Three Kings
# 8 Best of Film of 1999.
Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn.
Written and directed by David O. Russell. Based on a story by John Ridley.
Note by Michael: I wrote this review in 1999. Looking over it has given me the desire to see the movie yet again, which I will, and write another review. Why? Five years have passed and I'm different; I'm older; and the world is different; and the rules of war have seemed to have changed. I'm mainly referring to this administration's approach to terrorism, a blank check for pre-emptive war (or pre-emptive defense as they like to think of it).
I'm sure, however, of one thing-- What might stay constant in the review is the dynamics of the various personalities in war. Men with hearts of war will wage war with anyone and for whatever reason they can surmise. Men with reason, with a sense of the human condition, will be the enemy of the cause. Victims can be anyone on either side; friendly-fire might be just another term for murder.
IN all, I imagine that the dictum "war is hell" is simply a depiction of the moral chaos that exists when the simple rules of law are lost between the passion of conquering and the will to survive. And Three Kings seems to depict this sincerely.
****
Three Kings plays like a classic western epic - bars of gold have been stolen, a few American soldiers have found out about it when they find the map holed up in an Iraqian soldier's butt, and they go after it (with intent on keeping some for their own benefit), of course. "Make life and make business," Clooney says to the soldiers. Welcome to a new era of war-making.
When the posse of soldiers find the town holding the treasure, they see that the Iraqi soldiers protecting the village are harassing and killing the innocent civilians, especially the women and children. Being who they are, they decide to help them out. But not before their trucks full of the gold bars get bombed on the way out of town.
In an amazing scene, the soldiers symbolically go through hell. After crashing because of the bombs, they are bombed with gas. Floundering aimlessly in the thick gas clouds that are so thick that they shut out the sun, they are rescued by nomads adorned in protective masks and long cloaks. They lead them into this vast underground cave where they plot their return to the city to help save the lives of the citizens living there. They will save them by taking them safely to the border.
Three Kings shows that war isn't what it used to be. Technology is king. Media is king. And this is a media war. For instance, when Mark Wahlburg's character is captured, he is thrown into a room where he finds a cell phone. He reaches an Iraqi operator who can't get him in contact with his command post because there is a block on their phone number. So he has her call collect to his home in America where he has his wife call the Pentagon and have them contact his command post. All the while, an American journalist is right outside the building broadcasting the war live to America. Clever.
Three Kings also makes some great statements. One about American society and the other about war.
Regarding American society: Wahlburg's interrogator asks why do Americans only like others that are like them. For example, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, changed his features and made his skin white. He wouldn't have done that if he felt accepted.
Another theme visualized is America's taste for violence. In the first scene of the film, the soldiers are out in the desert dying to kill and Iraqi. But they are all surrendering. When they happen upon an underground barracks, and an armed Iraqi soldier who isn't following their orders because he doesn't understand English, Wahlburg is pressured to shoot him. He does. While the other soldiers dance and holler around the slain Iraqi, Wahlburg throws up and breaks down crying.
Regarding war, the interrogator tells Wahlburg that the war is always just for power. The innocent people, like his two year old son, are the ones that die. You're fighting because of Saddam, he says, but you won't take him out. You will win the war and leave the Iraqi people to be starved and tortured by him.
I appreciated those thoughtful comments and the fact that when Wahlburg is freed by Clooney, and has the opportunity to kill his interrogator, he doesn't.
George Clooney is cavalier and headstrong as a general. It fits him well.
Spike Jonze is perfect as the easily-influenced soldier who wants to be Mark Wahlburg so bad he imitates his every move. Mark Wahlburg and Ice Cube give the film its thoughtful and human side. Ice Cube particularly, with his directed-by-God attitude is the mortar between the splintered, angry, vengeful, and dysfunctional soldiers about him.
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