Wow, The Green Zone wasn't what I thought it would be, but it was absorbing. First met Mary and another long-time friend (and former h.s. classmate), Janie M., for lunch. I was late--unheard of for me--because I had been saying lines and absent-mindedly went to the wrong location. No harm done, though, and we had plenty of time before the movie. Had half of a big Greek salad and took the rest home for dinner.
I try never to read reviews of a movie before I see it, and I didn't know much about this one. Thought it had a kind of espionage plot, which I enjoy, and that theme is present, but only in a broad sense. It was set in Baghdad and there's a lot of gritty, so-realistic-it's-unsettling depictions of fighting. The major premise surrounds the lies and political machinations that got us to Iraq in the first place, but all from the viewpoint of those actually there. Matt Damon displayed his usual acting competence, but his presence to me was bit off-putting at first. He's so damn good-looking and articulate and I kept realizing he's a move star. After a bit, though, I got into it.
I didn't see The Hurt Locker, and it's probably unfair to judge, but from what I read (NOT in the lockstep major media, but in progressive blogs), it tells its story in the usual U.S. exceptionalist way. I understand its concentration is firmly on American problems and American angst, with Iraqis--whose country it is, folks--in minor, inconsequential roles. To its credit, that isn't true of Zone. Depictions of Iraqis establish them firmly as human beings and there's a scene in which an interpreter tells the American, "It is not you who will decide what happens here."
I wish it were so.