Dethroning "Three Kings"

"Three Kings"
Overall Rating: **½


There haven't been many films about the Gulf War. "Courage Under Fire," a great film about the first woman to win the Medal of Honor, was the first I saw. Unfortunately, Hollywood's short streak is broken with "Three Kings."

In the days just after the cease-fire ending the Gulf War, two "typical" American soldiers, Troy Barlow and Conrad Vig (Mark Wahlberg and Spike Jonze respectively) find a map concealed on an Iraqi prisoner of war. With their commanding officer, Chief Elgin (Ice Cube), and a special forces officer, Major Archie Gates (George Clooney), they determine that it's a map to a bunker containing plunder from Kuwait, just across the Iraqi border. They decide to try to steal the loot from the Iraqis. Once they get across the border, they are faced with a dilemma: make off with $23,000,000 in gold, or help the local resistance, who have been abandoned in their cause to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

"Three Kings" is a movie that does more to undermine itself than any other film this year. The script is a good example. There are some good jokes--such as trying to use night-vision goggles in the daytime, or sending a reporter on a wild-goose chase--concentrated in the first half. There is some good dramatic content with a strong anti-war theme--centering around both the American betrayal of the Iraqi rebels in particular and the destructiveness of war in general--concentrated in the second half. The problem is the two halves don't mesh. While more effective anti-war comedies, such as "Dr. Strangelove" or "Good Morning, Vietnam," make jokes out of the absurdity of war, in "Three Kings," most of the jokes are general shenanigans of the troops. After a madcap start, the sudden emphasis on a deadly serious theme wallops you over the head. Throw in some gratuitous explosions, and an ending that just doesn't work, and a film with potential becomes a writing disaster.

Then there are the technical aspects. Yes, they blow up stuff very well. Milk trucks, luxury cars, military vehicles--they all go boom nicely. That's standard in any modern war or action film (well, maybe not the choice of vehicle). The editing, however, is a strong minus. There are some scenes that look pale and washed-out; in a better film, I'd think it was a deliberate effort to make the war look drab, but here, I'm not convinced it had any point. There are many battle sequences that are either sped-up or slowed down; this deliberate attempt at dramatic effect gives the film an interesting "broken VCR" feel. Some of the lines are in Arabic, but many of the subtitles flash by too quickly to read. There are also a couple of scenes where there were flashes of yellow on the screen; I'm not certain whether my local multiplex got a bad print, or whether the problem is with the movie itself; whether it's an artistic gaffe, or simply an industrial quality control problem, however, it screams carelessness.

Among the actors, Ice Cube is very good--he makes a very imposing soldier, and he conveys his character's spiritual side; the problem is I don't understand why, when his character apparently has deep religious convictions, he'd willingly participate in a theft. The bright spot is Mark Wahlberg--he captures his character's reckless side very well, and manages the character transformation equally well. If there's any character you sympathize with, it's Wahlberg's Troy.

Putting aside whether adults would even want to bother with it, "Three Kings" is not a film for children. There is copious violence, including several graphic murders with children as victims and as witnesses, and two extremely graphic torture sequences. There is also an on screen sex scene--though not much is revealed--and some on screen nudity (the strip search where they find the map). The vocabulary of coarse language is extensive, and including many racist terms for Arabs.

This year has brought numerous films about heists. With varying degrees of success, and each with its own wrinkle, we've had "Blue Streak," "Payback," and "Entrapment." The wrinkle in "Three Kings" is that the heist is done by American soldiers in Iraq right after the Gulf War. It could have been interesting, but sadly, the film had other wrinkles to iron out.

Title: "Three Kings"
Release date: October 1, 1999

MPAA rating: R
Overall rating: **½

Aprox. run time: 115 min.
Director: David O. Russell
Writers: David O. Russell (screenplay), John Ridley (story)
Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze

Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Mansion/7045/3Kings.htm
Added to blog site: 8/5/09