Last night, I watched Three Kings, one of my favorite movies. Hadn’t seen it in a long time. Definitely hadn’t seen it since this latest war in Iraq.
I loved it when I first saw it, years ago, with David and Mitchell. We all were a bit blown away by it. (Not to mention getting to see Marky Mark in his long johns running across the desert. Ouch.) But now I see that the film is prophetic. Prescient. It understood the situation in southern Iraq (well, in all of Iraq, but mostly the situation with the Shia rebellion in the south, and the brutal crushing of that rebellion, and the impact that that has had on international affairs) – this film predicted the world we are living in right now.
And yet it is a complex film. There aren’t any easy answers. Every single person in it is a 3-D human being.
I love the Iraqi rebel at the end who refuses to come with them to Iran. Says to George Clooney, “No, I will stay here. I will fight Saddam.”
They shake hands. Solemnly. Solemn eye contact. They are two men who understand each other. Who like each other, across the cultural divide. Clooney respects his choice to stay and fight Saddam. The man drives off.
I had this sense of doom, of dying hope … what will happen to that man? But for those like him – and there were many like him – the entire country was held prisoner by its own leader – A tyrant is never loved. He is feared, but he is never loved.
I also love the Iraqi prisoner, who joins forces with the Americans to help them get the gold, and also to take them all to Iran. That actor looked so familiar, and then it came to me: He also played the Maori father in Whale Rider. What a wonderful actor!! Cliff Curtis.
When they all are hiding from the tear gas in the caves, Curtis’ character says to the 3 Americans, knowing that they have assumed all kinds of things about him, because, after all, they do not understand the complexity of Iraq, and what is really going on in that country: anyway, he tells them he went to college in the United States, and then came back to open up some hotels in Karbala, and he was mostly pissed because the Americans had “bombed all my cafes”.
This is a practical entrepreneurial view of life, it is not just a country of desert peasants, it is a country trying to get ahead, filled with people trying to live their lives, support their families, enjoy their work, get paid. People are not political pamphlets. No matter what your background, your ethnicity, your religion: you can understand a man who wants to have a good job so he can support his family. A universal truth.
He says to George Clooney later, “We just want to live life. Have a good business.”
The film is strangely moving. The transformation of the American soldiers from greedy thieves to men who have an understanding of the complexity of the situation they have found themselves in – amazing. Their sudden realization, when looking at the poverty-struck people in Karbala, scooping up the spilled milk out of the dusty streets, desperate for food, fearing for their lives – the Americans watching this, realizing that maybe there is a chance to use their military power to do some good. Even if it is just a drop in the bucket. A drop in the bucket in this case being helping some Iraqi refugees get into Iran, completely disobeying American policy towards Iran.
The 3 Kings give up their egos, the ego of the victor (remember the opening scenes, with all the soldiers dancing and drinking and waving American flags) – to something more graceful, and with more depth. More human understanding. Nobody really won in that situation. Kuwait was “liberated”, yes, but the Shiites in the south were lambs for the slaughter. It happened under the eyes of the world. Saving the Shiites was not what we were there for.
I loved when they all were crowded into the back of the Humvee, on their way to the Iranian border – Iraqi refugees, 2 of the 3 American Kings – and then a couple of other American soldiers who had come out to meet them, secretly, with medical supplies and the news reporter. And Mark Wahlberg’s character (he’ll always be Marky Mark to me) says to the new Americans in the group – “Have you guys met everyone? This is Kayid … this is Abdul …”
Shaking hands all around, as the Humvee pulls out, now a getaway car.
The humanity of that moment.
Fantastic film. It was kind of ignored when it first came out – we saw it in a nearly empty theatre – yet I believe that it will be looked back upon as a pretty important moment, in terms of movie-making.
Last year, I re-watched “Three Kings” at the outset of the war. I was looking for some kind of cinematic understanding of what we were again putting our young people in for.
I also looked again at “Blackhawk Down,” and read Anthony Swafford’s book “Jarhead.” What are your thoughts on those?
Swofford
I actually don’t know Jarhead.
And in terms of Black Hawk Down – I read the book when it first came out, and it remains a favorite of mine. Not that it is well-written, I actually don’t think it is – but Bowden takes you through that Mogadishu disaster step by step by step – He really made me understand what happened there.
The movie itself, I thought, was great – particularly because it followed the story in the book so specifically. It didn’t make the mistake of trying to focus in on one character’s journey, blah blah …
At the time, of course, nobody could know the ramifications of us pulling out of Somalia. Perhaps some terrorist experts knew – but they definitely did not have the loudest voices at that time.
What do you think?
Jarhead is a sniper’s memoir from the Gulf War. He talks at one point about war movies as pornography for the fighting man, no matter the film’s “intended” message.
“Blackhawk Down” was also prescient in that it drew the link between the Islamicists fighting Russian helicopters and teaching Somalis how to fight U.S. helicopters. A big theater of this war will probably be in Africa. I also appreciated that the movie told the book’s story of the group and did not become a Hollywood tale of one character who combines all elements as some representational protagonist.
Three Kings – ha ha ha. That movie was a riot. I haven’t seen it in years and didn’t watch it at the time in terms of what it meant as a commentary on politics in Iraq. Maybe I’ll have to watch it again. But it was a funny movie. I especially liked the chest intibation scene after Marky Mark got shot (was it Marky Mark or the other guy?)
As for Blackhawk Down, I have friends who were there for the battle in Mogadishu who were also in the movie – pretty weird huh. They say making the movie was so realistic it was eerie. I think really good war movies have a place as history to “record” events that aren’t so well documented otherwise.
Yes. Chest intibation. Marky Mark.
Marky Mark’s chest. That’s all I need to know.
:)
And yes, the film was a riot. The 3 of them shooting up footballs off the back of the Humvee as Beach Boys play …
Three Kings- I’m sorry, I just never got it. And I’ve seen it three times in three different years. Don’t know, I just never saw the point of trying to make a political statement out of a story which never actually happened. And besides, at that point George Clooney was still playing his “ER” character in all his movies.
However, David O. Russell is a great director (“Spanking the Monkey,” “Flirting With Disaster”).
Flirting with Disaster. Amazing movie.
Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda as that drugged-out post 1960s couple were so freakin’ funny.
Brilliant. Thoughtful. Insightful. Yes, hilarious, too. And unfortunately overlooked, almost forgotten. It’s been a while since I watched Three Kings, but it’s been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it.
“So tell me, bro, what the fuck is up with Michael Jackson?”
Oh my God, yes. That is so amazing.
“What is the problem with Michael Jackson? You understand me?”
“Uh … not really …”
I’ll bet Clooney never saw a map pulled out of somebody’s ass on “E.R.”
“We’re looking at the Iraqi ass-map, man, do you mind?”
There is a line in the film Three Kings, where Colonel Horn asks Maj. Archie Gates, “What do you want to do, occupy Iraq and do Vietnam all over again?” THAT’S prophetic.