Although a dozen previous films about the American invasion of Iraq, whatever their quality, flopped at the box office, the voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bravely awarded an Oscar to "The Hurt Locker," suggesting that popular culture may finally be ready to confront that tragic blunder. Following right on the heels of that moment, "Green Zone" provides something like a capsule history of the falsehood and treachery that sold the war to a credulous nation.

The movie opens with archival footage from 2003, the celebratory news reports of the Bush blitzkrieg, the notorious Shock and Awe that naturally achieved a quick victory over the outmanned, outgunned Iraqi armed forces. It then shows some barely fictionalized images of the arrival of the administration's hand-picked puppet leader, accompanied by appropriate numbers of American military officers and high-echelon civilian personnel, announcing to a sycophantic press corps the creation of a new democratic government in the devastated nation.

After that recapitulation of a familiar history, the picture concentrates on the efforts of Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his squad to locate the famous weapons of mass destruction touted by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell. Despite detailed maps and the latest technology, Damon and his men never find the stores of chemical and biological agents; when he reports the failure to his superiors and even raises the issue at a public briefing, the brass simply dismiss his complaints.

Nobody wants to hear about an invented reason for the war except Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan), a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who, like Judith Miller of the New York Times, previously acted as a stenographer for an administration official (Greg Kinnear). When Roy begins his own investigation of the source of the false information, code named Magellan, Lawrie serves as the conduit for the truth, a most unlikely role for a contemporary journalist. Roy stumbles across an English-speaking informant who tells him of a meeting of Iraqi army officers, which ultimately leads him to Magellan and the now familiar revelations of the lies and manipulation of a corrupt leadership.

Within the fictional construct of Roy's search for an Iraqi general, listed as the jack of clubs in that ridiculous deck of cards the administration soon forgot about, the movie follows a couple of connected plots. One involves actual combat, the hazardous daily business of the soldiers attempting to capture insurgents in the dark alleys of an alien city, where any civilian may turn out to be a heavily armed enemy. The other shows some of the less inspiring realities of that war - the routine torturing of prisoners, the conspiracy of falsehood, the sycophancy that counts for more than competence in the military, the absolute refusal to admit fact into the fantasy world of the leaders.

The movie blends Roy's impassioned attempts to find the truth in the dusty, dangerous city with views of life inside the Green Zone - a luxurious, protected vacation spot, complete with bars, restaurants, gyms, an enormous swimming pool, as far removed from reality as the fictions of the commanders. It occasionally contrasts Roy's conclusions with television reports, like George Bush announcing "Mission Accomplished" and Paul Bremer disbanding the Iraqi army, a fatal mistake that earned him the highest presidential award.

As a work of history "Green Zone" reminds us of events probably already half forgotten, providing an exciting and disillusioning glimpse of the reasons for the unsolvable, endless turmoil of the Middle East. Inspired by the book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," it compactly summarizes the actions that led to that situation, the mendacity behind those actions, and the frustration and despair they created.

The film moves with extraordinary urgency, paced by innumerable quick cuts that provide a sense of the action and chaos of combat, contrasting with the false peace inside the Green Zone. Matt Damon handles the part of Roy Miller with competence, but the most compelling figure in the movie, surprisingly, is Greg Kinnear, who plays the devious, cynical, corrupt civilian Pentagon officer with real conviction, epitomizing in his character the genuine evil of a government that betrayed its people who also apparently welcomed the betrayal.