Spoilers
Billed as Bourne goes to Iraq… should have been billed Matt Damon & Jason Isaac don’t quiet know who’s correct. Turns out neither actually.
Matt Damon & Paul Greengrass reunite, after the Bourne franchise, to bring you the story of what really happened in the Iraq war, & possibly why the war was illegal ( im not saying it was or wasn’t so am not for the record, that’s for you all to make your own opinions on.)
I think iv only seen one Matt Damon film that he didn’t put in a good performance. Dont worry its not this one. Here his character Roy Miller is in charge of finding, securing & then dealing with the WMD’s that were in the country once the government has fallen. Turns out there aren’t any. Damon wants to then find the truth about why they went to war. His character is really conflicted & doesnt quiet know what todo, but Damon still makes him a commanding leader, struggling with himself.
The kidnap scene where he is taken by whats left of the Iraq government, is really tense when i first watched it i did genuinely think that Miller was going to die & all hell was going to break lose. The fact he doesnt know that its a trap for him or the Iraqi leaders, is a clever twist, and it is so well played out.
Apart from the Iraqis he has issues with Greg Kinner, who we later realise has is the reason they have gone to war, who is too busy making himself look like hes sorted this all out. Kinner is always someone you can believe plays this role. Its almost like he was born to play high ranking government officials, and that be it. Damon does get to punch him which is very satisfying though, he did deserve it.
His other argument is with the guy in charge of finding the deck of cards Major Briggs (Hello to Jason Isaacs) who is ruthless and what he is doing with the prisoners is horrendous & torturous, but does get results. I think weve all seen & read enough news coverage to know that this did actually happen in one form or another. He does try to save Damon at one stage, but he is willing to let him die if he can take out the Iraqis.
Brendan Glessons character is good, he could have had a few more conflicts, but he still plays him well.
The star of the film though is Khalid Abdalla who plays Freddy, the Iraq war hero with one leg. He goes through lots of shit & despite Damon saying hes thankful, is treated badly by all sides really. He does get the last say though. Damon is given the opportunity after trying to save Major Briggs to bring the Iraq politician in, so he can form a new government in exchange for information, but Freddy kills him telling Damon its not the Americans choice who should run Iraq it should be the people, which is so true. Which is then played out when the American puppet thats been put into run the government turns into a farce.
Greengrass is really good at sending across the correct messages in his political films, to make you stop and think if your own opinions are valid anymore. But he does still make them entertaining, and for that i raise my hat to him.
Good work guys well done.