Movie Analysis:
"Three
Kings"
Review by Katharine
E. Monahan Huntley
Three
Kings is a visual anti-war statement filled with techno tricks
and restless zest. The film provocatively questions the rationale of
Operation Desert Storm as it depicts innocents who suffered the bloody
consequences of chaotic and random combat.
In the objective
story, the (media produced?) Persian Gulf War has just ended, and
a band of American soldiers chance upon a map leading to untold riches.
That it is Saddam Hussein's appropriated gold bullion (stolen from Kuwait)-and
not in the United State's best interest to obtain (os story
goal) the gold-complicates the endeavor (os domain-physics).
Iraqi rebels in need of American protection provide the thematic
conflict of self-interest vs. morality. The objective characters
grapple with problems of temptation, and acts of conscience
(os solution) ultimately save the day.
Three Kings
contains a storyform-but
that does not necessarily make for a Dramatica grand argument story.
Like the map leading to the $23 million, the storyform serves as only
a guide. Unlike writer/director David O. Russell's clearly defined,
character driven films Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with
Disaster, Three Kings wavers between two potential main
characters, Captain Archie Gates (George Clooney) and Troy Barlow
(Mark Wahlberg) without settling on either, thus the audience is at
a loss in locating the heart of the story. The potential obstacle
characters are also unclear-possibilities include journalist Nora
Dunn or Amir for Archie Gates; Capt. Said for Troy Barlow, or even a
subjective story between Gates and Barlow.
If Three Kings
did report all four perspectives necessary for a Dramatica grand argument
story, it might have invested profound meaning in an otherwise terrific
(albeit scattershot) story that addresses the appalling meaningless
of war.
Three
Kings story engine settings
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