Post-Gulf War film is king
By BILL FUSZ
Scene Movie Critic
Already billed as one of the best films of the year, even a masterpiece, "Three Kings" has had a good deal of hype to live up to with its arrival on the big screen this past weekend. Combining superb acting, excellent cinematography and great comedic dialogue, "Three Kings" delivers on the promise of a unique and entertaining movie experience.
The film begins shortly after the abrupt end of the Gulf War, with soldiers like Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg, "Boogie Nights") asking, "Are we still shooting people?" For Barlow as well as his redneck groupie Private Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze) and Chief Elgin (Ice Cube, "Player's Club," "Friday"), the war has been spent passing time in camp and the only action has been viewed through the sanitizing window of television.
They are not the only ones who are getting restless. The end of the war finds Major Archie Gates, Special Forces (George Clooney, "Out of Sight") stuck babysitting a network correspondent. Two weeks from retirement, Gates is cynical about the technical sterility of the war, and questioning the reason the U.S. is involved at all.
Also in the mix, reporter and five-time Emmy runner-up Adriana Cruz (Nora Dunn, "Drop Dead Gorgeous") is tired of covering the same old stories about postwar troop celebrations and oil-field fires.
Everyone's lust for action is soon appeased when the latest group of Iraqi soldiers to surrender are processed. As they search one of the soldiers, Barlow and his friends find a map located "where the sun don't shine," a map of secret Iraqi bunkers where stolen Kuwaiti gold is being stashed.
When he receives word through the grapevine of the discovery, Major Gates is quick to find the three reservists and suggest a roadtrip: Borrow a humvee, get the gold, be back before lunch and no one will notice they even left. "Sadaam stole it from the Kuwaitis and I have no problem with stealing it from Sadaam," Gates said. Better yet, they will never have to worry about their day jobs again.
From the start though, things begin to go wrong with the scheme. When they arrive in the village where the bunker is, they find a state of rebellion where American-incited rebels fight the Iraqi Republican Guard while the peace accords mandate U.S. troops to stand by.
All is well as the Americans successfully load the humvee with more than $23 million in gold with the help of Iraqi troops and prepare to return. Before they leave however, they witness the brutal execution of a woman in front of her daughter and husband, and the plan changes irrevocably, inciting one of the most memorable firefights in recent movie history. While few shots are fired, each one is important and every bullet counts.
In the aftermath of the illicit shooting of Iraqi troops, Gates decides that there is no alternative but to take as many rebels as possible and escape into the desert with the gold. The Republican Guard takes issue with the theft of Sadaam's gold however, and the escape is botched when its nerve gas and mines block the route and allow for the capture of Troy Barlow.
As the film progresses, Gates, Chief and Vig try to find a way to rescue Barlow, keep the gold and help the refugees illegally get safe passage across the border. All the while, Adriana Cruz is hot on the trail of her big scoop as the Americans find themselves face-to-face with the ethical complexities of a situation that was supposed to have "a clear moral imperative." Stuck between Iraq and a hard place, the would-be thieves find it increasingly difficult to obey their orders to remain aloof from Iraq's domestic conflict.
George Clooney finally comes into his own playing the complex Archie Gates. Moved first by necessity and then trying to disguise his humanitarian motives as expedient for getting the gold, Gates is another in the line of mercenaries turned heroes such as Rick Blaine in "Casablanca" and Rhett Butler in "Gone With the Wind." Ice Cube and Mark Wahlberg also turn in great performances as reservists who have to deal with the alien ethical complexities of war. Jonze's redneck, however, is more annoying than not, yet can occasionally inspire sympathy with his ignorance.
"Three Kings" is not without faults, periodically tending towards preachiness in an effort to critique U.S. foreign policy. But the human drama and comedy shine through, thanks in part to its incredibly original style. "Three Kings" well deserves its "best so far" description, if not quite a masterpiece distinction.
All Scene Stories for Thursday, January 20, 2000
