Going for Gold (Three Kings (DVD))

Member Name: Moominpapa

Product:	Three Kings (DVD)
Date:	14/04/01 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good performances and a witty script

Disadvantages: Some dodgy effects

In his first big-budget studio picture, David O Russell took john ridley’s conventional wartime heist novel and filtered it through 18 months of his own research of the Gulf War. What emerges is Three Kings, a gripping, ludicrous, action-cum-heist-cum-Western-cum-road-cum-event movie. Throw in the new Cary Grant, Dirk Diggler and a rapper from NWA, season with $50 million and stand well back.

Its 1991 and baffled US soldiers turn the desert into a massive party to celebrate the end of the Gulf War. Among them are family man Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and hick Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze). When a map leading to Saddam’s stolen Kuwati gold is found in the arse of an Iraqi POW, the pair go AWOL with disillusioned career soldier Archie Gates (Clooney) and Detroit baggage handler Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) to steal the bullion for themselves. Outside the shelter of the base camp, the war’s consequences become starkly clear and they must make a moral choice between saving the citizens of their enemy or a life on easy street.

Three kings is laced with moments of incredulity. Russell portrays a confused, indiscriminate war fought over microwaves, food mixers, jeans and colour TVs. However, the comedic elements sit uneasily with scenes of torture and atrocities against civilians.

Russell’s original gunfights and effects, which include lungs deflating and gall bladders bursting, make Three Kings one of the most graphic, yet not especially gory, movies ever made. It must be said, however, that the portrayal of the deflating lung is medically pathetic.

The immortality DVDs give to films and filmmakers means the real drama behind-the-scenes is airbrushed away. An on-location brawl ensued between Russell and George Clooney and is this genre-blurring fact-based, satiric action comedy really what Warner brothers wanted? A harmonious, mutually-respectful creative unit is always presented to the world.

The DVD is a formid
able package for the UK. Picture quality is the best it could be and the three signifying changes in film stock work excellently here. Sound is dynamite, particularly during the plaza sequence. The best supplements have to be Russell’s video journal which sees our hero cycling to meetings with money men and George Clooney and bumping into Spike Jonze, along with Cube’s self-depriciating turn.

Sadly, this being a Region 2 DVD, there have to be drawbacks. The production notes and biographies on the R1 disc are abandoned. Both commentaries are good. Three Kings is a remarkable, inventive, satisfying and challenging film with good performances and a witty script.

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