When Three Kings was released in 1999 it didn’t have a lot of ‘huge’ excitement around it. Clooney was the biggest name in the film, while Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube weren’t exactly household names in the movie industry. Outside of the lack of cast, the story didn’t have much going for it. It was a movie based on a war that occurred in the early 90s and it wasn’t much of a war at that. How in the world could someone possibly make an interesting film out of that ‘war’?
Well, critics loved it. Audiences loved it. The film was big. Go figure, right? Well, there were some good reasons why Three Kings worked.
The first reason is the story. The story revolved around three soldiers (Clooney, Wahlberg and Cube) who stumble upon a map that details gold/fortunes that Saddam Hussein had hidden across a desert landscape. Going rogue, the three soldiers go from place to place finding the treasures left behind by the failed invader. What they find is indeed the treasures that were ensured on the map, but more importantly they find the reason why they’re in a war; to save civilians. Seeing horrors of the aftermath of the invasion, the three soldiers do their best to stay on task, but end up taking action against the oppressors and saving the oppressed. The story hits home pretty hard and brings up the old, infamous moral lesson taken from ‘Greed vs. Making Life Better for Others’. The soldiers who were led by greed find later find themselves obsessed with saving lives. It’s an amazing story and surprisingly powerful, as the film doesn’t hold back punches on what the civilians go through.
The second reason the film works is that the cast really defines who they are as actors in this one defining film. Wahlberg had only spotty roles up to this point (his brother had more roles than he did) and no one knew what to expect from him. By the end of Three Kings you get a stand out performance from Wahlberg that pretty much set him up for future big time films. Ice Cube did his best tough guy role, like he did in every film prior, but ultimately his ability to produce drama and expand his acting abilities brought him to a new level. I’m not a huge fan of Ice Cube (prior movies/music), but he seemed to have hit a mature note as an actor in this film. Finally, George Clooney was up and coming and really had nothing to prove with Three Kings. This superstar could have dialed it in with this role and earned his paycheck, but he put fantastic effort into being a cocky, worn down commander that doesn’t play by the rules. He did a fantastic job and he led the other two actors beautifully. The acting was just as good as the story.
The third, and final, reason why this movie worked is because of the way it was shot. While I’ll talk about this shortly in the Blu-ray section of this review, I felt like the raw, grainy look of the film really brought the audience closer to the content. War is hell and I know this through my best friend Brian Thompson. He told me over the years how his unit invaded Baghdad and how absolutely horrible the desert environment was to live in. Three Kings duplicated this situation perfectly and made the entire situation ‘raw’ instead of quick/pretty like news outlets made it. The grainy, rawness of the cinematography brought a seemingly unreal war to realism pretty quickly. I especially want to compliment the filmmakers on showing different human body reactions to war. For example, seeing how a bullet gets into the body or how a lung collapses is sick, but amazingly informative. Anyway, it was just a well-shot film.
So is there anything wrong with the film? Not really. It’s not a film for everyone, but it’s one of the better war films of the last two decades. Granted it isn’t Saving Private Ryan, but it tells a very good, very contained story that you will remember for some time. Good stuff, overall.
The Blu-ray portion of Three Kings is a tough one to judge. Originally, the film was shot in a grainy, rough manner. Director David Russell wanted to bring a raw looking view into a very raw war scene. So when you see most of the movie you get that grainy, ugly feel to it. Why is this bad? Well, it doesn’t really translate well in HD, but it does translate. Instead of getting a pretty picture that’s been upscaled to pure, unadulterated HD you get a grainy picture that has been upscaled and cleaned up the best way it can. So, with all of this said, I have to go with the picture looks great and magnifies the graininess that had already been established with the original film. There are wonderful times in the film, though sparse, where that grainy look backs off and you’re left with gorgeous HD. For example, when the three guys find the gold/cars/etc. that Hussein’s army is trying to hide, you get some really detailed video; pure HD.
The best part of this Blu-ray, outside of the film, is the audio. Like I’ve said before with action films, the more gunfire and explosion the more beneficial it is to the Blu-ray remastered audio experience. Since audio is 90% of a production, especially for a film based on a war, then having really sweet remastered 5.1 audio in HD is nothing but a huge plus. You’ll enjoy what Warner Home Video did with Three Kings in terms of audio.
As for features, here’s what you should expect:
• Additional scenes
• Audio commentaries:
◦ Writer/director David O. Russell
◦ Producers Charles Roven and Edward L. McDonnell
• Featurette: 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
The features are really good, if you’ve never seen them before. For a re-release on Blu-ray it’s impressive to see this many special features. The audio commentary is still solid and the featurettes are damn good. You’ll get additional entertainment on how it was all done. Especially pay attention to the interview with director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel.
