Last night, I watched Three Kings<\/i>, one of my favorite movies. Hadn’t seen it in a long time. Definitely hadn’t seen it since this latest war in Iraq.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
And yet it is a complex film. There aren’t any easy answers. Every single person in it is a 3-D human being.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/i>. What a wonderful actor!! Cliff Curtis. <\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He says to George Clooney later, “We just want to live life. Have a good business.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 …”<\/p>\n
Shaking hands all around, as the Humvee pulls out, now a getaway car.<\/p>\n
The humanity of that moment.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading