Three Kings (1999 film)

Following the end of the Gulf War, U.S. soldiers remaining in theatre are bored from the lack of action and throw parties at night. Major Archie Gates, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, is trading sex for stories with a journalist, Cathy Daitch, when he is interrupted by Adriana Cruz, the television reporter he is assigned to escort. While disarming and searching an Iraqi officer, U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow, his best friend Private First Class Conrad Vig, and their unit find a map in the officer's anus. Troy asks Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin to help interpret the document. Major Gates identifies it as a map of bunkers near Karbala containing gold bullion stolen from Kuwait. They decide to steal it, and Gates distracts Adriana by assigning Specialist Walter Wogeman to take her to investigate a false news tip. They find the gold among other Kuwaiti plunder, and stumble on the interrogation of Amir Abdullah, whose wife pleads with them not to abandon the anti-Saddam dissidents. She is executed by the Iraqi Republican Guard and the group decides to free the Iraqi prisoners, triggering a firefight. They withdraw as Iraqi reinforcements arrive. Trying to evade a CS gas attack, they blunder into a minefield and get separated. Iraqi soldiers capture Troy while the others are rescued by a group of rebels who take them to their underground hideout. Conrad, Chief, and Archie agree to help the rebels and their families reach the Iranian border after they rescue Troy. Confined in the bunker in a room full of Kuwaiti cell phones, Troy calls his wife on a MicroTAC and tells her to report his location to his local Army Reserve unit. The call is cut short when he is dragged to an interrogation by Iraqi Captain Saïd. The Americans and the rebels persuade a band of Iraqi Army deserters to sell them looted Kuwaiti luxury cars, then outfit them to resemble Saddam's entourage. The phony convoy scares away the bunker's defenders and Troy is freed. Saïd is spared, and they find more Shi'ite dissidents held in a dungeon. Iraqi soldiers return before they can depart, and in the ensuing firefight they kill Conrad and wound Troy with a punctured lung. Archie radios Walter and Adriana to arrange transport for the dissidents while hapless American officers in the camp try to locate the trio after the message from Troy's wife arrives. Every rebel is given a bar of gold, and the Americans bury the rest before the convoy arrives. The convoy carries the dissidents to the Iranian border, where the three Americans intend to escort the rebels across to protect them from the Iraqi border guards. American officers intervene and arrest the trio while the rebels are recaptured. Archie offers the buried gold to the American officers in exchange for letting the refugees through. The commanding officer agrees to assisting the rebels get into Iran, but insists the charges of being absent without leave and disobeying orders will result in a courts-martial of Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin. The epilogue reveals the three surviving soldiers were cleared of the charges and honorably discharged because of Adriana's reporting. Archie becomes a military adviser for Hollywood action films, Chief leaves his airport job to work with Archie, and Troy returns to his wife and baby to run his own carpet store. The stolen gold is returned to Kuwait, who claim a small amount is still missing. ==Cast==

• George Clooney as Major Archie Gates A career U.S. Army Special Forces officer close to retirement, who is disillusioned with the war. • Mark Wahlberg as Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow An office worker with a wife and baby daughter at home. He wears the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations patch and identifies himself as a Civil Affairs Reservist. • Ice Cube as Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin An airline baggage handler from Detroit who believes he is protected by a ring of "Jesus-fire", also wears the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations patch. • Spike Jonze as Private First Class Conrad Vig A jobless, semi-literate soldier from a group home in Dallas who idolizes Troy; also wears the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations patch. • Nora Dunn as Adriana Cruz A tough cable news correspondent who is determined to get a good story. • Jamie Kennedy as Specialist Walter Wogeman A bumbling soldier whom Archie uses to distract Adriana. • Mykelti Williamson as Colonel Ron Horn Archie's superior officer, who discovers the plan to steal the gold. • Cliff Curtis as Amir Abdullah A Shi'ite Iraqi rebel who has been captured by Saddam's troops. Educated in the U.S. at Bowling Green State University, he was an entrepreneur in Baghdad, running several cafes before they were destroyed by Coalition bombs. • Saïd Taghmaoui as Captain Saïd An Iraqi interrogator who tortures Barlow with electric shocks after he is captured. • Judy Greer as Cathy Daitch A journalist competing with Adriana who has sex with Archie early in the film. • Liz Stauber as Debbie Barlow, Troy's wife • Holt McCallany as Captain Doug Van Meter Troy's superior officer, an obstreperous stickler for the rules. • Alia Shawkat as Amir's daughter. • Jim Gaffigan as Cuts Troy's cuff soldier • Fahim Fazli as Refugee ==Production==

Three Kings was filmed in the deserts of Casa Grande, Arizona, California and Mexico, with many of the extras played by actual Iraqi refugees. According to David O. Russell, two of the cast members had "personally defaced 300 murals of Saddam." After one of the military advisers to the film died during production, Russell said the death was "perhaps due to chemicals he was exposed to in the Gulf." Although Warner Bros. worked out a deal to give Ridley a "story by" credit, Ridley remains unhappy with the experience, and has blocked Russell's efforts to publish the Three Kings screenplay in book form. Co-star George Clooney also expressed initial reservations about the choice of Jonze. "It's always worrisome when somebody says, 'I got a friend,' and you've never heard of them. But within five minutes of meeting Spike, you just go, 'Oh, he's perfect for the part.'" The part of Archie Gates was originally planned for Clint Eastwood, but Russell decided to rewrite it as a younger character. George Clooney eventually saw a copy of the script and was "blown away" by it. When he heard the part was being re-written, he jumped at the chance to get involved. At this point in Clooney's career, he was best known for his role as the handsome Dr. Doug Ross on the popular television drama ER. Clooney was ready to pursue a role in film. Unfortunately, Russell seemed unwilling to cast Clooney in the role. Persistent, Clooney sent a humorously self-deprecating letter signed "George Clooney, TV actor" to Russell asking for the part, and showed up at Russell's New York City apartment to plead his case. Russell still wasn't satisfied that Clooney could portray the character. He instead convinced Nicolas Cage to play the role. However, when Cage became unavailable after being cast in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, Russell gave the part to Clooney. Many of the Iraqi roles were played by actual Iraqi refugees in the United States. Film techniques Much to the chagrin of Warner Bros., Russell decided to use a number of experimental cinematic techniques in the film. Handheld cameras and Steadicam shots were used to give the film a journalistic feel. Russell shot a majority of the film on Ektachrome transparency stock that was cross-processed in colour negative chemicals, to reproduce "the odd colour of the newspaper images [of the Gulf War]." Though the process produced a unique quality and look to the film, it was exceedingly unreliable to develop, and many film labs would not provide insurance for the transparency stock if it did not develop properly. Russell feared that the scenes would need to be reshot until finally a lab was found that would develop the transparency stock in the negative chemicals. The opening was shot on conventional negative stock and bleach bypassed to give a deep black and high contrast look. Some interior shots were also filmed on conventional negative stock and processed normally. Conflicts The film's production process was particularly difficult for Russell, who was taking a variety of risks with what was a $42 million studio film. At the time it was made, Warner Bros. had not financed an auteur film in many years, and executives were hesitant to put such money in the hands of filmmakers who were used to working independently. The film's political overtones also worried the studio, especially with conflict still occurring in the Middle East. As a result, Warner Bros. gave Russell a number of limitations. The shooting schedule was reduced to only 68 days instead of the 80 Russell had initially asked for. The studio wanted the budget lowered to $35 million. Executives were also asking for the removal of more violent scenes, such as the exploding cow and the shooting of an Iraqi woman. Russell was also forced to sign a legal document requiring that scenes containing pedophilia accusations against Michael Jackson be removed from the film. ==Release==

The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 1, 1999, on 2,942 screens. Russell said the documentary examined "both sides of the war, people who feel good about the war, who believe in the mission, people who feel bad." While making the documentary, Russell spoke with both Iraqis and U.S. troops. Asked how the Iraqis he had interviewed felt about the war, Russell said: Although Russell had planned to release the film before November 2004, hoping to "perhaps make a difference before the election," Warner Bros. abandoned the project at the last minute, citing "controversy surrounding the documentary, combined with a later-than-expected arrival of the bonus footage". Russell disputed the time-crunch excuse, saying: "I think if they really wanted to, they could make it happen." Eventually, the documentary was purchased by the Independent Film Channel, where it was aired in its entirety the night before the 2004 U.S. presidential election. ==Reception==

Box office The film opened at number two at the United States box office for the weekend with a gross of $15,847,636, behind Double Jeopardy second weekend gross of $17 million. The film grossed $60,652,036 in the United States and Canada and $47.1 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $107.8 million. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F. Peter Bradshaw says, "A strange flavour, but this is an enjoyable and intelligent action film." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four, writing "Three Kings is some kind weird masterpiece, a screw-loose war picture that sends action and humor crashing head-on into each other and spinning off into political anger". He placed it third on his list of the best films of 1999. David Edelstein of The New York Times said: "It remains the most caustic anti-war movie of this generation." The director's commentary of the film reveals that then-incumbent President Bill Clinton liked the film so much that he had it screened for his staff, friends and advisors at the White House. In Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy Matthew Alford called Three Kings "an unusual ideological product on Hollywood terms, which begins to break down the official history of the Gulf War [...but nevertheless...] suggests that the problems of Iraq can be solved, and only solved, by the application of US force". He observes that Russell "sheepishly indicated Three Kings' ideological consistency with the 2003 Iraq War" when Russell met George W. Bush in 1999(?) and said he was making a film that would question his father's legacy in Iraq. Alford quotes Bush as responding to Russell: "Then I guess I'm going to have to finish the job, aren't I?" A. O. Scott described 1999 as a magic year for movies, "up there with 1939 and 1962 and 1974", highlighting Three Kings and Magnolia. He chose the movie one of his "Critics' Picks". == See also ==