Green Zone opened a few weeks ago with only $14.5 million in weekend earnings. Its budget was $100 million, considering it a flop for Universal studios. However, the film had more meaning behind its explosions than just a regular Hollywood action film. The film documents the Green Zone, a safe, no fire zone for American CIA agents, journalists, and troops, in a section of Baghad where former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, once held his palaces. Its main character Roy Miller, is based on real life army chief Richard Gonzales, who carried out missions to find the WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) early on in the Iraqi war. Miller begins to suspect the intelligence coming from the CIA, when every mission he carries out is a failure. The film is an adaptation to the 2006 award winning nonfiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City written by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Other characters are also based on real life people, such as the real life Iraqi informant Rafid Ahmed Alwant, the infamous Wall Street Journal journalist Judith Miller, and former Coalition Provisional Authority Paul Brenner. Although it incorporates fiction, this film portrays a lot of truth about the real situation that occurred in 2003 when no WMDs were found after the US called war on Iraq.

Although a darling with the critics, Green Zone has been criticized for continuing the style and shaky camera movements of its director Paul Greengrass’s other well earning films; The Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum. Greengrass also reuses his Bourne star Matt Damon. Despite the fact that the technical aspects of Green Zone were not the most innovative, the story and historical perspective were compelling enough to watch on the big screen.