Three Kings
USA/Australia 1999
Reviewed by John Wrathall
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Iraq, March 1991. The Gulf War has just ended. US soldiers Troy Barlow and Conrad Vig find a map of the bunkers behind Iraqi lines where Saddam Hussein has hidden gold bullion looted from Kuwait. After getting wind of the story, Major Archie Gates convinces them, along with their staff sergeant Chief Elgin, to help him steal the gold. The four soldiers locate the bullion in a bunker concealed beneath a village well. Saddam's soldiers make no attempt to stop them because they are busy suppressing local rebels. Reluctant to abandon them to their fate, the Americans decide to take the villagers with them, even though it's against official US policy.
As they are leaving the village, they are gassed by Iraqi Republican Guards. Troy is captured and tortured. Gates, Conrad and Chief are rescued by rebels. In return for a share of the gold and an escort to the Iranian border, the rebels help to rescue Troy, but Conrad is shot dead by a sniper. Fulfilling their part of the bargain, Gates, Troy and Chief escort the rebels to the Iranian border, only to be arrested by Gates' superior Colonel Horn for acting against US policy. As a result, Iraqi border guards are able to recapture the rebels. But Gates convinces Horn to secure the rebels' safe passage into Iran; in return, Gates, Troy and Chief agree to give back the gold.
Review
A big-budget war movie starring George Clooney might seem like a huge departure for the writer-director of two intimate, subversively comic dissections of family life, Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster. But from the opening minute of Three Kings, it's clear that David O. Russell's idiosyncratic vision has survived the transition unscathed. Spotting an armed Iraqi in the desert just after the Gulf War ceasefire, and unsure exactly what their orders are, Sergeant Troy Barlow asks his comrades: "Are we shooting?" But instead of giving him a clipped affirmative or negative, they misunderstand him, launching into a cross-purposes riff on possible meanings of the phrase. As the atrocities pile up, Russell's dialogue never loses this screwball edge - not even in the torture scene, where the Iraqi interrogator Captain Said batters Troy into admitting how screwed-up US society must be to have forced Michael Jackson to have plastic surgery in order to look white.
The film's visual touches are correspondingly bizarre, not least the full-colour close-ups inside a body to demonstrate the damage bullets do to internal organs. But the film's surrealism, whether showing desert bunkers piled with looted consumer goods or towers of flame reflected in lakes of spilled oil, seems less a flip stylistic decision on Russell's part than a direct and honest response to the extraordinary conditions of the war itself.
Russell never lets his quirky asides get in the way of a streamlined and classically structured Hollywood action-movie plot. The story itself, for instance, isn't all that far removed from the Clint Eastwood vehicle Kelly's Heroes (1970). The satirical tone, meanwhile, owes more to a very different Hollywood war movie of that era, Robert Altman's MASH (1969). Russell may share Altman's irreverence and cynicism but, unlike Altman, he never lets go of his humanity. Everyone in this war has their reasons, even the torturer Said, who is given a moving speech (powerfully delivered by the French-Moroccan actor Saïd Taghmaoui) about the slaughter of his child by American bombs.
Beyond the hip comedy and slick, action-driven narrative, Russell also offers a serious indictment of the conduct of the war, not least the way George Bush encouraged the Iraqi population to rise up against Saddam Hussein, and then refused to go to their support. In venturing into Iraq, Gates and his team are motivated purely by greed; that they end up doing any good is entirely by accident - and only by going directly against official US policy.
What lingers in the mind far longer than the smart dialogue, the slightly cartoon characterisations or the neat feel-good ending is a vivid sense of the sickening nature of modern warfare: poison gas, land-mines, cluster bombs, chemical pollution, torture chambers and the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, among other things. But these horrors, to Russell's credit, are conveyed with a minimum of sanctimonious outrage. Among the rebels rescued by Gates is a little girl. Both her arms are in plaster, but Russell never directs our attention to this detail, nor stops to explain it. How her arms were broken is left to our imagination.
Credits
- Director
- David O. Russell
- Producers
- Charles Roven
- Paul Junger Witt
- Edward L. McDonnell
- Screenplay
- David O. Russell
- Story
- John Ridley
- Director of Photography
- Newton Thomas Sigel
- Editor
- Robert K. Lambert
- Production Designer
- Catherine Hardwicke
- Music
- Carter Burwell
- ©Warner Bros (US/Canada/Bahamas/
Bermuda)- ©Village Roadshow Films (BVI) Limited (all other territories)
- Production Companies
- ©Village Roadshow Films (BVI) Limited (all other territories)
- Warner Bros. presents in assocation with Village Roadshow Pictures/Village - A.M. Film Partnership
a Coast Ridge/Atlas Entertainment production - Executive Producers
- Gregory Goodman
- Kelley Smith-Wait
- Bruce Berman
- Co-producers
- Douglas Segal
- Kim Roth
- John Ridley
- Associate Producer
- Alan G. Glazer
- Production Associate
- Mary Courtney
- Production Managers
- Gregory Goodman
- Ronald G. Smith
- Location Managers
- Peter Novak
- David Wolfson
- 2nd Unit Director
- Dan Bradley
- Assistant Directors
- Julian Wall
- Kent Genzlinger
- Paul F. Bernard
- Amy Hughes
- Eric Yellin
- John Downer
- 2nd Unit:
- Lisa Satriano
- Rebecca Stefan
- Script Supervisors
- Haley McLane
- 2nd Unit:
- Nicole Espinosa
- Casting
- Mary Vernieu
- Anne McCarthy
- Additional:
- Deedra Ricketts
- Tina Kerr
- Associate:
- Freddy Luis
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Phil Pfeiffer
- Camera Operators
- Larry McConkey
- 2nd Unit:
- Lyn Lockwood
- Greg Schmidt
- Keith Smith
- Joe Valentine
- Steadicam Operator
- Larry McConkey
- Visual Effects
- POP Film
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- David Sosalla
- Visual Effects Executive Producer:
- Joe Gareri
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Marty Bresin
- Special Effects
- Richard Zarro
- Chris Jones
- Timothy C. Walkey
- Mike Van Arkel
- Jeff Bresin
- Michael Brown
- Werner Hahnlein
- Michael Roundy
- Bob Simocovic
- Gary Snyder
- Danny J. Edwards
- David A. Poole
- Ron Thompson
- Additional Editing
- Pamela March
- Mark Bourgeois
- Dexter Adriano
- Supervising Art Director
- Derek R. Hill
- Art Director
- Jann Engel
- Set Decorator
- Gene Serdena
- Illustrator
- Raymond Consing
- Costume Designer
- Kym Barrett
- Costume Supervisors
- Dan Bronson
- Bob Morgan
- Make-up
- Supervisor:
- Allan Apone
- Artists:
- Ron Snyder
- Adam Brandy
- Michelle Garbin
- 2nd Unit:
- Clifff Dance
- Janet Lazio Santa
- Make-up Effects
- Tony Gardner
- Jim Beinke
- Hair
- Supervisor:
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- 2nd Unit:
- Karen Rich
- Sandra Coley Greene
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Music Conductors/
Orchestrations - Carter Burwell
- Sonny Kompanek
- Music Supervisor
- Ralph Sall
- Music Editors
- Bunny Andrews
- Adam Smalley
- Music Score Mixer
- Michael Farrow
- Soundtrack
- "I Just Want to Celebrate" by Nick Zesses, Dino Fekaris, performed by Rare Earth; "I Get Around" by Brian Wilson, Mike Love, performed by The Beach Boys; "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood, arranged by Richard Lawrence Wolf; "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" by Keith Shocklee, William Drayton, Eric Sadler, performed by Public Enemy; "Mercedes Benz" by Janis Joplin, Michael McClure, Bobby Neuwirth; "Stop ou Encore" by Jacques Lanzmann, J.P. Hawks, performed by Plastic Bertrand; "If You Leave Me Now" by Peter Cetera, performed by Chicago; "Party All the Time" by Rick James, performed by Eddie Murphy; "Gloria (Cum Sancto Spiritu in Gloria dei Patris)" from "Mass in B Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Academy and Chorus of St Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner; "The Power (Original Single/Dub Mix)" by Benito Benitez, John Garrett III, Antoinette Colandero, performed by Snap; "Zurna-Tabl-Naqqare" performed by Iraqi Traditional Group; "Outside 2B", "The Beast Is Coming" from "Unstrung Heroes" by Thomas Newman; "Flesh & Bone" by Thomas Newman; "Torture" by Graeme Revell; "In God's Country" by U2, Bono, The Edge, performed by U2
- Additional Sound Design
- Lance Brown
- Sound Mixers
- Production:
- Edward Tise
- 2nd Unit:
- Lisa Pinero-Amses
- Re-recording Mixers
- Robert Litt
- Dan Leahy
- Michael Herbick
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Bruce Fortune
- John Leveque
- Dialogue Editors
- Donald L. Warner Jr
- Robert Troy
- Kimberly Lowe Voight
- Sound Effects Editors
- Steve Mann
- Anthony R. Milch
- Aaron D. Weisblatt
- Terry Rodman
- Richard E. Yawn
- Gary Blufer
- ADR
- Mixer:
- Thomas J. O'Connell
- Supervising Editor:
- Joe Dorn
- Editors:
- Nicholas V. Korda
- Jonathan Klein
- Foley
- Artists:
- John Roesch
- Allison Moore
- Michael Broomberg
- Mixer:
- Mary Jo Lang
- Supervising Editor:
- Shawn Sykora
- Editors:
- Michael Dressel
- Bob Beher
- Aerial Co-ordinator
- Mike Patlin
- Advisers
- Iraqi Technical:
- Sermid Al'serrif
- Iraqi Religious:
- Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini
- Military Technical:
- Lt John Rottger
- Staff Major Jim Parker
- Colonel King Davis
- Herman Cohen
- Kate Kondell
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Dan Bradley
- Animals
- Animal Services
- Chief Pilot
- Louis Timalot
- Cast
- George Clooney
- Major Archie Gates
- Mark Wahlberg
- Sergeant Troy Barlow
- Ice Cube
- Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin
- Nora Dunn
- Adriana Cruz
- Jamie Kennedy
- Walter Wogaman
- Mykelti Williamson
- Colonel Horn
- Cliff Curtis
- Amir Abdulah
- Saïd Taghmaoui
- Captain Said
- Spike Jonze
- Private Conrad Vig
- Holt McCallany
- Captain Van Meter
- Judy Greer
- Cathy Daitch
- Christopher Lohr
- Teebaux
- Jon Sklaroff
- Paco
- Liz Stauber
- Debbie Barlow, Troy's wife
- Marsha Horan
- Amir's wife
- Alia Shawkat
- Amir's daughter
- Jabir Algarawi
- Ghanem Algarawi
- hairdressing twins
- Bonnie Afsary
- Western dressed village woman
- Jacqueline Abi-Ad
- traditional village woman
- Fadil Al-Badri
- deserter leader
- Al No-Omani
- Kaied
- Sayed Badreya
- Iraqi tank major
- Magdi Rashwan
- Iraqi troop carrier major
- Alex Dodd
- Iraqi first kill soldier
- Larry 'Tank' Jones
- Berm soldier/truck driver
- Patrick O'Neal Jones
- Shawn Pilot
- Brett Bassett
- Berm soldiers
- Jim Gaffifan
- cut's Troy's cuff soldier
- Al Whiting
- Brian Patterson
- camp soldiers/truck drivers
- Scott Dillon
- Kwesi Okai Hazel
- Joseph Richard Romanov
- Christopher B. Duncan
- Randy W. McCoy
- Mark Rhodes
- Scott Pearce
- camp soldiers
- Gary Parker
- civil affairs company clerk
- Haidar Alatowa
- Saudi translator
- Salah Salea
- Iraqi soldier with map
- Doug Jones
- dead Iraqi soldier
- Farinaz Farrokh
- Iraqi civilian mother with baby
- Omar 'Freefly' Alhegelan
- bunker 1 lying Iraqi
- Hassan Allawati
- bunker 1 friendly Iraqi
- Sara Aziz
- pleading civilian woman
- A. Halim Mostafa
- Iraqi civilian man
- Al Mustafa
- bunker 2 store room captain
- Anthony Batarse
- Iraqi interrogation sergeant
- Mohamad Al-Jalahma
- Mohammed Sharafi
- bunker 2 Iraqi rifle loaders
- Hillel Michael Shamam
- bunker 2 store room guard
- Joey Naber
- Iraqi radio operator
- Basim Ridha
- black robe leader
- Peter MacDisssi
- oasis bunker Iraqi republican guard lieutenant
- Tony Shawkat
- Joseph Abi-Ad
- oasis bunker Iraqi republican guard sergeants
- Fahd Al-Ujaimy
- Derick Qaqish
- oasis bunker Troy's interrogation guards
- Hassan Bach-Agha
- Fadi Sitto
- oasis bunker Troy's republican guards
- Ali Alkindi
- Abdullah Al-Dawalem
- Rick Mendoza
- deserters
- Jassim Al-Khazraji
- oasis bunker republican roof guard
- Haider Alkindi
- Kalid Mustafa
- Ghazwyn Ramlawi
- Raad Thomasian
- Wessam Saleh
- oasis bunker fleeing republican guards
- Jay Giannone
- Sam Hassan
- oasis bunker republican guards/snipers
- Brian Bosworth
- action star
- Donte Delila
- Dylan Brown
- Iraqi children
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 10,319 feet
- 114 minutes 40 seconds
- Dolby digital/DTS digital/SDDS
- Colour by
- Technicolor
- Super 35 [2.35:1]