I thought Green Zone made for much more engaging viewing than The Hurt Locker. And I only make the comparison because I saw the two movies barely 24hrs apart.
shareWell they are both war movies. Hurt Locker is a drama where as Green Zone is an action thriller, so they are very different to compare but both very good. Since I'm more of a thriller fan, I'll say Green Zone personally.
shareAction and action story wise, I'd say Green Zone is better. However, I believe The Hurt Locker was able to capture the life of a U.S. soldier over there better.
"If you kill me I'll haunt your ass!"
As others have said, even though their settings and timelines are the same, they're still pretty different movies in terms of plot and pacing...having said that, I did prefer Green Zone -- even though I also liked The Hurt Locker a lot too. But I was more intrigued by the Green Zone plot than I was with the Hurt Locker.
Tell me how to get this laid-back or I'll kill your families!
I enjoyed The Hurt Locker. The Green Zone movie, kind of sketchy to me.
shareHurt Locker had a more realistic touch to it. But Green Zone was atypical action thriller with very good story....
shareI think that the WMD story has pretty much been covered by the news. It watered the movie down.
shareDid anyone else notice that in the HL, when the guys meet those Mercs and he's explaining who he captured he mentions "Al Rawi, Jack of Clubs"...which is the same as in GZ.
The real Jack of Clubs (at least according to Wiki) was Sayf Al-Din Fulayyih Hasan Taha, the Republican Guard Chief of Staff.
Oh yeah...I liked both movies.
Hurt Locker had a more realistic touch?? Man, green zone aside, Hurt Locker was not even close. Bombs just don't get disarmed that way, bomb squad members don't do armed pursuits at night etc. Just google it and plenty of detail will come up. It's realistic maybe on a different planet.
shareMy god, The Hurt Locker was 10x the film as this one. This one was a whole lot more action packed, but lacking in most everything else. It was like watching two episodes of 24 but paying $10 for it and thinking they were the two worst episodes.
shareThe hurt lucker was pure crap cinema.
Why are you comparing this crap?
It's like to say Twlight vs Slumdog Millionaire
Hurt Locker kicked Matt Damon's green zone ass up and down the street better acting and a much better realistic portrayal of US Troops then "Snooze Zone" as I like too the call the movie.
shareHurt Locker wasn't realistic at all, lack of gunfire and characters pondering life after getting into a lazy "minimalist-SO-LONG-IT'S-REALISTIC" shootout with stereotypical Iraqis, does not equal to realism.
Hurt locker was really one of the biggest disappointments ever, I love Katheryn Bigelow, I love Jeremy Renner, I even like the black dude from 8 mile, but trust me when I had no bias going in, but hurt locker was Roe-retarded and a superdeepintelligent movie for stupid people
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I love Katheryn Bigelow
Ok so you must not have any actual experience as a soldier in Iraq. I've been ALL OVER Iraq during the 2 years I spent there ('04-'05 and '09-'10). Plain and simple "Green Zone' was one of the more accurate Iraq War movies I've seen (I don't know about the conspiracy theory part).
GREEN ZONE
Their uniforms, the tactics, the vehicles, and what I love the most is the PERFECT re-creation of Baghdad! The entire movie I kept seeing places that I've actually seen. Even the hotel where he meets the CIA rep really exists and did have people swimming in the pool and so on like a resort. The city scenes and the neighborhoods are all spot on, which can be attributed to the directors Iraq War documentary experience. I didn't like the portrayal of Special Forces as the bad guys but if the conspiracy theory part of this film was real then they would be doing just what they did in this film.
As for the film itself... It was an intelligent storyline that relates to events most of us saw on the news, and it keeps you bound scene after scene as the story gets uncovered. All while their are great shoot scenes and battles.
HURT LOCKER
This movie is absolute utter CRAP!! The ways the soldiers act, the awful look of the cities, the people, and even the FOB (Forward Operations Base- Where soldiers live). EOD running around town in just ONE HMMWV?? Really?? An entire infantry platoon hiding behind walls looking scared until "Big Bad EOD" shows up. Listen, EOD has a crazy job, but they are in no way badasses. An E-5 Sergeant would NEVER punch an E-7 Sergeant First Class. An E-7 Sergeant First Class wouldn't be allowed to go out and do those missions (They stay back and run platoons with the Lieutenant Platoon Leader). Getting drunk and wrestling in their CHUs (Containerized Housing Unit)?? Really? Oh and my favorite part... A team of British SAS get shot to hell while "Big Bad EOD" suddenly develops Sniper skills and saves the day... Dude seriously this movie is the worst military movie ever made... Ask ANY soldier. Its still a mystery as to how it got such high remarks.
As far as the movie goes... It had no plot, no consistency... Crazy E-7 SFC gets attached to a team on another deployment (as if soldiers get to request to go again), diffuses bombs without a robot, falls in love with an Iraqi kid, fears he may have been killed, and diffuses a REALLY big bomb. I've seen a "Power Rangers" episode with more story than this. Ok so the director tried to have certain undertones... Maybe the kid reminded him of what he was missing as a father back home (which gets undone as he keeps "requesting" to go back). Hell maybe he's a one of a kind team leader that defies all rules of the military and he is allowed to go on missions he shouldn't, maybe he doesn't fear running of the secure military base in the middle of the night with a pistol (He'd be killed in 30 minutes). Ok so maybe the director wants us to see that he's kind of crazy, like hero crazy? Didn't do a good job...
Ok so the point is that the "Hurt Locker" should have been a Cinemax B-Movie and that's it. How it got best picture is probably a matter of politics at the academy awards (Very few female directors get Best Picture, wife of James Cameron). But if you're going to make a military movie, it is highly advised to try to get the military part right... It's easy you just get in touch with a soldier who was in the position or positions of the people you are trying to portray... She blew that part... And then as far as a movie goes... Try to give me a gripping storyline, or an artistically new approach to the typical movie template, something. But if you just have a bunch of poorly connected events, in an extremely unrealistic "world" that you poorly developed, well then you're left with an AWFUL MOVIE!!
Their uniforms, the tactics, the vehicles, and what I love the most is the PERFECT re-creation of Baghdad! The entire movie I kept seeing places that I've actually seen. Even the hotel where he meets the CIA rep really exists and did have people swimming in the pool and so on like a resort.
Lol... How cute! You read the trivia and now everything I said is worth nothing...
OR... I could tell you that a place CLOSE to Iraq ISN'T Iraq... The point I was making was that it LOOKED more like Iraq... Ive served (yes actually been there) in 3 cities of Iraq (Baghdad, Mozul and Tal Afar), but actually travelled through most of the country to MANY FOBS (But you probably don't know what a FOB is)... We've actually called EOD (which are just kids who took a big signing bonus, not elite human beings) for several IEDs, and they ALWAYS use the robot.... Maybe it's the fact that I've read Army Field manuals and basically NOTHING they did is accurate, and not even the dumbest soldier would stray as far as they did...
And yeah you're right, I was wrong about the Academy Awards... See at the time I was serving in Iraq (again) and we didn't get to watch it... Probably on one of those missions where EOD came out and sniped all of the bad guys and saved the Army as usual... But yeah, me and literally the whole Army hate that movie cuz, well it's awful, and we caught wind it was an Academy Award winner... So my bad...
I wish all I needed to do was read the imdb trivia and I'd know everything... Man I guess my informed, in person experience and opinions are no match for your all knowing, all seeing trivia...
Great job loser!
I get the feeling if you were born 60 years earlier I might have read a similar tirade from you on how lousy Apocalypse Now was because of the array of acronyms that didn't fit in with other acronyms... or something.
But even lacking the verisimilitudes you mentioned, it is still the definitive Iraq war film (and boy, did you guys need one) whereas Green Zone was nothing more than tired popcorn fodder. If you were defending Generation Kill this vehemently I would understand.
But to give you the foreign perspective: The Iraq war is regarded, at most, as unpopular and at least, a complete joke (This is generally speaking so please don't argue politics with me). Even the mainstream appeal of Matt Damon (and people fooled into thinking this was affiliated with the Bourne series) couldn't help this movie break even. Most Iraq battle films don't. And most of the time you end up being the bad guys or just as bad as them.
Katheryn Bigelow actually brought artistic attention to the war and in the process even, miraculously, managed to paint the modern American soldier in a very sympathetic light, authentically at that. And you're raining criticism down on her? In my opinion, if Green Zone is really the more accurate one (which I still heavily doubt), it puts you guys back down to the level of ham-handed simpletons with more bombs than brains and your wires crossed on the detonator.
P.S. Sorry if this lacked proper military terminology but I don't GAF.
you're a *beep* dumbass...sittin here arguing and basically talking down to someone that has served time in iraq??? boy, I sure am glad you are able to sit behind that computer screen and talk all that *beep* while others are out there fighting for your freedom...regardless if it is a "complete joke" or not, *beep* I N G jackass
shareFighting in Iraq = Fighting for Freedom
Gotcha
fighting in the army = fighting for liberty
that is what the US Army sells.
unfortunately, as a soldier you are duty-bound to obey orders, sometimes utterly crap ones. do you then quit the army? how else can you serve the country you love, given your skills?
your sarcasm is disrespectful and unnecessary. these soldiers give their lives, even if the cause is far from noble due to the higher-ups. why don't you direct some of your vitriol at the right people instead.
Come on, you've got to love a movie where the protagonist can effortlessly pull (in one go) up 7-8 Artillery grenades that weigh in at 47kg a piece (~95Lbs) out of the ground with one hand...by pulling at the detcord.
I also like how the TB's in the movie supposedly wants to use that much explosives in an alley that's not even big enough for a normal car to pass through...
I will agree that Hurt Locker got way more wrong than right, but I dont understand how you could say THL did not nail down the environment in Iraq? I have also served there and I thought it was amazingly accurate in that regard. It made me feel like I was back. The garbage, civilian chatter that you dont know if they are talking about killing you or the weather, that paranoia you felt EVERY time you were walking the streets. I thought it was amazing. I know all people see war different.
Haters gonna hate
How it got best picture is probably a matter of politics
While I share you feelings on the Hurt Locker movie, I don't see how in the world you are defending Green Zone. The only reason I can think of is because you were there after the timeline in the movie.
I was there in '03-'04 and I have to say, Green Zone is FULL OF CRAP! First off, I've never heard of an 85th WND unit. Second, there is no patch on Matt's arm (which I can understand having to change the uniform so you're not impersonating a soldier) but this whole 85th thing is made up. I can't find anything on them except for a decommissioned "Custer's Division".
Second, the movie takes place 4 weeks after the invasion, and already they have a "green zone" established?? BS! We didn't even get to Baghdad until April and let alone have it so safe and secure we can post a big sign up "Green Zone". There was no "green zone" by April 16th (4 weeks from March 19th).
Third, Matt keeps going on about the "101st did this, 101st did that" well, I'm pretty sure we (the 101st) were already kicking a$$ in Mosul by April 16th. All 3 brigades we had (4 now I think) all air assaulted into Mosul, so there was no 101st soldiers in Baghdad clearing anything for Matt.
Fourth, I have no idea what job this warrant officer is...I've never heard of it. There aren't very many warrant officer jobs out there that would have someone running around looking for WMD's. http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOgeninfo_mos.shtml Using this as a source, the Special Forces or CBRN tech are the only ones that would apple. But Matt made it clear in the movie that he wasn't SF when he said, "Some SF guys took him". So I'm suppose to believe that a Chief Warrant Officer CBRN guy was running his own "hit squad" around Baghdad?? I don't even know if there even is a 740A in the army anymore. I've never seen one! Only Warrant officers I've seen are the ones that fly helicopters or the mechanical ones in the motor pool. I'm willing to bet they are so undermanned that that position for whatever unit is filled by an E-7 or E-6. Hell, in every unit I've been in the 74D (a E-6 job) was always ran by a E-4 because their points were to high for promotion.
Fifth, I don't care who you are...you'd be hammered if you released any info to the press like he does at the end of the movie. He'd be decommissioned about 3.5 secs after he clicked send on the mouse. Done!
Sixth, I don't remember anyone so passionate about WMD's as this guy. Never have I met someone like this. We pretty much all knew after a few weeks there wasn't crap in Iraq. Everyone was telling us they moved them to Syria as soon as we rolled through. So 4 weeks later, as the movie starts, Matt would have known that part of the intell was the removal of WMD's to Syria.
This movie was nothing but a liberal hate piece, full of inaccuracies, to belittle Bush.
B Co. 1/502 INF, 101st Airborne (AA)
I have to disagree with you on one point. You don't have to change anything on the uniform to avoid impersonating a soldier. That's a long-standing myth. Actors aren't impersonating soldiers, they portray them. It's hard enough to bring phonies up on charges. I don't think they would ever be able to bring charges up against an actor in a movie. I know there have been actors, like Lee Ermy, who would purposely change things on his uniform because he felt like a poser when he didn't, but there's no law against it.
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I'm just expressing my opinion.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
You just think what youre told to think, soldier. Hua!
shareGreat post! Thanks. To be honest I would never notice the details that were off but enjoyed both films. Though Hurt Locker has to be taken with a bit of salt as it was Oscar bait and I can easily believe it was nonsense. Green Zone is a much better film (regardless of army errors) but was ignored because of what it said. I watched Bloody Sunday recently (also by Greengrass) and know how accurate that was, to the point of being like a documentary so I suspected this was the same here. Both films also deal with shocking abuses of power being covered up.
Your post is surprisingly level-headed and informative.
Both are in a way good popcorn action films. But both are in no shape or form realistic in anyway. As both of these films have been pegged by "real" service men and woman as total Hollywood BS very unrealistic and to the ones I know or have spoken to quite laughable. Pretty much a disservice to the real armed forces..
If you want a serious and or realistic view on this subject? To name a few..
Restrepo
www.imdb.com/title/tt1559549/
Gunner palace
www.imdb.com/title/tt0424129/.
The War Tapes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775566/
If you want an informed realistic look at something? You are not going to find it with the crap Hollywood spews out.
Nichole was here.
These are documentaries. How about realistic fiction movies?
This movie was good until the scene when the Iraqi general told the other guy to kill the Chief.
Green Zone. You can't even compare it to The Hurt Locker..
A ship sank at the end of the movie Titanic!
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the green zone had some of the worst and most impossible to see shaky cam in any movie ever. you simply COULD NOT determine where characters were in relation to each other in any given "action sequence" godawful. just hold the *beep* camera still. the rest of the movie was pretty good though. the Hurt Locker had better suspense though.
sharethe green zone had some of the worst and most impossible to see shaky cam in any movie ever. you simply COULD NOT determine where characters were in relation to each other in any given "action sequence" godawful. just hold the *beep* camera still.
Basically, the difference between the two films is that one is highly political, and the other is apolitical. The two films, aside from all the combat scenes, have two different missions. Green Zone is a political look into the validity of the WMD claim on the part of the Bush Admin as a justification for a preemptive war. Hurt Locker seeks to show the strains and danger faced by common soldiers in day to day combat situatuions in the Iraq Cival War. For low-ranking infantry soldiers, their mission is to follow orders, not too question "Why the Bombs are There". That's part of the brilliance of Hurt Locker.
shareThe Hurt Locker is about Captain Douchebag and his death wish.... that's pretty much the entire film.
Beasting and feasting