasis for members of the CPA. It became a locked-down borough, a "Little America" inside of Baghdad, where the cafeteria served pork regularly. Most CPA staffers remained exclusively within the "green zone", ignorant of the nightmare unfolding outside.

Obviously, things didn't work out terribly well.

A few years ago, I heard Paul Greengrass was working on a film version of "Imperial Life In The Emerald City". It seemed like a perfect fit.

Most folks know Greengrass as the director of the latter two thirds of Matt Damon's Jason Bourne trilogy, and he did a fantastic job with those movies. They're tense, action-packed films with a brain behind them, and "The Bourne Ulitmatum" ended so perfectly, I'm glad neither Greengrass or Damon have decided to pass on future "Bourne" films.

But he also directed "United 93", a dramatized account of the passenger uprising of United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. It's a powerful, heartbreaking film that can be difficult to watch.

Greengrass's break-out film was "Bloody Sunday" in 2002, which tells the true story of the tragic Northern Ireland Civil Rights March of 1972.The film is made in the pseudo-documentary style that has since become Greengrass's trademark.

Although made for British television, the producers were so proud of the film, they premiered it at the Sundance Film Festival, and it had a limited theatrical run in British cinemas after it premiered on television.

"Bloody Sunday" truly is a remarkable film. If you haven't seen it, do so.

So Paul Greengrass directing a film about the complete clusterfuck that was the CPA running the show in post-invasion Iraq sounded like a home run.

But Paul Greengrass didn't make "Imperial Life In The Emerald City".

Paul Greengrass made "Green Zone". Here's the spoiler-filled story:

"Green Zone" is a fictionalized account of Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (played by Matt Damon), charged with finding WMD in the early days of the 2003 Iraq invasion.

We meet Miller as his squad is on-site, attempting to lock down a suspected WMD site overrun with looters. The squad finds only long-abandoned mechanical equipment at the site, and Miller is quickly growing frustrated with the lack of results.

Miller questions the veracity of the US State Department's mysterious source, code-named "Magellan", who has been providing the suspected WMD locations that Miller's squad has been searching. He brings this up at a debriefing, but is silenced by his superiors who claim that the intelligence is sound.

Government douchebag Clark Poundstone (played by Greg Kinnear) shows up at an airport and looks smug, welcoming an exiled Iraqi politician back to the country of his birth. His plan is to place the politician, Ahmed Zubadi, in a position of power within the forming Iraqi interim government, essentially as a stooge for the United States government.

Journalist Lawrie Dane (played by Amy Ryan, who was fantastic in "Gone Baby Gone"), who wrote many articles in the Wall Street Journal leading up to the US invasion citing the mysterious "Magellan"'s WMD intel as a reason for going to war, confronts Poundstone at the airport, asking to interview "Magellan". Poundstone shrugs her off, saying that "Magellan" is under lock and key for his own protection.

After being shot down at the debriefing, Miller runs into CIA Guy Martin Brown (played by Brendan Gleeson, who is awesome in everything), who tells him that Miller's next "Magellan" approved site is a waste of time, telling him that the intelligence is complete bullshit.

Meanwhile, Iraqi General Al-Rawi, the "Jack of Clubs" in the US deck of Iraq's Most Wanted playing cards, is meeting with some of his peers, and they argue about what their next move. Al-Rawi advocates a "wait and see" approach, hoping that the US government will approach them with an offer to assist in the security of Iraq in the aftermath of the invasion.

Later, as Miller and his team are digging holes in an abandoned playground, fruitlessly searching for chemical weapons, they are approached by an Iraqi gentleman (played by Khalid Abdalla) they call "Freddie" who tells them that he saw General Al-Rawi meeting with others at a nearby residence.

Miller's squad packs up and tears ass to the residence, and a short firefight ensues. Al-Rawi escapes, but they manage to snag one of his henchmen, who is carrying a conspicuous little black book.

Before Miller can interrogate Al-Rawi's goon, Jason Isaacs shows up on a helicopter and shoves a hood on the prisoner's head, dragging him to his chopper. He asks Miller to give him the man's notebook, but Miller slips in Freddie's pocket and tells Isaacs to go fuck himself.

Isaacs is a Special Forces asshole, and beats Miller up, pinning him to the ground and groping him for the damned notebook. After his sexual harassment turns up nothing, Isaacs and his awesome handlebar moustache board the chopper, flying off and being an asshole.

Miller heads back to the "green zone" to show Brown the notebook, which contains the adresses of Al-Rawi's safehouses throughout Baghdad. Brown gives Miller a million dollars from his safe, telling him to visit Al-Rawi's captured henchman at the detention facility, and offer him the money in exchange for his co-operation.

It must be nice just to have a safe full of money.

Before leaving, Miller meets Lawrie Dane, and she slips him her card. Heh, heh.

Miller drags Freddie with him to the detention facility as his interpreter, but when they find Al-Rawi's stooge, he's already been worked over by the mighty fists of Isaacs, and is badly in need of medical attention.

By now, Miller is thinking that Al-Rawi might just be this shady "Magellan" character, and asks the quivering mass of Iraqi meat where Al-Rawi was before the US invasion. The meat manages to squeak out the word "Jordan".

Miller meets with Brown, telling him that Al-Rawi must be a big fan of Katie Price. Brown slaps him upside the head, then tells Miller that the goon must have been referring to Jordan, the Middle Eastern nation. Duh!

What can Brown do for you? He can tell you that Poundstone met with Al-Rawi in Jordan several months before the invasion, and that Al-Rawi is, in all likelihood, the legendary "Magellan", the asshat who has been providing the government with all the faulty WMD intelligence.

Miller decides it's time to have a face-to-face with Al-Rawi, and takes off. He gets kidnapped by Al-Rawi's men, rather quickly, I thought. Freddie, left alone, produces a pistol from his car and wanders off, up to no good.

Al-Rawi tells Miller that he did, in fact, meet with Poundstone in Jordan, and at the meeting he stated that Iraq's WMD program was disbanded after the first Gulf War. So Poundstone lied, creating the "Magellan" source to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Someone in our government lied? Say it ain't so!

Meanwhile, the CPA holds a press conference, stating their intentions to officially disband the Iraqi Army. Al-Rawi hears this news, and realizes that the US has abandoned him. He orders his men to kill Miller, then tries to get the fuck out of Dodge.

Miller gets into a brawl with his captors, shooting them a lot, then sets off after Al-Rawi. Special Forces Isaacs is also on the case, being guided to Al-Rawi's position via Helicopter.

Isaacs intends to shoot Al-Rawi's head clean off his shoulders, to keep him quiet. Miller intends to bring Al-Rawi in, to blow the lid off the whole "Magellan" conspiracy. It's a fucking race!

Miller hops into a car, and Isaacs is on foot, and the two converge in a brief sequence during the chase which made me laugh out loud, with Isaacs running like the T-1000 in "Terminator 2", looking over at Miller in his shitty automobile.

It's a short sequence, lasting maybe 10 seconds, but it's so bizarre that I had to laugh.

Isaacs and Miller catch up to Al-Rawi, and Isaacs gets his back blasted apart by the General's little buddy. Miller quickly ventilates the shooter, before confronting Al-Rawi, telling the General that he's taking the man with him back to the "green zone", to expose Poundstone.

Freddie shows up, emptying his gun into General Al-Rawi, telling Miller that what happens in Iraq is not Miller's choice. Instead of shooting Freddie, Miller tells him to run the fuck away before Miller's military buddies show up and lock down the area.

The next day, Poundstone is on his way to a meeting of Iraqi factions to present Ahmed Zubadi. Miller confronts Poundstone, but, smug government douche that he is, Poundstone completely denies all of Miller's allegations.

Miller gets pissed and tries to throw down, but security breaks it up before Poundstone can get his smug face destroyed.

Feeling pretty cocky, Poundstone walks into the meeting only to see it degenerating into a shouting match, with many delegates voicing their displeasure with the "American puppet" Zubadi. A hollow victory, indeed.

Despite the loss of Al-Rawi, Miller writes up his report and sends it to Lawrie Dayne, as well as many other journalists, still hoping to expose the "Magellan" scandal to the world.

Miller then sets out with his squad, driving through the streets of Baghdad, feeling good about himself. The screen goes dark, "Extreme Ways" starts playing-- wait, this isn't a "Bourne" movie. Never mind.

Long story short, "Green Zone" is great.

Perhaps I'm looking back with awesome-colored glasses, but after seeing so much mediocrity over the past few months, this movie stands out like a sore thumb. It's an entertaining, thrilling, intelligent motion picture.

The final twenty minutes of the film are essentially one big chase sequence, and Greengrass is at the top his game, here. His steadycam becomes a big part of the action, bobbing and weaving like a participant in the conflict.

A lot of people complain about Greengrass's "shaking camera" style, saying that it gives them motion sickness, or that it simply confuses them. I don't know what these people are talking about. Maybe it's because I just don't get motion sickness, but it never bothers me. And I was never confused during the action.

The camera always shows us exactly what we need to see, and the kinetic cinematography, coupled with Chris Rouse's amazing editing, combine to create incredibly visceral action sequences that go above and beyond what is portrayed in trash like "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen".

It's really cool stuff, and I would love to peek behind the scenes and see how Rouse puts these sequences together.

I've also read that some people find the fictionalized portrayal of real events in "Green Zone" to be offensive, considering is a disservice to all the soldiers who are sacrificing their lives in Iraq.

These people act like "Green Zone" sets some kind of precedent, like fictionalized films about real wars have never been made during the actual wars they portray.

These people are fucking stupid. Hundreds of World War II films were made during World War II! For Christ's sake, Universal Pictures even had Sherlock fucking Holmes fighting the Nazis during World War II! This is nothing new. But the politically correct attitude toward this trend is.

Of course "Green Zone" isn't number one at the box office, this weekend. "Alice in Wonderland" is still raking in the money, because people are stupid.

When ugly computer generated garbage jumps out at their beady eyes in 3D, they shovel popcorn into their greasy mouths and ask for seconds. But when a well-made and thought-provoking movie opens, they decide to pass. It's depressing.

Anyway, "Green Zone" is deserving of your time and money, Dear Imaginary Reader. You'll enjoy yourself, and you won't feel like you've lost IQ points when you leave the theatre.

Greengrass's film is not "Imperial Life In The Emerald City", and I firmly believe that a very good movie can still come from Rajiv Chandasekaran's book. But "Green Zone" is a damn good movie. And it made my weekend.

Also, Peter Graves is dead. I'm going to watch a gladiator movie in his honor.