‘Green Zone’: The Wall Street Journal takes sniper fire

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Journalists have been dramatized as fearless heroes in any number of modern movies -- a slate that includes ‘All the President’s Men,’ ‘A Mighty Heart’ and ‘State of Play.’ But the fictional reporter from the Wall Street Journal in ‘Green Zone’ is an easily manipulated dupe, and the newspaper says it wasn’t consulted about how it and its correspondent were going to be depicted in the Iraq war drama.

As played by Amy Ryan in the Paul Greengrass-directed movie opening March 12, reporter Lawrie Dayne bears an intentional (and unmistakable) resemblance to Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter whose stories about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction helped build the case for the American-led invasion. (The film also draws upon other real-life characters who were involved in the war as inspiration for loosely fictionalized characters.) At one point in ‘Green Zone,’ Roy Miller (Matt Damon), an Army officer futilely searching for WMDs in and around Baghdad, confronts Dayne, challenging her professionalism and reporting about the existence of the weapons.

‘Jesus Christ, this is the reason we went to war,’ Miller tells her at one point. ‘How does someone like you write something that’s not true?’

Greengrass and Helgeland said that while the character was inspired by Miller, the character wasn’t meant to be a clone. ‘I didn’t want her to be Judith Miller,’ says Greengrass, who directed Damon in the last two ‘Bourne’ movies. ‘I wanted her to feel like somebody who has been duped.’ Added screenwriter Brian Helgeland: ‘In our movie, we make her feel more victim of the process than willing participant.’

In the film’s original screenplay, Dayne was identified as a reporter for the New York Times, but the legal departments at Universal Pictures and producing partner Working Title Films changed her affiliation to the Wall Street Journal so that audiences wouldn’t confuse the character with an actual journalist. Universal said it was under no legal obligation to inform the Wall Street Journal of the change or the depiction.

A spokesman for the Journal, Robert H. Christie, said in an e-mail that ‘no one has seen the movie, so we will decline comment.’ That might change next Friday.

-- John Horn