Middle East Art Fusion

|* cinema. Three Kings (1999)

In a war without heroes they are kings

Troy Barlow: Are we shooting?
Soldier: What?
Troy Barlow: Are we shooting people or what?
Soldier: Are we shooting?
Troy Barlow: That's what I'm asking you!
Soldier: What's the answer?
Troy Barlow: I don't know the answer! That's what I'm trying to find out!... I think this guy has a weapon! Yeah, he does!
Shoots the guy, comes closer, sees that the guy had a white flag.

Personally, I think there is the right time for everything. I know for sure that in the year 1999 this movie was made, I wouldn't be able to understand it, yet enjoy. Recently I came upon "I heart Huckabees" by David O. Russell and went to movie database to check for his works. Guess what? I found out that "Three Kings" my brother liked so much many years ago, is not actually a stupid-hollywood-action movie. Now that I watched it, I can say the crew did a great job! Sharp dark humour, great plot, dramatic moments mixed with hard action and irony, what more to wish?

The story goes back to 1991, when USA libirated Kuwait and declared that the war was over. People are happy, journalists are there to cover the celebration story, soldiers are drinking like hell, dancing and singing "I love this land. God bless the U.S.A.!" But next day, while arresting more Iraqies, they found a map in on Iraqi guy's ass! Well, later on rumours claimed it was in his penis. Or ear. Or nose! Maj. Archie Gates (George Clooney) goes to a "proctology" tent and gets a deal with the soldiers who have found the map. Four of them go and search for the bullions (not the little cubes you make a soup from) in the secret bunker. To make the story short, they did find the gold, but they also saw hundreds of people suffering, Iraqi Shiite civilians who have risen against Saddam Hussein, have been promised help from USA and abandoned. I think you already guessed what happens next: our brave three soldiers cannot just stay away with their gold, they try to help and save!

Basically, it is a movie about soul transformation of these guys. They got into Iraq, didn't do much, were supposed to be send back already, but went for the gold. Saw injustice, changed their "necessity", tried to help, failed in some way, in some way succeeded, but definitely looked over their beliefs and got educated on the true and selfish reasons of USA for war.

Thanks to the lecture of James Thurlow "Media Criticism" this term, I've learned what inoculation is according to Roland Barthes in his essay "Myth today" and "Operation Margarine". Well, this movie is a perfect example of inoculation.

While making a small research on this movie before writing a review, a came upon interesting facts.

• First, all the movie was shot in Arizona, and the director even sent two guys sectretly sneak in Iraq to take photos of the real area in order to find the best places in USA to film it.


• Then, do you remember the scene with the torture of Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg)? Well, he wished to get into role and asked to make it for real! Respect.


• I was laughing when I saw the propaganda leaflets with pictograms the USA oficer used to make Iraqi soldiers surrender. I was surprised to know they are actually the real ones used in the Gulf War! It reminded me the leaflets for American soldiers I came upon in the Internet searching for the Kurdish-English dictionary.


• The film was banned in Iraq.


• On the official website of the movie you can find a special presentation, "HOW TO SHOOT A SCENE WHERE YOU BLOW UP A HELICOPTER WITH AN EXPLODING FOOTBALL." The feature includes a detailed shot list, storyboards, production photos and sketches.

Moments to remember? Here we go:

• Cow being blown by the mine.


• Explanation of how a bullet tears into the gut. Or lungs being sqeezed by the air pressure.


• Milk truck shot through and the milk just pours outside, Iraqi people drinking it from the ground.


• Children running through the mine field and Mark Wahlberg running after them to stop (reminded me the scene from "Turtles can fly", movie from Iraq, where the child is so close to step on one).


• Sadam's soldier telling about his son being killed by USA troops while bombing, and his wife lost her legs. That makes a great impression on the Wahlberg. In fact, I so much liked how Mark played in this movie! I can say that his character somehow partly transfered to the new "I heart Huckabees" movie by the same director, where he played the guy being totally depressed by the cruelty of this world and strongly against usage of oil.

What else? An American football ball turned into a bomb and being thrown at the Sadam's helicopter, Bang!
And Gucci bags! Oh yeah, man, Gucci bags full of gold!

posted by Aleksandra Birjukova @ 1.12.05