Green Zone (15)

While Kathryn Bigelow painted a portrait of unappreciated soldiers' sacrifice, Paul Greengrass strikes right at the criminality at heart of the US policy.

It had nothing to do with WMD. It was oil and regime change. Of course we know that now, especially after Blair boasted how he had supported Bush's crusade during the Chilcot inquiry.

As Greengrass showed with Bloody Sunday, he doesn't equivocate. He illustrates that the US shock and awe tactic was employed as a smokescreen to cover up its political chicanery.

Green Zone opens with the sight of Baghdad being blitzed. We're introduced to Robert Miller (Matt Damon), a warrant officer engaged in the fruitless search for the WMD only to stumble over a cover-up conspiracy.

Enter the excellent Brendan Gleeson as a conscientious CIA officer who is somewhat pissed off by a brown-nosing Pentagon appointee (Greg Kinnear) whose priority is to install their stooge in power.

Supporting characters include a former Iraqi veteran (Said Faraj) who helps Miller to track down a former Ba'athist leader (Yigal Naor) and an embedded journalist (Amy Ryan) showing signs of doubt.

When Miller states innocently: "I thought we were all on the same side," the man from the CIA tells him: "Don't be naive."

Greengrass employs his trademark camerawork to emphasise the contradictions, contrasting the luxuries of home in the Green Zone and the devastation outside.

It's not as politically complex as Syriana or Redacted. It's aimed to attract the audience of the Bourne trilogy - Greenhouse directing the last two - combining an all-action chase movie with some salient political pitstops.

Its free-flowing style is designed for the gamer generation, illustrating how chartroom networking and phone cameras revealed scenes that run counter to official propaganda.

Although the film is based on embedded journalist Raily Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life In The Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, it shows that some soldiers had more guts than their generals and the tame press.

After the occupation their crimes were revealed by traumatised soldiers horrified by realities like Abu Ghraib and the blanket bombing of Fallujah.

Given that The Hurt Locker has bombed at the box office, we'll just have to wait to see whether Greengrass's commercial approach proves more profitable.

The film closes on the tanks around the oilfields. You can almost hear the patriotic press sharpening their knives.