I had my second early morning swim in succession and from discussion with two of the regular members had confirmed that others have experienced the itchiness from a chlorine reaction and also use E 45 cream. I shall therefore continue and return to the Sauna which helped to bring the previous weight down and cleared my skin.
(Bruce Springsteen music with first Jungleland).
I shall go for 6 am if I wake early and use the sauna before the swim. Today I read the paper in the lounge and returned for a bacon roll inc celebration followed by a small portion of the cereal, coffee and then a diet coke on the rocks. Watched highlights of the Sunderland win which takes them 7 points clear of 7th place Newcastle although they have played an extra game than most of those around them with next week providing the opportunity for some catch up if they are not involved in the next round of the FA Cup. The cricket was awful again.
I begin with a film appropriate for Sunday(23.01.2011) Heaven knows, Mr Allison. This is but one of several films which bring the unlikeliest of characters together in a wartime and who become friends for life, sometimes lovers. The African Queen immediately comes to mind. In this 1957 film Deborah Kerr plays a nun who has chosen to visit with an elderly senior priest a small isolated Pacific Island to bring off the missionary, rather than make their way immediately to safety from the advancing Japanese. They find that the priest and parishioners have already departed and the elderly priest then dies leaving Kerr to bury him and try and survive until help arrives. She represents the Heaven in the title
(Born in the USA)
and Mr Allison is a USA marine, played by Robert Mitcham whom was part of a recognisance party, left with a life raft after having to quickly dive when coming under fire and finding the island after drifting for several days.
Kerr gives him the last of the food she has collected before he sleeps from exhaustion.
(Don’t look back)
For an unspecified amount of time they are together on the island managing with a good died of cooked fish, coconuts.
(Land of hope and dreams).
We learn that Allison was abandoned as baby to an orphanage located in Allison Street and has made his life in the Marines. The film in effect compares the dedication and commitments of being a Marine with that of a Nun each which their self discipline and code of values. ( Learn from Wikipedia that during the making of the film the National League of Decency monitored the production because of its subject and that when they visited the set Mitcham and Kerr abandoned the script and introduced some wild kissing and touching defiance).
Their situation remains at one level idyllic until the arrival a small unit of Japanese to set up a weather station and communications centre. This followed the arrival of an observation plane and the bombing of the island which leads to the destruction of the church from which Mitcham rescues a large crucifix on a stand. Fortunate Mitcham had previously discovered a cave where they take cover. After the landing Kerr is restricted to the cave because her white Habit is such a give away. She cannot eat the raw fish which Mitcham so he breaks into the hit which they subsequently build one night and brings away a supply of tined food, rice and other supplies from their store
(Tenth Avenue Freeze Out).
In the night they are able to see the flashes and explosions from a sea battle in the distance and the Japanese then leave the island. They are to come down from their hideaway, wash and eat hot food. He has also found a bottle of Saki which Mitcham drinks in quantity while Kerr takes a glass perhaps two. Mitcham, having discovered that Kerr is yet tom take her final vows, declares his love and proposes marriages. Kerr explains she has already given her heart to Christ and runs off when Mitcham presses his attentions. She stays out all night in pouring rain and when he finds her she is in fever. He takes her back to the cave. 2000 Japanese now take over the island and set up camp on the beach. Realising he is the cause of Kerr getting the fever, he breaks into the camp for blankets. Is discovered by a soldier who he kills and hopes the body will be swept out to sea. He returns to the hide after removing the wet clothing wraps Kerr in the blankets and nurses her until she recovers. They adjust to their life in the cave after she recovers and then fear for their lives as the island is being searched when the body is recovered. The bracken is set on fire and a Japanese soldier finds the entrance to the cave. They are faced with surrender or dying from a grenade. There is then a monster explosion, not a grenade but offshore shelling of the Island but the American fleet which evidently won the sea battle.
The Japanese have artillery pieces hidden and Allison realises that eh has the opportunity to prevent the death and injury of his comrades by disabling the weapons. He sets off to do this having made his peace with Kerr and saying how much he values heir friendship and she his. He is wounded in the successful attempt to disable the weapons saving many lives, and is cared for by Kerr until the American landing and taking of the island is completed. The two go their separate ways having shared a life changing experience. The film is part written and directed by John Huston
(Badlands)(The river repeated as I missed part of the recorded live extended version 12mins) while I sorted out the freezer as I took some frozen roast potatoes to accompany the lamb shank and half a can of broad beans. I am drinking a glass of Beaujolais while the potatoes cook. The lamb shank will not take long as I can use the microwave.) (Atlantic City) (Prove it all night)(Out in the Street)
I enjoyed my lunch although the hunk of lamb shank was small, very tender but small and not justifying the £3 paid given that I could have three chops for the same amount. Only one part of the melon segments was enjoyable. It was time to get down to more serious activities. I was a supporter of Prime Minister Tony Blair, and still believe that his stated vision of an interventionist USA and UK with whichever other countries wished to participate, where action was taken to dismantle rogue or failed states providing the human and other resources required to enable the development of improving living standards for all in a peaceful environment together with the a structure of minimum rights and opportunities with the framework of the rule of law. I am not convinces about an instant democratic imperative for people who have no understanding, let alone experience fo what representative government usually means.
(Youngstown and Badlands, Mansion on the Hill)
I was fully behind the intervention in the Balkans and in Afghanistan after 9/11 and still am. The invasions Iraq posed a different set of issues from objection to the imposition of Muslim or any other rule on people, especially the kind of Muslim rule which the fundamentalists proposed, to concern about a power Saddam in terms of Middle East Stability and his record towards the warring religious and secular ethnic communities which made up the original British created country. As Tony Blair said in his written and oral evidence to the Chilcot chaired committee of inquiry into the lessons that should learned from British involvement in the war and its aftermath, he believed that regime change was desirable but he would not have been able to involve British Forces unless parliament had agreed, having been guided that involvement would be lawful and that the circumstances justified..
I have not watched the majority of the evidence the inquiry or read the published papers but have formed the impression that most, but not all of the witnesses have been more concerned about personal positions and reputations than ensuring the accuracy and objectivity of their testimony so that an overall truth can be established.
My understanding is that the evidence will show that great pressure was exerted on the principal legal adviser of the government to change his position that involvement without a specific United Nation’s resolution would be illegal under British and International law and to provide to the Cabinet a statement if certainty that it was lawful.
The second issue is the question of Weapons of Mass destruction where the British Public and Parliament was led to believing there was an ongoing programme which threatened. That there were no weapons and no ongoing programme remained indictment on the intelligence service. On Friday Tony Blair was recalled to give evidence between 9.30 to 2pm and while I only listened to a small part of what he had to say, I found it embarrassing and his performance that of man desperate to salvage his reputation.
And then on Saturday I watched a showing of the Green Zone on Sky Anytime a service which enables viewing to select the time of showing of selected films for a period of about month and includes although the latest released to Sky Premier Channel which in turn is about one to two years after the released to theatres, followed by the DVD’s and then to Sky Box office
(Atlantic City, Two Hearts, Fire, Because the Night, Long Walk Home and Lonesome Day).
The film is a work fiction but as others have also commented it is amazing that it was made and put on general release and appears to come close to truth about the second Gull war, and is designed as an indictment of George Bush for failing to understand the country being invaded and what to do after the military victory, and for accepting the advice of some senior officials that it would be possible to impose a new leadership who would be able to create an instant democracy after stripping the military and the Ba’athist Party of all jobs within the country at every level of government.
The main point being made in the film is that a senior Pentagon intelligence officer had a secret meeting with a leading Iraq General in Jordan before the war who revealed there were no weapons of mass destruction programme continuing in the country after the first war, The expectation was that after the war he would become head of the army for the USA and therefore maintain there balance of power over the other tribal ethnic groups
The film is not about the Green Zone as such but the immediate aftermath of the war and the search for weapons of Mass destruction. The Green Zone was a 10 square kilometre area of central Bagdad used by the occupying powers and the USA created Coalition Provisional Authority. Today under the Iraq Interim Government it is called the International Zone. It remains heavily fortified with entry and exits controlled and was previously the area of the Presidential Republican Palace, Government centres, and International Hotels. Immediately after the war the area was also used by ordinary citizens who lost their homes and these have remained technically squatters in the abandoned homes of former Ba’athist. It is estimated there are some 5000 of these individuals in the zone together with a similar number of private military contractors and security firms as well as major embassies with overall responsibility for security now with the Iraq government. The main hospital is also located in the zone.
Most of the action in the film takes outside the zone where my impression is that the film provides an accurate portrait of the situation about a month after occupation with the shortages, the looting and the breaking down of all aspects of civilian administration. The film was billed as an action movie designed to pull in the weekend teenagers into the cinema on both sides of the Atlantic given that the star is Matt Damon of the three Bourne Films among other’s of note.
(The Rising, Dancing in the Dark. Glory Days. I’m on Fire Born in the USA).
The film begins with the bombing of Bagdad and an Army General makes his escape with his senior officers, telling them to make for the safe houses where they will be contacted.
Matt Damon is the leader of a special unit sent to find and make safe the WMD’s only to discover that location after location, given by a high ranking source proves false. What begins to concern Matt is the loss of life involved in securing the sites so that the team can visit and take control and that their absence questions the justification for the invasion.
He attends a military briefing where he questions the intelligence on which they are acting. Senior officers tell Matt to shut up and get on with his assignments. Also present in the senior CIA officer for the region played by Brendan Gleeson. He also questions the existence of the WMD’s and the plans to remove the Ba’athist’s from power and abolish the existing army. He tells Damon to keep in touch.
During a subsequent mission he is approached by an Iraqi who has seen men arriving at a destination which looks suspiciously like to him a meeting of the members of the old regime who have disappeared as soon as the Bagdad was taken. Matt decides to follow the lead and at the house takes three men prisoner, kills guards and identifies one who escapes as a senior General of the Army. He was meeting his commanders to advise that they should lie low in the safe houses until either the Americans made them offer to help run the country which was rapidly descending into chaos with looting and a lack of water, food, electricity and basic security. If there is no offer then they will conduct urban warfare in order to prevent other interests gaining power.
Matt commences to interrogate those detained and one provides a book and appears to be willing to identify the location of the General in exchange for immunity and security for himself and his family. Matt uses the man who provided the information about the meeting as his interpreter. Before Damon can make progress a special section using helicopters arrives and takes control of the prisoners and on learning of the book demands it. A physical confrontation between Matt and the senior officer of the special unit occurs during which time Matt passes the book to the interpreter who runs off. He is found, the book retrieved and continues to work for Damon but is shocked at the idea that any deal could be struck with a member of old regime. He makes the point that he is not interested in money for his efforts but in want to help his country in its new era. He becomes the voice of the Iraq people.
(the River, Hungry Heart, Darkness at the Edge of Town, Thunder Road, Born to Run)
Because of the incident Matt decides to meet with CIA regional chief and is invited to the hotel where he is staying and this provides the opportunity for a glimpse of the life in the Green Zone where the news people and top brass are located in the best of hotels within unlimited food and water, unlike the experience of the rest of the population outside the zone. He is offered and accepts an immediate move under the direct control of the CIA and a mission to visit the captured men and get a message to the man who said he could lead him to the General and give him a message not to talk to his interrogators in exchange for a new life for himself and his family in the USA.
Before he leaves on his new mission he is approached by the war correspondent of the Wall Street Journal (Amy Ryan) responsible for a series of articles disclosing the ongoing WMD programme including various locations. She has obtained this information from a high ranking Pentagon Intelligence official who appears to be acting on behalf of the President and his administration. He also makes contact with Damon on learning he has become a member of the CIA team and urges him to switch to his side, or else. At the prison visit he finds that the man who had the book has been badly tortured and is only able to provide one word of information Jordan. This leads to working out that the General met the Pentagon official before the war and was the source of the information. The Pentagon official has promised the Wall Street Journalist that she will have access to his information source as she is questioning the intelligence as no WMD’s are found.
The Pentagon official get authority to seize the record book from the CIA who contacts their Headquarters and are told to yield to the Pentagon. The Pentagon Official also tells Damon that he chose the wrong side and is going back to his unit and losing his luxury hotel room . He visits the journalist who admits that she based the story of seeing the same set of information documents used by Matt and the WMD units to locate the weapons without checking their authenticity or visiting the sites after arriving in the country.
My impression is that only later does Damon realise that the reason why the Pentagon official wants to locate the General first is to silence him before revealing he had told the truth about the non existence of the WMD’s Damon uses his interpreter to make contact with the General and arranges to have a meeting with him late at night at a bus station. He wants to bring the General into safe custody so with the information about the WMD’s it will put pressure on the administration not to disband the military and civilian structure, avoid civil war and the continuation of bloodshed. There is then a race to find the General with the Pentagon men tracking the whereabouts of Damon. He is seized by the General’s men and brought to the General.
Damon does not know that the Pentagon Official has called a new conference to announce the disbanding and outlawing of the army and all Ba’athist officials. The General and his men are preparing for an insurgency and Damon his lucky to escape execution as the forces of the Pentagon official arrives. Damon gives chase to the General who has admitted that he had revealed there were no WMD’s. He is just about to take the General into Custody when his interpreter executes the man, Damon complains that the General was the best chance of avoiding civil war. The man says such matters are not for the occupiers but for the Iraqi’s to sort out. Earlier there was a scene where the Coalition Council meet and those from the present day Iraq tell the allies that there is no question of accepting anyone brought in from abroad to become their puppet. Damon tells the interpreter to go home before the area sealed.
Damon is not done and the Journalist opens an email, also addressed to other news agencies throughout the world, attaching his understanding about the meeting in Jordan, that that no WMD’s were to be found. In reality he would have been stopped before being able to do this. The book which inspired the film is called Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
What should have been renewed publicity about the Iraq war and Inquiry was relegated later in the news after the resignation of the Press officer for the Coalition. He was the former editor of the Newspaper which illegal listened into telephone communications. He had repeatedly stated that he did not authorise the illegal activity or was aware that it was going on. He accept responsibility and resigned as the chief of those involved. There is media suggestions that the practice was widespread within the appear and three other dailies as a means of gaining exclusives on each other. The resignation was strangely times suggesting that that the matter is no closed. The police had been asked t undertaken further inquiries and the appropriate Commons committee is to also consider further. My impression is that general public interest in the Iraq war is dying down Mr Blair lives to make more money on other days.
The soldier in the Green Room is caller Miller which is the link to a Coen Brother’s film, Miller’s Crossing which was distributed in 1990 long before I became aware of their offbeat and at times absurd, but always interesting film making. The film was highly rated by critics but failed at the box office, I suspect because none of the characters have appeal or engage our sympathy.. The film is set in a US town where the Mayor and the Police chief are as corrupt and criminal than the criminals. They are in the pay of the chief Gangster played as an Irish Tribal leader by Albert Finney who sees himself as a Lord of the Manor assisted by Gabriel Byrne, as a educated crime guru adviser, but who is also having sex with the girl also wanted by Finney as his wife. Her brother is a bookmaker.
Finney is visited by Johnny Casper, another gangster who specialises in fixing fights and who has come to complain about the bookmaker who he believes is passing the information that Casper is putting on money for a fighter to win a fight thus lowering the odds. Casper believes this is not ethical and demands that action is taken against the brother. Byrne advises his boss to surrender the protected bookmaker to avoid a war but Finney who generally has no scruples refuses because of his wish to marry the sister. There are various skirmishes, accusations and counter accusations, including spectacular attempt to assassinate Finney before Byrne admits that he was with the “Gangster’s Moll at one crucial occasion. and Finney beats the living daylights of his now former friend who he says he does not want to see again.
Byrne then makes himself available to Casper and to prove his new loyalty reveals the whereabouts of the bookmaker who is then picked up by Casper’s henchmen and taken to Miller’s Crossing where Byrne is told to kill the bookmaker, making sure by a second shot into the brain. The bookmaker pleads for his life and Byrne who has never killed before fires two shots and then tells the man to disappear.
He does not do so calling on Byrne to say that he has nowhere to go and will blackmail Byrne knowing that if Casper and his henchman finds out he has not been killed Byrne will also die. Meanwhile Casper has taken over the city from Finney and the police have become even more ruthless and criminal than before while the Mayor is kicked out of his office which Casper takes over.
There are two sub stories. The first is the relationship between Byrne and the number hard man of Casper who does not trust Byrne and fears he will be replaced. He insist on seeing the body of Byrne and warns Byrne that he will be killed if now body is found. At the site a body is eventually found with their blown away but in the clothing of Byrne, this is Monk another homosexual bookmaker who is then buried by his sister, who has also agreed to marry Finney at the wedding.
Part of Byrne’s solution tot he situation is to play both and leaders against each other and eventually he creates a situation where Casper kills his number 2. He then sets up a situation where the surviving bookmaker kills Casper and is killed by Byrne making is look that the two men have killed each other. This leaves Finney back in command and he forgives Byrne and pleads with him to return as his number two. Byrne declines. The other story is the relationship between the Gangster’s Moll and the two men. At one point she sets out to kill Byrne for killing her brother but cannot go through with it. It is left open if the relationship between the two will continue or she will marry Finney or do both. The problem for your average Saturday audience is that the characters are more comic, the magazine than funny or taken seriously with everything over the top. Byrne is regularly beaten up without ill effects. The Police participate in cold blooded killings and so on. Time Magazine put the film in the best 100 list. The film is a piece of nonsense and I challenge anyone to say that they are made to care about any of the characters other than they should die horribly and go to hell but as no one likes to have such feelings unless they are torturing criminal gangsters, the film was not supported.
(Bruce Springsteen music with first Jungleland).
I shall go for 6 am if I wake early and use the sauna before the swim. Today I read the paper in the lounge and returned for a bacon roll inc celebration followed by a small portion of the cereal, coffee and then a diet coke on the rocks. Watched highlights of the Sunderland win which takes them 7 points clear of 7th place Newcastle although they have played an extra game than most of those around them with next week providing the opportunity for some catch up if they are not involved in the next round of the FA Cup. The cricket was awful again.
I begin with a film appropriate for Sunday(23.01.2011) Heaven knows, Mr Allison. This is but one of several films which bring the unlikeliest of characters together in a wartime and who become friends for life, sometimes lovers. The African Queen immediately comes to mind. In this 1957 film Deborah Kerr plays a nun who has chosen to visit with an elderly senior priest a small isolated Pacific Island to bring off the missionary, rather than make their way immediately to safety from the advancing Japanese. They find that the priest and parishioners have already departed and the elderly priest then dies leaving Kerr to bury him and try and survive until help arrives. She represents the Heaven in the title
(Born in the USA)
and Mr Allison is a USA marine, played by Robert Mitcham whom was part of a recognisance party, left with a life raft after having to quickly dive when coming under fire and finding the island after drifting for several days.
Kerr gives him the last of the food she has collected before he sleeps from exhaustion.
(Don’t look back)
For an unspecified amount of time they are together on the island managing with a good died of cooked fish, coconuts.
(Land of hope and dreams).
We learn that Allison was abandoned as baby to an orphanage located in Allison Street and has made his life in the Marines. The film in effect compares the dedication and commitments of being a Marine with that of a Nun each which their self discipline and code of values. ( Learn from Wikipedia that during the making of the film the National League of Decency monitored the production because of its subject and that when they visited the set Mitcham and Kerr abandoned the script and introduced some wild kissing and touching defiance).
Their situation remains at one level idyllic until the arrival a small unit of Japanese to set up a weather station and communications centre. This followed the arrival of an observation plane and the bombing of the island which leads to the destruction of the church from which Mitcham rescues a large crucifix on a stand. Fortunate Mitcham had previously discovered a cave where they take cover. After the landing Kerr is restricted to the cave because her white Habit is such a give away. She cannot eat the raw fish which Mitcham so he breaks into the hit which they subsequently build one night and brings away a supply of tined food, rice and other supplies from their store
(Tenth Avenue Freeze Out).
In the night they are able to see the flashes and explosions from a sea battle in the distance and the Japanese then leave the island. They are to come down from their hideaway, wash and eat hot food. He has also found a bottle of Saki which Mitcham drinks in quantity while Kerr takes a glass perhaps two. Mitcham, having discovered that Kerr is yet tom take her final vows, declares his love and proposes marriages. Kerr explains she has already given her heart to Christ and runs off when Mitcham presses his attentions. She stays out all night in pouring rain and when he finds her she is in fever. He takes her back to the cave. 2000 Japanese now take over the island and set up camp on the beach. Realising he is the cause of Kerr getting the fever, he breaks into the camp for blankets. Is discovered by a soldier who he kills and hopes the body will be swept out to sea. He returns to the hide after removing the wet clothing wraps Kerr in the blankets and nurses her until she recovers. They adjust to their life in the cave after she recovers and then fear for their lives as the island is being searched when the body is recovered. The bracken is set on fire and a Japanese soldier finds the entrance to the cave. They are faced with surrender or dying from a grenade. There is then a monster explosion, not a grenade but offshore shelling of the Island but the American fleet which evidently won the sea battle.
The Japanese have artillery pieces hidden and Allison realises that eh has the opportunity to prevent the death and injury of his comrades by disabling the weapons. He sets off to do this having made his peace with Kerr and saying how much he values heir friendship and she his. He is wounded in the successful attempt to disable the weapons saving many lives, and is cared for by Kerr until the American landing and taking of the island is completed. The two go their separate ways having shared a life changing experience. The film is part written and directed by John Huston
(Badlands)(The river repeated as I missed part of the recorded live extended version 12mins) while I sorted out the freezer as I took some frozen roast potatoes to accompany the lamb shank and half a can of broad beans. I am drinking a glass of Beaujolais while the potatoes cook. The lamb shank will not take long as I can use the microwave.) (Atlantic City) (Prove it all night)(Out in the Street)
I enjoyed my lunch although the hunk of lamb shank was small, very tender but small and not justifying the £3 paid given that I could have three chops for the same amount. Only one part of the melon segments was enjoyable. It was time to get down to more serious activities. I was a supporter of Prime Minister Tony Blair, and still believe that his stated vision of an interventionist USA and UK with whichever other countries wished to participate, where action was taken to dismantle rogue or failed states providing the human and other resources required to enable the development of improving living standards for all in a peaceful environment together with the a structure of minimum rights and opportunities with the framework of the rule of law. I am not convinces about an instant democratic imperative for people who have no understanding, let alone experience fo what representative government usually means.
(Youngstown and Badlands, Mansion on the Hill)
I was fully behind the intervention in the Balkans and in Afghanistan after 9/11 and still am. The invasions Iraq posed a different set of issues from objection to the imposition of Muslim or any other rule on people, especially the kind of Muslim rule which the fundamentalists proposed, to concern about a power Saddam in terms of Middle East Stability and his record towards the warring religious and secular ethnic communities which made up the original British created country. As Tony Blair said in his written and oral evidence to the Chilcot chaired committee of inquiry into the lessons that should learned from British involvement in the war and its aftermath, he believed that regime change was desirable but he would not have been able to involve British Forces unless parliament had agreed, having been guided that involvement would be lawful and that the circumstances justified..
I have not watched the majority of the evidence the inquiry or read the published papers but have formed the impression that most, but not all of the witnesses have been more concerned about personal positions and reputations than ensuring the accuracy and objectivity of their testimony so that an overall truth can be established.
My understanding is that the evidence will show that great pressure was exerted on the principal legal adviser of the government to change his position that involvement without a specific United Nation’s resolution would be illegal under British and International law and to provide to the Cabinet a statement if certainty that it was lawful.
The second issue is the question of Weapons of Mass destruction where the British Public and Parliament was led to believing there was an ongoing programme which threatened. That there were no weapons and no ongoing programme remained indictment on the intelligence service. On Friday Tony Blair was recalled to give evidence between 9.30 to 2pm and while I only listened to a small part of what he had to say, I found it embarrassing and his performance that of man desperate to salvage his reputation.
And then on Saturday I watched a showing of the Green Zone on Sky Anytime a service which enables viewing to select the time of showing of selected films for a period of about month and includes although the latest released to Sky Premier Channel which in turn is about one to two years after the released to theatres, followed by the DVD’s and then to Sky Box office
(Atlantic City, Two Hearts, Fire, Because the Night, Long Walk Home and Lonesome Day).
The film is a work fiction but as others have also commented it is amazing that it was made and put on general release and appears to come close to truth about the second Gull war, and is designed as an indictment of George Bush for failing to understand the country being invaded and what to do after the military victory, and for accepting the advice of some senior officials that it would be possible to impose a new leadership who would be able to create an instant democracy after stripping the military and the Ba’athist Party of all jobs within the country at every level of government.
The main point being made in the film is that a senior Pentagon intelligence officer had a secret meeting with a leading Iraq General in Jordan before the war who revealed there were no weapons of mass destruction programme continuing in the country after the first war, The expectation was that after the war he would become head of the army for the USA and therefore maintain there balance of power over the other tribal ethnic groups
The film is not about the Green Zone as such but the immediate aftermath of the war and the search for weapons of Mass destruction. The Green Zone was a 10 square kilometre area of central Bagdad used by the occupying powers and the USA created Coalition Provisional Authority. Today under the Iraq Interim Government it is called the International Zone. It remains heavily fortified with entry and exits controlled and was previously the area of the Presidential Republican Palace, Government centres, and International Hotels. Immediately after the war the area was also used by ordinary citizens who lost their homes and these have remained technically squatters in the abandoned homes of former Ba’athist. It is estimated there are some 5000 of these individuals in the zone together with a similar number of private military contractors and security firms as well as major embassies with overall responsibility for security now with the Iraq government. The main hospital is also located in the zone.
Most of the action in the film takes outside the zone where my impression is that the film provides an accurate portrait of the situation about a month after occupation with the shortages, the looting and the breaking down of all aspects of civilian administration. The film was billed as an action movie designed to pull in the weekend teenagers into the cinema on both sides of the Atlantic given that the star is Matt Damon of the three Bourne Films among other’s of note.
(The Rising, Dancing in the Dark. Glory Days. I’m on Fire Born in the USA).
The film begins with the bombing of Bagdad and an Army General makes his escape with his senior officers, telling them to make for the safe houses where they will be contacted.
Matt Damon is the leader of a special unit sent to find and make safe the WMD’s only to discover that location after location, given by a high ranking source proves false. What begins to concern Matt is the loss of life involved in securing the sites so that the team can visit and take control and that their absence questions the justification for the invasion.
He attends a military briefing where he questions the intelligence on which they are acting. Senior officers tell Matt to shut up and get on with his assignments. Also present in the senior CIA officer for the region played by Brendan Gleeson. He also questions the existence of the WMD’s and the plans to remove the Ba’athist’s from power and abolish the existing army. He tells Damon to keep in touch.
During a subsequent mission he is approached by an Iraqi who has seen men arriving at a destination which looks suspiciously like to him a meeting of the members of the old regime who have disappeared as soon as the Bagdad was taken. Matt decides to follow the lead and at the house takes three men prisoner, kills guards and identifies one who escapes as a senior General of the Army. He was meeting his commanders to advise that they should lie low in the safe houses until either the Americans made them offer to help run the country which was rapidly descending into chaos with looting and a lack of water, food, electricity and basic security. If there is no offer then they will conduct urban warfare in order to prevent other interests gaining power.
Matt commences to interrogate those detained and one provides a book and appears to be willing to identify the location of the General in exchange for immunity and security for himself and his family. Matt uses the man who provided the information about the meeting as his interpreter. Before Damon can make progress a special section using helicopters arrives and takes control of the prisoners and on learning of the book demands it. A physical confrontation between Matt and the senior officer of the special unit occurs during which time Matt passes the book to the interpreter who runs off. He is found, the book retrieved and continues to work for Damon but is shocked at the idea that any deal could be struck with a member of old regime. He makes the point that he is not interested in money for his efforts but in want to help his country in its new era. He becomes the voice of the Iraq people.
(the River, Hungry Heart, Darkness at the Edge of Town, Thunder Road, Born to Run)
Because of the incident Matt decides to meet with CIA regional chief and is invited to the hotel where he is staying and this provides the opportunity for a glimpse of the life in the Green Zone where the news people and top brass are located in the best of hotels within unlimited food and water, unlike the experience of the rest of the population outside the zone. He is offered and accepts an immediate move under the direct control of the CIA and a mission to visit the captured men and get a message to the man who said he could lead him to the General and give him a message not to talk to his interrogators in exchange for a new life for himself and his family in the USA.
Before he leaves on his new mission he is approached by the war correspondent of the Wall Street Journal (Amy Ryan) responsible for a series of articles disclosing the ongoing WMD programme including various locations. She has obtained this information from a high ranking Pentagon Intelligence official who appears to be acting on behalf of the President and his administration. He also makes contact with Damon on learning he has become a member of the CIA team and urges him to switch to his side, or else. At the prison visit he finds that the man who had the book has been badly tortured and is only able to provide one word of information Jordan. This leads to working out that the General met the Pentagon official before the war and was the source of the information. The Pentagon official has promised the Wall Street Journalist that she will have access to his information source as she is questioning the intelligence as no WMD’s are found.
The Pentagon official get authority to seize the record book from the CIA who contacts their Headquarters and are told to yield to the Pentagon. The Pentagon Official also tells Damon that he chose the wrong side and is going back to his unit and losing his luxury hotel room . He visits the journalist who admits that she based the story of seeing the same set of information documents used by Matt and the WMD units to locate the weapons without checking their authenticity or visiting the sites after arriving in the country.
My impression is that only later does Damon realise that the reason why the Pentagon official wants to locate the General first is to silence him before revealing he had told the truth about the non existence of the WMD’s Damon uses his interpreter to make contact with the General and arranges to have a meeting with him late at night at a bus station. He wants to bring the General into safe custody so with the information about the WMD’s it will put pressure on the administration not to disband the military and civilian structure, avoid civil war and the continuation of bloodshed. There is then a race to find the General with the Pentagon men tracking the whereabouts of Damon. He is seized by the General’s men and brought to the General.
Damon does not know that the Pentagon Official has called a new conference to announce the disbanding and outlawing of the army and all Ba’athist officials. The General and his men are preparing for an insurgency and Damon his lucky to escape execution as the forces of the Pentagon official arrives. Damon gives chase to the General who has admitted that he had revealed there were no WMD’s. He is just about to take the General into Custody when his interpreter executes the man, Damon complains that the General was the best chance of avoiding civil war. The man says such matters are not for the occupiers but for the Iraqi’s to sort out. Earlier there was a scene where the Coalition Council meet and those from the present day Iraq tell the allies that there is no question of accepting anyone brought in from abroad to become their puppet. Damon tells the interpreter to go home before the area sealed.
Damon is not done and the Journalist opens an email, also addressed to other news agencies throughout the world, attaching his understanding about the meeting in Jordan, that that no WMD’s were to be found. In reality he would have been stopped before being able to do this. The book which inspired the film is called Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
What should have been renewed publicity about the Iraq war and Inquiry was relegated later in the news after the resignation of the Press officer for the Coalition. He was the former editor of the Newspaper which illegal listened into telephone communications. He had repeatedly stated that he did not authorise the illegal activity or was aware that it was going on. He accept responsibility and resigned as the chief of those involved. There is media suggestions that the practice was widespread within the appear and three other dailies as a means of gaining exclusives on each other. The resignation was strangely times suggesting that that the matter is no closed. The police had been asked t undertaken further inquiries and the appropriate Commons committee is to also consider further. My impression is that general public interest in the Iraq war is dying down Mr Blair lives to make more money on other days.
The soldier in the Green Room is caller Miller which is the link to a Coen Brother’s film, Miller’s Crossing which was distributed in 1990 long before I became aware of their offbeat and at times absurd, but always interesting film making. The film was highly rated by critics but failed at the box office, I suspect because none of the characters have appeal or engage our sympathy.. The film is set in a US town where the Mayor and the Police chief are as corrupt and criminal than the criminals. They are in the pay of the chief Gangster played as an Irish Tribal leader by Albert Finney who sees himself as a Lord of the Manor assisted by Gabriel Byrne, as a educated crime guru adviser, but who is also having sex with the girl also wanted by Finney as his wife. Her brother is a bookmaker.
Finney is visited by Johnny Casper, another gangster who specialises in fixing fights and who has come to complain about the bookmaker who he believes is passing the information that Casper is putting on money for a fighter to win a fight thus lowering the odds. Casper believes this is not ethical and demands that action is taken against the brother. Byrne advises his boss to surrender the protected bookmaker to avoid a war but Finney who generally has no scruples refuses because of his wish to marry the sister. There are various skirmishes, accusations and counter accusations, including spectacular attempt to assassinate Finney before Byrne admits that he was with the “Gangster’s Moll at one crucial occasion. and Finney beats the living daylights of his now former friend who he says he does not want to see again.
Byrne then makes himself available to Casper and to prove his new loyalty reveals the whereabouts of the bookmaker who is then picked up by Casper’s henchmen and taken to Miller’s Crossing where Byrne is told to kill the bookmaker, making sure by a second shot into the brain. The bookmaker pleads for his life and Byrne who has never killed before fires two shots and then tells the man to disappear.
He does not do so calling on Byrne to say that he has nowhere to go and will blackmail Byrne knowing that if Casper and his henchman finds out he has not been killed Byrne will also die. Meanwhile Casper has taken over the city from Finney and the police have become even more ruthless and criminal than before while the Mayor is kicked out of his office which Casper takes over.
There are two sub stories. The first is the relationship between Byrne and the number hard man of Casper who does not trust Byrne and fears he will be replaced. He insist on seeing the body of Byrne and warns Byrne that he will be killed if now body is found. At the site a body is eventually found with their blown away but in the clothing of Byrne, this is Monk another homosexual bookmaker who is then buried by his sister, who has also agreed to marry Finney at the wedding.
Part of Byrne’s solution tot he situation is to play both and leaders against each other and eventually he creates a situation where Casper kills his number 2. He then sets up a situation where the surviving bookmaker kills Casper and is killed by Byrne making is look that the two men have killed each other. This leaves Finney back in command and he forgives Byrne and pleads with him to return as his number two. Byrne declines. The other story is the relationship between the Gangster’s Moll and the two men. At one point she sets out to kill Byrne for killing her brother but cannot go through with it. It is left open if the relationship between the two will continue or she will marry Finney or do both. The problem for your average Saturday audience is that the characters are more comic, the magazine than funny or taken seriously with everything over the top. Byrne is regularly beaten up without ill effects. The Police participate in cold blooded killings and so on. Time Magazine put the film in the best 100 list. The film is a piece of nonsense and I challenge anyone to say that they are made to care about any of the characters other than they should die horribly and go to hell but as no one likes to have such feelings unless they are torturing criminal gangsters, the film was not supported.
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