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Aug 12, 2016Nursebob rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
By now Bush and Blair's myth of Iraqi WMDs is established fact, they existed only as a propaganda tool and after the lie was uncovered a round of official denials and regrets were quickly rattled off and just as quickly forgotten. But that doesn't lessen the dramatic impact of Paul Greengrass' aggressive and highly kinetic film with its flashes and bangs and swooping cameras speeding down gutted alleys or soaring over suburban ruins. The gathering storm between various government interests is expertly conveyed through tight shots and a mounting score while scenes of destitute civilians add a bitter irony to images of Westerners sipping cocktails by the pool in Baghdad's secured "green zone". Only Damon's stone-faced search for the truth seems over-baked---at any moment I expected to see him waving a six-gallon hat from atop a white steed. An angry, accusative film, equal parts fabricated thriller and political polemic. The names may have been changed and the politics oversimplified (the infighting between various Iraqi factions is given a mere footnote) but then again, in times of war "the truth" is more elusive than peace and more volatile than bombs.