Three Kings (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
"Are we shooting?" Starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn, Jamie Kennedy. Rated R.
If Three Kings is a comedy, it's the most important one since Dr. Strangelove. It is being vociferously promoted as a "war comedy," and to a certain extent, I suppose it is one. It is decidely not satire and it is far from the offbeat, poignant humor of Life is Beautiful. No -- the comedy here is rather broad (though definitely not dumb). The amazing thing is not that it manages to be funny without being stupid but that it effectively balances an inordinate amount of humor with intelligent, subtle political and social commentary. It's an unrestrained, riveting film, three-dimentional and skillfully made. It's in the spirit of M*A*S*H, but not really.
It's also the second movie ever to deal with The Gulf War (Courage Under Fire being the first). Actually, it takes place immediately after the war, when groups of American soldiers are hanging out in Iraq during the just-declared ceasefire. Bored and thinking of their families, four of these soldiers decide to go on a renegade mission. After finding a map in the unlikeliest of places, Archie Gates (George Clooney), Troy Barlow (Mike Wahlberg), Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) and Vig (Spike Jonze) leave their base without authorization to look for some gold. This isn't just any gold: this is gold that Saddam stole from the people of Kuwait. Kuwait wants it back, understandably, but the foursome have no intention of returning it. Instead, they hope to strike it rich so when they return home neither they nor their families would have to worry about money ever again.
Let's backtrack for a second. As the movie opens, Mark Wahlberg walks on to the screen, looks at the camera and yells "Are we shooting?" For those in doubt about just what he is talking about (and it's a neat trick, foreshadowing the unconventional experience we are about to have), he backs up his question with "Are we shooting people, or what?" You see, none of these soldiers have seen any "action" during their whole involvment in the war, so when, in the film's opening sequence, they get to shoot an Iraqi soldier they take a sick pleasure in it. One of them remarks "I didn't think I'd get to see anyone get shot in this war. Take a picture."
Be careful what you wish for -- you just might get it. The "action" they were looking for would come after the war was over. They come to look for the gold in the remains of a village. There, they discover Saddam's troops attacking Iraqis who decided to rebel against Saddam, just like George Bush instructed. They are not allowed to do anything about it due to the ceasefire. Archie's humane instincts prevail over his military common sense, however, and the four Americans wind up being the ones responsible for breaking the ceasefire and the ones stuck with the cumbersome task of transporting refugees to the Iranian border in order to get the gold they so desperately want.
Three Kings is about priorities. What are our priorities as a nation? What would happen if a soldier's priorities differed from those of his nation? Whose is he to follow? These questions are posed in a superb, solidly constructed storyline with brilliant, funny dialogue and exciting action sequences. This is a movie where everything seems to work; all the elements come together to make a convincing, brilliant whole.
The standout performance, surprisingly, is that of Ice Cube who manages to turn a minor, seemingly insignificant character into one of the most interesting and compelling in the film. For possibly the first time in his feature film career, George Clooney is also outstanding; appropriately energetic and darkly funny. Wahlberg plays the most volatile of our four protagonists, and he does it with an almost Woody Allen-ish level of neurosis: paranoid, self-absorbed and always looking for the solution most profitable to himself.
Directed by David O. Russell (Flirting With Disaster), this movie is sometimes brutally violent, but those scenes are staged in such creative ways and are so fluid and exciting that with a few exceptions, we barely notice. Russell uses an interesting method a few times throughout Three Kings in which he uses a real cadaver to "demonstrate" what happens when a bullet pierces a certain part of the human body. Though this elicited some groans from the audience, those not weak of stomach are likely to find the effect "cool." I'm not sure I disliked this eccentric (if that's the right word) little trick, but I'm equally not sure how it fit in with the rest of the film.
Three Kings is exhilirating and smart, a great film which manages to involve us in the action and make us think. It's a better war drama than a certain overrated 1998 Steven Spielberg movie (all right, Saving Private Ryan), a better comedy than Life is Beautiful and one of the very best films I've seen this year.
Grade: A
©1999 Eugene Novikov‰
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews