THREE KINGS (Warner Bros.) Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn, Cliff Curtis, Said Taghmaoui, Jamie Kennedy. Screenplay: David O. Russell. Producers: Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt and Edward L. McDonnell. Director: David O. Russell. MPAA Rating: R (violence, profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 111 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
In THREE KINGS, writer/director David O. Russell seems intent on creating the quintessential debunking of the "official" Gulf War story. Eight years ago, the war was treated as a great boost to national pride in the midst of a recession, a pseudo-exorcism of the Vietnam demons and a vision of the great bloodless techno-battle that would become the way of warfare. It was all night-vision and smart-bombs, desert shields and protections of sovereignty -- a just war waged against a power-mad dictator. We were swept up in the images, watching our forces hammer away towards a foregone conclusion.
There's more than a little irony to the fact that THREE KINGS is just as visually striking as the Gulf War, and nearly as shaky in its substance. The story focuses on a quartet of U.S. Army soldiers eyeing a personal windfall as the war reaches its conclusion in March 1991. Sgt. Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg), Staff Sgt. Elgin (Ice Cube) and Pvt. Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze) discover a map they believe leads to a fortune in plundered Kuwaiti loot. Special Forces Capt. Archie Gates (George Clooney) also learns of the map, but believes there's far more to be had than cell phones and Rolexes -- specifically, bunkers filled with millions in gold bullion. The four men begin a journey into the heart of Iraq to cash in, but they soon discover a nation still at war, and find that their mission objectives keep shifting as they learn more.
As a moderately revisionist history lesson, there's no question that THREE KINGS both engages and enlightens. Russell paints a picture of American troops as rowdy kids celebrating victory in a war they barely fought, while the brass concerns itself primarily with feeding reporters stories to keep them happy. Meanwhile, Iraqi citizens initiate rebellion against Saddam Hussein after being promised support by America, then find themselves slaughtered by Iraqi troops when it becomes clear that no cavalry will be on its way. THREE KINGS becomes a journey of discovery for the four soldiers, their quest for personal gain gradually giving way to a belief that they can't obey the orders that would have them abandon Iraqi rebels to their deaths.
Provocative moral dilemmas abound in THREE KINGS, which should be the stuff of compelling drama. Somehow, it just isn't. The messages are similar to those familiar from anti-war films like PATHS OF GLORY, M*A*S*H and PLATOON -- war is even more hellish when policy has little to do with humanity -- yet the characters are not nearly as strong. While Clooney, Wahlberg and company perform capably, Russell doesn't give them much to work with beyond surface characterizations: Gates the jaded veteran, Vic the simple-minded hick, Barlow the naive family man, etc. They're too often placed in situations where other characters explain to them the real horrors of the war, turning chunks of THREE KINGS into an informative but stagnant lecture. Russell wants to put a personal face on an impersonal war, but he can only create an urgency of situation, not urgency connected to the people in the situation.
He can also create plenty of urgency with his stylistic flourishes, of which plenty abound. THREE KINGS is a genuinely eye-catching piece of work in which Russell makes bold choices to drive home a point, from the graphic internal images of a wounded body to the slow-motion punctuation of bullet wounds as video game warfare tears through real flesh. Unfortunately, the same impulse to drive a point home leads to scenes in which a scene described in dialogue is simultaneously portrayed on screen. Hearing an Iraqi soldier (Said Taghmaoui) describe his infant son's death during a bomb raid is wrenching; watching the infant crushed by debris is startling; combining the two is pure overkill.
In retrospect, I'm not sure why I still admired THREE KINGS as much as I did. It's certainly an unconventional film, zig-zagging between dark comedy and raw drama with surprising effectiveness. Every once in a while, Russell will do one of those little things that remind you how invigorating cinema can be. There's just not enough to shake the sense that THREE KINGS is too enamored of its sense of historical importance. All that remains is getting swept up in the images, watching Russell's forces hammer away towards a foregone conclusion.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 kings over jack: 6.
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