Three Kings
The First Gulf War in 91 was a relatively simple affair by most standards, a basic sweep and clear of the invading Iraqi forces into Kuwait, no great victory by any means, but certainly not a fiasco either. That said, the cinematic potential for stories about the conflict wind up being pretty limited, and when one DOES come out of Hollywood, as with this 1999 release, the filmmakers have to reach kind of far to make it a viable story worth telling. From the very misleading title, which would indicate three main characters (when there are actually four), to the goofball opening scenes showing American soldiers celebrating when most of them did very little fighting to the development of the plot straight out of treasure hunt b-movie territory, where the four leads decide to take off from base camp using a recently discovered map and track down one of Saddam’s bunkers to recover a cache of gold to keep them rich and happy forever. This freewheeling, happy-go-lucky vibe is emphasized by the dumb party music on the soundtrack and showing the fellas skeet shooting off the back of their humvee with Nerf footballs, among other things, as well as sending a nosy reporter (Nora Dunn) off on a wild goose chase to mislead her in a poorly developed subplot. Then, about halfway through, writer / director David O. Russell attempts a complete tonal shift into serious, heavy drama, and the movie degenerates into a pathetic “message” story about American soldiers and their responsibility to the Kuwaiti people to protect them from Saddam’s troops (who continue to slaughter them even after they surrendered to us), and with that the nature of the piece becomes heavy-handed and monotonous, with a turgid pace as Russell makes sure to get all his “meaningful” pieces of dialogue out of his characters so the audience can know what it’s all about. As for the cast, George Clooney is woefully miscast as the Special Forces veteran about to retire, coming across as the usual flip, smirking Clooney character type we all know and love(?), while one wonders what previous contenders for the role like Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte would have done with it; Mark Wahlberg as the Staff Sergeant on the trip would appear to be the emotional center of the film (because his wife has just given birth) but really there is nothing there writing-wise; Ice Cube as another of the main characters might just as well have the character name Token; and Spike Jonze as the weaselly little redneck in the group tries to be the comic relief of the film, but almost all the humor is built around the other characters pointing out how ignorant he is. Indeed, the character development is so weak that we basically find out everything we’re gonna know about these guys through the little blurbs that accompany their names when they’re introduced at the beginning of the movie! It all winds up with our heroes leading a large pack of Kuwaiti refugees to the Iranian border complete with Cube wearing a Muslim headdress so that they may have safety and sanctuary from Saddam, coupled with the death of a major character that comes across as manipulative and very poorly done. In the end, it was rumored that Clooney got into a fistfight with Russell on set over his treatment of the extras, but George would have been better served by punching the guy out for making a boring, uneven mess of a movie…
4/10