Three Kings [Blu-ray]

Director: David O. Russell

Overview

Three stars team up for this unusual look at America's role in the war against Iraq. In 1991, as the Gulf War winds to a close, three American servicemen find themselves happy to have achieved victory but wondering about the ultimate importance of what they've done (especially since Saddam Hussein is still in power). Major Archie Gates (George Clooney) is a decorated Vietnam veteran and special forces officer with two weeks to go before he retires; Sgt. Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) has a new baby at home; and Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) is probably just going to end up back in Detroit. So when one of them comes across a map that seems to point out where Saddam's forces have stashed a large cache of gold they stole from Kuwait, they decide to follow the trail and take some of the war booty for themselves. However, the deeper they journey into Iraq, the more they see of the consequences of America's policies in the Middle East. Although President George Bush and the American military urged Iraqi citizens to rise up against Saddam Hussein, and pledged their support to a people's movement against the leader, Iraqis found that when they took to the streets against Saddam, the United States did not back them up, and the loss of Iraqi lives was fearsome. When Gates, Barlow and Elgin become aware of what's happening, they're torn between their desire to grab the fortune they came for and the demands of their conscience to help the people they came to liberate. Three Kings was directed by David O. Russell and marked a significant change of direction after his dark-humored relationship comedies, Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/12/2010
UPC:	0883929118571
Original Release:	1999
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:55:00
Sales rank:	17,747

Special Features

Additional scenes; 2 commentaries: One by writer/director David O. Russell, the other by producers Charles Roven and Edward L. McDonnell; Feature Under the Bunker: on the set of Three Kings; David O. Russell's Three Kings video journal; An intimate look inside the acting process with Ice Cube; Tour of the Iraqi village set with production designer Catherine Hardwicke; Interview with director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

George Clooney	Archie Gates
Mark Wahlberg	Troy Barlow
Ice Cube	Chief Elgin
Spike Jonze	Conrad Vig
Cliff Curtis	Amir Abdulah
Nora Dunn	Adriana Cruz
Jamie Kennedy	Walter Wogaman
Sa?d Taghmaoui	Captain Said(as Said Taghmaoui)
Mykelti Williamson	Colonel Horn
Holt McCallany	Captain Van Meter
Judy Greer	Cathy Daitch
Christopher Lohr	Teebaux
Jon Sklaroff	Paco
Liz Stauber	Debbie Barlow, Troy's Wife
Marsha Horan	Amir's Wife
Alia Shawkat	Amir's Daughter
Jabir Algarawi	Hairdressing Twin #1,Hairdressing Twin #2
Bonnie Afsary	Western Dressed Village Woman
Jacqueline Abi-Ad	Traditional Village Woman
Fadil Al-Badri	Deserter Leader
Qaid Al-Nomani	Kaied(as Al No'mani)
Sayed Badreya	Iraqi Tank Major
Magdi Rashwan	Iraqi Troop Carrier Major
Ali Afshar	Iraqi First Kill Soldier(as Alex Dodd)
Pete Antico	[uncredited] Oasis Bunker Guard
Peter Macdissi	Oasis Bunker Iraqi Republic Guard Lieutenant
Carter Burwell	Composer

Technical Credits

John Ridley

David O. Russell

John Ridley	Screenwriter
David O. Russell	Screenwriter
Bruce Berman	Executive Producer
Gregory Goodman	Executive Producer
Kelley Smith-Wait	Executive Producer
Paul Junger Witt	Producer
Edward L. McDonnell	Producer
Charles Roven	Producer
Mary Vernieu	Casting
Anne McCarthy	Casting
Edward Tise	Sound/Sound Designer
John Leveque	Sound Editor

Editorial Reviews

Though its subject matter was a risky endeavor, Three Kings has the surprise visceral impact of a scud missile fired at close range. Director David O. Russell attacked a subject with dubious luster, possibly better suited to the topical realm of TV movies, and crafted one of the more visually arresting films of 1999. Russell's bag of tricks includes following a bullet into a human abdomen, sight and sound distortion during battlefield chaos, a POV of a dazed soldier watching his own life being saved, and the kind of gritty film stock that brings each individual fleck of sand into focus. Accompanying these is an equally offbeat perspective on what made the war such a disjointed and foreign experience for those involved: they may as well have been on Mars. "Are we shooting people or what?" yells Mark Wahlberg's Troy Barlow during the film's tone-setting opener, as a tired Iraqi on a nearby hill waves his weapon half-heartedly, with ambiguous intent. Barlow rips the guy's throat open with a slug, for lack of any guiding policy, either moral or military. Barlow and his eventual band of marauders, including (George Clooney, Ice Cube and, in a memorable acting breakthrough, Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze), only put a human face on these Iraqis when they stumble into a civil strife in which a woman is brutally executed. For all the humor of the absurd vignettes that propel the film, Three Kings also taps into a shock wave of human emotion -- guaranteeing that it will linger in the viewer's consciousness far longer than that forgotten conflict in the desert.