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Three Kings
***
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre)
Released in the UK by Warner Bros on March 3, 2000; certificate 15; 115 minutes;
country of origin USA; aspect ratio 2.35:1
Directed by David O. Russell; produced
by Edward L. McDonnell, Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt.
Written by David O. Russell; from a story by John Ridley.
Photographed by Newton Thomas Sigel; edited by Robert K.
Lambert.
CAST.....
George Clooney..... Major Archie Gates
Mark Wahlberg..... Sergeant Troy Barlow
Ice Cube..... Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin
Spike Jonze..... Private Conrad Vig
Said Taghmaoui..... Captain Said
Nora Dunn..... Adriana Cruz
Mykelti Williamson..... Colonel Horn
David O. Russell's "Three Kings" is
the first war movie I have seen that takes the camera into an imaginary bullet
wound to show it filling up with bile. What's more, the moment seems perfectly
normal in the context of the film. This is a fast-talking, cheerfully deranged
depiction of army intervention in Iraq, which plays with style, structure
and tone in the dangerously excited manner of a fire-eating
juggler.
The story takes place in 1991, just after the
end of the Gulf War. In a camp of American soldiers who are rounding up prisoners
and waiting to go home, Major Archie Gates (George Clooney) discovers an
"ass map" -- a treasure map, that is, found between a captive's butt cheeks.
Gates orders a goofy hillbilly, Private Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze), to take
it out. "Can't I have a glove, Sir?" he asks. "No," Gates replies, "That's
how the chain of command works."
Gates and Vig consult two reliable young comrades,
muscle-bound family man Sergeant Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and firm, shrewd
staff sergeant Chief Elgin (Ice Cube). Together the quintet deduce the location
of the loot to be an Iraqi army bunker near Cordoba, and guess that it will
be several million dollars worth of Kuwaiti gold bullion. Their plan: To
steal it. If they get caught: They'll say they were on a legitimate mission
to rescue their allies' property from the enemy.
Since we never see movie characters plan heists
and then follow them through without a hitch, we know this scheme will somehow
go wrong. Our heroes' obstacle comes when they're about to leave the village
in which the gold-filled bunker is situated. Iraqi guards are making clear
they plan to harm civilians, and it would be wrong to leave them to do
so.
There is a scene of agonising effectiveness here,
as the action goes into slow motion to mark the cease-fire's dissolution
into chaos. A mother is shot in full view of her husband and children. Soldiers
resume fighting. Watching this at a delayed pace accentuates the tension,
the horror, and the reality of each bullet, and all we can do is sit there,
watching, feeling helpless.
Of course, that's all the American soldiers can
do for most of the time. George Bush may have urged Iraqi citizens to rise
up against Saddam Hussein's evil regime, but he's not letting his troops
help them, because the Gulf War wasn't about liberating people, and was fought
to make sure Kuwait could keep supplying oil to the Western world. Most people
already realise and are resigned to that, but "Three Kings" angrily indicts
Bush for it, with a second half that is dramatic and political. The film
surrounds Gates, Vig, Barlow and Elgin with hypocrisy and devastation as
they attempt to get back to their base, fight off hostile fire, save the
lives of refugees and salvage some bullion.
That's a little anticlimactic, as the opening
chapters are full of brilliantly crude slapstick satire, and at times thereafter
the film becomes inappropriately slowed down when accommodating its serious
stuff. Russell, who wrote and directed, should have found some way to blend
the different elements in less jarring fashion. It is creative to follow
an elaborate practical gag about pretending to be Saddam with realistic footage
of refugee orphans, but it isn't necessarily wise, because it means the audience
is still laughing when we should be settling down for sober
thought.
What "Three Kings" conveys brilliantly, throughout
everything light and heavy, is the utter confusion of war -- in the opening
words ("Are we still shooting?"), the disorganisation of the U.S. forces'
barracks, and the mad dash to safety the film spends most of its time on.
We can decipher what's going on during immediate moments, but the general
experience is intentionally perplexing and dizzying. Ambiguous individual
point of view shots contribute to this, as does unstable, screw-loose
pacing.
Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography is the most
crucial element in putting us in the middle of the unpredictability. In the
tradition of a lot of recent Hollywood war dramas, it's shaky and grainy,
but its underdeveloped film stock is a much more original touch, making the
frame extremely sensitive to light. There are huge contrast changes all the
time, and the film seems to be reacting to situations, and seeing
images, rather than creating them.
The four main actors work subtle wonders, too,
performing in ways that balance each other's efforts nicely. Clooney has
authoritative star power; Jonze, who has also done good work as a director,
is pleasing in what is essentially a jester role; Wahlberg is charming and
boyish; Cube reassures us that there's someone sensible in this motley
crew.
As of yet, the only other theatrical motion picture
dealing with the Gulf War has been Edward Zwick's "Courage Under Fire", from
1996. So it's amazing, when you think about it, that Russell has so soon
found the courage to make a bizarre comedic commentary on the subject. Shame
on Warner Bros for marketing it as a dumb action flick, in ads that juxtapose
serious-sounding lines with explosions. They're shooting themselves in the
foot, as fans of that sort of thing will be put off when they learn what
the movie is actually about, and most other people will the alienated by
the commercials. "Three Kings" deserves better treatment -- uneven patches
notwithstanding, it's original, powerful, and very unexpected.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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