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

Reviewed by Lily Papke. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2020.

Three Kings is a cult classic that is even more relevant in today’s political climate than it was 20 years ago. Anything involving George Clooney playing Archie Gates, Mark Wahlberg as Troy Barlow, Ice Cube as Chief Elgin, and lastly Spike Jonze playing Conrad Vig, is bound to turn out entertaining. In this action comedy, they act as four American soldiers stationed in Iraq and the movie begins right when the Gulf War ends. All four of them set out on a mission after one of them finds a map that was hidden between an Iraq man’s butt-cheeks that supposedly leads to Saddam Hussein’s gold. They hit some road bumps along their secret operation, like blowing up a cow, which guides them to learn how to sacrifice certain things in order to help others in need.

David O. Russell did a fantastic job directing this film by implementing key mise en scene techniques. By only using one camera during the action shots, especially the explosions, it helps make it feel more realistic rather than other formalistic action movies that use multiple cameras. He added a very high saturated and high contrast filter hoping to make the audience feel like they’ve gone down a rabbit hole. It definitely gives off a certain mood and made me feel like this took place on a different planet. The sound effects are very sharp, loud and aggressive which really adds drama to the scene, making everything more intense. Russell also added inside shots of a persons body if they were to get hit by a gun which shows how much trauma just a single bullet has on a body. He uses some low angles on the American soldiers to show dominance over the Iraq soldiers. The plot is a nice traditional 3 act structure with goal oriented characters which makes it super effortless to follow along and comprehend. The use of slow motion during the first shoot out scene makes it easier to fully digest what is happening between all of the characters. Instead of a quick pull of the trigger and someone immediately dying, its more suspenseful and allows the audience to absorb the information being given to them.

I am not a fan of war movies but this is unlike everything I’ve seen so far and I actually enjoyed it. The fact that it’s also a comedy brings something different to the table. Yet it still has an important lesson in the end. I never knew what was going to happen next and once I did I was pleasantly surprised. The story itself is interesting, funny, surprising at times and a good middle ground between serious and amusing. Some scenes were also heartbreaking and a little hard to watch, however were crucial for this story to be told. I recommend this movie to someone who wants a different take on an action war movie, but you should still expect a lot of blood!