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| Movies,
Justin Harries,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F5
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War films, like the act itself, can be all things to all people. Quite luckily, we have a wide range of this sort of activity throughout our history to draw from, with each conflict throwing up a very specific type of film. WW1 epitomised the senselessness of such things, "All QuietÂ…" still packing the killer punchline that set the standard for the feel bad factor. We can feel a little better about the sequel, as the Nazis were such obvious bastards. WWII ultimately is seen as the good fight, where conflict, for all its sheer brutality, brought out courage and honour in man. Through all the flying limbs and constant gunfire, Private Ryan still drips with an elegiac sentimentality. It gets kinda heavy during ‘Nam, where filmmakers such as Coppola and Stone show us how troops become mincemeat through a curtain of dope smoke. I remember my grandfather muttering during an intensely over egged sequence of Apocalypse Now that "it was never like this".
He would probably say the same thing about ‘Three Kings’ a film that concerns itself with a conflict less formed by fiction, that of the Gulf war. Director David O’Russell aligns himself with the satirical elements manifest in the latter war movies, which, in a time when Hollywood is busy deconstructing its own navel, is really rather apt.
The Heros of ‘Three Kings’ are the grunts and are headed by dependable George Clooney. Being grunts as such, they have no love for the military life. Everybody is looking for an angle on the war that could set them up for life, and when Spike Jones discovers a map sticking out of a prisoners ass that could lead to Sadam's stolen gold, they seize their chance. O’Russell presents us with an armed force who is eternally in reserve, the days of trial by combat being long over. They have no true connection with the actions of the US military, and only discover the harsh truths about war when outside army command... The cast do fine job, with special nods of the hat to Spike Jones ‘day job’ and Mark Walberg's post torture shock, but it's really O’Russell's show.
Three Kings is packed full of astounding set pieces; A slow-mo gun battle where we follow the path of every exchange. During a gas attack the arid expanse of desert is momentarily transformed into a mysterious, fog shrouded alien landscape.
The inventiveness of O’Russell's bag of tricks never palls, and never seems over done. Instead the barrage of saturated colours and freeze frames highlight the absurdity of such a conflict. In fact, contrasting and incongruous images fill the film, a convoy of BMWs in the desert, a cheap Casio keyboard lent against the wall of a military outpost, Chicago playing on a car stereo before an armed assault. The joys of this film lie in the asides, and the sharpness with which the film exposes such details. Three Kings is packed full of such ideas, some which surprise. Such a satirical take on so recent a war is brave, and more than a little unusual.
UK rating:
15
US rating:
R
David O Russell 1999 USA
George Clooney , Mark Wahlberg
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