Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999): USA

Reviewed by Ryo Nishimura. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2020.

This movie really caught me off guard. Usually I am not a fan of war movies because of the amount of violence and similar endings; but Three Kings was different. Although it did have some aspects of normal war movies, I felt that it had a comedic perspective on war. What I dislike about war movies is that the characters tend to be badass heroes most of the time. In Three Kings, yes, the characters do have some heroic traits in them, but they are simply shown as human. In uneasy times, the characters show stress and discomfort, and in happy times, they show relief and joy. I feel like in other war movies such as Saving Private Ryan or The Lone Survivor, the characters are shown as machines and robots where emotion isn’t counted into their character.

The story follows Archie Gates, played by George Clooney, Troy Barlow, played by Mark Wahlberg, Chief Elgin, played by Ice Cube, and Conrad Vig, played by Spike Jonze. It is set after the end of the Persian Gulf War, and these four soldiers go off on a quest to retrieve the gold that was stolen from Kuwait. In a turn of events, they encounter innocent civilians who desperately need their help. The characters are all uniquely different and hold different values and morals but throughout the film, they learn to work with each other.

What I liked most about this movie was the comedy. Spike Jonze’s character, Conrad Vig, kept me laughing throughout the whole film. In this serious aftermath of the war, Conrad Vig is able to bring comic relief and an easier look on life.What I found ironic and interesting in the movie was the change in perspective within the soldiers. The film opens up with Troy Barlow shooting down a man. The soldiers gather around the dead body and talk about how they barely got any action in the war and that they wished they had. As the film escalates, action is all they are experiencing. From exploding milk trucks, land mines, and shoot outs.

The editing in this movie by Robert K. Lambert was done fantastically. In many of the combat scenes, the editing pace is very quick with fast cuts and transitions. This allows the audience to feel uneasy along with the soldiers in the actual movie. The quick cuts makes the audience feel nauseous and disoriented which is exactly how the soldiers feel in the shootout.

One thing that I wasn’t a huge fan of in Three Kings was the color correction. This is completely an opinion based comment so don’t mind me but I felt like everything was “too” color corrected. The colors felt too saturated and the contrast was too high. I am not saying that this doesn’t work with the movie but this is simply just not my taste when it comes to color correction.

I would give Three Kings a 3.5 out of five. I really enjoyed this comedic take on a war movie.