Three Kings-Benjamin Hilton

Title/Year: Three Kings/1999

Director/Birth Country/Year Born: David O. Russell, USA, 1958

Budget: $48 million

Gross: $60.6 million

Synopsis: A group of American soldiers at the end of the Gulf War go on a search for Kuwait gold that was stolen by Saddam Hussein. Along the way their plans are changed when they find Iraqi prisoners and are unable to do anything because of the signed peace treaty.

Narrative and Visual Keywords: Gulf War, ass map, map, stolen gold, gold, president Bush, cease-fire, prisoners, mines, bunker, rescue plan, death, bullet, C4, Saddam Hussein, torture, oil, electricity, handheld camera

Characterization/ Dialogue: We are introduced to the main characters by a quick narration. Each character's name and a brief relative fact is given about them. This gives us an easy and quick view into the main characters and makes it easier for us to understand their goals.

Camera/lighting/editing technique: Handheld camera was a common technique used in this film. It is prominent in the beginning of the film when the camera feels like the POV of another soldier; moving back and forth between two soldiers talking to each other. The shots give the film the feeling as though someone was actually filming in real time.

Political/ Social Commentary: The film incorporates tones of anti-politics. The tones are not so much how horrible politics are or how horrible war is, but how unfair it can be. The main conflict involving politics is abiding by the rules the politics put in place, the cease-fire.

Historical Relevance/ Recognition: The movie is based at the end of the Gulf War. The film makes numerous mentions to political tensions at that time.

Notable Collaboration: There are many well known actors in this film. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cubes, and Spike Jones to name a few.

Random fact, Etc.: Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, who plays an Iraqi defector who sells Maj. Gates cars stolen from Kuwait, was in real life tortured and kicked in the eye by Saddam Hussein's security forces. Like many advisers and extras in the film, he is an actual refugee from Iraq. 

Examples of P.O.V., Identity, Morality & Memory:

POV:

At the beginning of the film the perspective is from a group of screwball soldiers who see a get rich quick scheme in the form of the cease-fire recently signed by their government. However, the perspective changes when these soldiers are forced to make a choice between their wants and their ideals. The POV is not of just one person, but a group of 4.

Identity: 

Morality:
The morality of this film is centralized around the idea of the cost of a human life. The main characters are Army soldiers trained to survive and to protect others. These soldiers are forced to make the decision of whether or not to ignore this basic instinct within them, or to do what may not be politically right, but what is morally right. When they kill the Iraqi soldiers and take the rebel hostages with them to safety they make the choice to side with their moral views. But even after, these morals are constantly challenged when one of them is captured, and they face the challenge of getting the rebel hostages across the Iranian border.
Memory:
No real scenes of memory are present in Three Kings.
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