Green Zone (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Green Zone

Theatrical release poster

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Tim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Produced by
Lloyd Levin
Paul Greengrass

Brian Helgeland
Written by
Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Book)

Starring Matt Damon

Greg Kinnear
Brendan Gleeson
Amy Ryan
 Khalid Abdalla
Jason Isaacs
Yigal Naor

Cinematography Barry Ackroyd

Editing by Christopher Rouse

StudioCanal
Studio Relativity Media
Working Title Films

Distributed by Universal Studios

Release date(s) March 12, 2010

Running time 115 minutes

United States
France
Country
Spain
United Kingdom

Language English

Budget $100 million[1]

Gross revenue $24,009,295

Green Zone is a 2010 action thriller war film written by Brian Helgeland and directed by Paul
Greengrass. The film is "credited as having been 'inspired' by"[2] the non-fiction 2006 book
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, which documented life in
the Green Zone, Baghdad. The film stars Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan
Gleeson. Production began in January 2008 in Spain and moved on to Morocco. The film was
released in Australia and Russia on March 11, 2010, and in the USA and some other countries on
March 12, 2010.
Contents
[hide]

 1 Plot
 2 Cast
 3 Production
 4 Reception
o 4.1 Critical response
o 4.2 Criticism
o 4.3 Box office
 5 References
 6 External links

[edit] Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve
it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2010)

Green Zone is a thriller that takes place in the Green Zone and nearby in Iraq during post-
invasion Iraq, 2003 by the United States and allies.[3]

General Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor), in hiding in Baghdad, is meeting with his aides talking about the
invasion of Iraq. Many of his aides propose fighting other Iraqi forces and American forces,
however Al-Rawi suggests that they remain where they are and wait until the Americans arrive
and perhaps make the Iraqi army an offer to join their forces (the earlier arrival of Al-Rawi,
senior in the Iraqi government, is noticed by an an Iraqi we will come to know as Freddie).

Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his squad investigate a warehouse, believed
to be holding Weapons of Mass Destruction. After encounters with a sniper and scanning the
warehouse for radioactive activity, they find that the warehouse is empty, with the exception of
an old piece of mechanical equipment. After regrouping with his squad, Roy Miller starts to
question the intel given to him.

At a debriefing, Miller brings up the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate
and anonymous, stating that on his last three attempts to find WMDs, his team had come up with
nothing. High-ranking officials quickly debunk Miller's theory that the intelligence is false.

Meanwhile, Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) is welcoming Ahmed Zubadi (Raad Rawi) an
Iraqi politician at Saddam International Airport, where he is interrogated by journalist Lawrie
Dayne (Amy Ryan). She asks if she could speak to "Magellan", to which Poundstone says that he
is heavily "locked up".
After the debriefing, Miller meets Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), an employee of the CIA,
who tells Miller that the next place he is going to investigate for WMDs is also empty, as a team
had already searched there months ago. Brown suggests that the intelligence he is being given is
part of a cover-up.

Whilst investigating another site, a playground where WMDs are thought to be buried, Miller is
approached by a man who calls himself "Freddie" (Khalid Abdalla), who tells Miller that he saw
Al-Rawi at the meeting in a nearby house. Miller and his men swiftly go to the house and after
Al-Rawi narrowly escaped, they take one of his henchmen into custody, who happens to have a
book containing the addresses of Al-Rawi's safehouses, but before Miller can extract any more
information the man is taken by Special Forces, sent by Poundstone.

Miller goes to Brown's hotel to give him the notebook and tell him of what took place, and then
Brown tells Miller to go and retrieve the man taken by the Special Forces and offer him $1
million dollars in exchange for co-operation. Before leaving, he is approached by Wall Street
Journal correspondent Lawrie Dayne, who hands him her card if Miller should wish to disclose
any information later on. When he gets to the prison where the informant is held, the man is in
desperate need of medical attention due to interrogation, and after Miller suspects that Al-Rawi
might be Magellan, the man responds with the word "Jordan" after Miller asks him about Al-
Rawi's whereabouts in the run up to the invasion. With Brown's help, Miller's suspicions are
confirmed and it is discovered that Al-Rawi met with Poundstone in February in Jordan as
Poundstone's inside man.

Miller then goes in pursuit of Al-Rawi, and, having been kidnapped by Al-Rawi's men, Al-Rawi
tells him that he told Poundstone there had been no WMD programme since the First Gulf War,
and we learn that Poundstone lied to his superiors in Washington - so that Iraq would be invaded
anyway. General Al-Rawi then flees as the Iraqi Army is disbanded by the CPA and Special
Forces learn of his location and, in their helicopters track to try to kill him. Back with Miller, he
kills his captors and races to capture Al Rawi before the Special Forces get him. Meantime
Freddie is shadowing Miller who does catch Al-Rawi and says to him that if he surrenders he
will take him back to Brown. At this point Freddie appears and shoots Al-Rawi to death, saying
it's not Miller's choice.

At a meeting the next day where the Iraqi denominations are trying to broker a deal, Miller
confronts Poundstone with what he found out and gives him a strongly-worded report of how the
whole invasion was based on a lie. Poundstone denies any knowledge of meeting Al-Rawi or
lying about the existence of WMDs but instead tells Miller "We're not stopping", in reference to
America's push for democracy in Iraq. Miller violently grabs Poundstone but the encounter is
split up by security guards. Poundstone then rejoins the Iraqi meeting, only to find it breaking
down completely.

Afterwards, Miller e-mails his report to Dayne, as well as many major news corporations and
newspapers in the western world to expose the scandal. The camera then pans out to show Miller
driving off on a Iraqi highway, with the Iraqi oil fields in the background.