at first glance , three kings looks to be just another war movie , the 90s version of all those favourite war movies with names i cannot remember .
the 90s version , it definitely is , just another war movie ?
not in your dreams !
imagine pulp fiction approach to saving private ryan , that�s three kings for you .
believe it or not , it bears the cool of the former and the stark humane meaning of the latter .
the story brings us to the twilight of the gulf war , with the allied troops victorious .
majpr archie gates ( clooney ) leads an enterprising bunch of grunts to a rather unorthodox post-war looting spree ; the millions in gold bars secretly stowed away by saddam in a desolate village in the desert .
as the rest of the troops are celebrating their victory and getting ready to be shipped home , this `wild bunch� goes awol on an armed hum-vee ( the vehicle of choice of the us army ) .
they soon find out that they have much resistance , as they get tangled with the local rebellion against saddam�s forces .
frequently switching their modes between looters and robin hood�s merry men , they become consciously attacked by their own morals .
as the film begins to roll , it seemed to have a rather `light� mood to it .
`special� effects such as when gates describes to his men how a bullet can kill simply paves the way for a light-hearted funny action movie .
three kings is much smarter than that .
as the conflict becomes more and more complex , the audience will be trapped in a limbo , trying to stay focussed on that light-mood/serious-mood that the film seem to portray .
i personally found this analogous to the same feelings of the main characters involved in the film ; trapped between their initial plan paved by greed and their own sense of humanity .
this simply made the entire experience of watching three kings truly brilliant .
action sequences are not shot as your old-fashioned war films nor anything like steven spielberg�s in-your-face war violence .
they are carefully built to generate tension with just the right tight close-ups and pauses , right before the action starts .
not john woo for sure but more of sergio leone�s spaghetti western style ( tons of them starring clint eastwood ) .
great performances by clooney and wahlberg but the brilliance have to lie in the conception of this film ; the screenwriter and the director .
three kings ranks among the best films of the year , well , for me at least .
highly recommended .