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 AMERICAN
WAR CRIMES AGAINST IRAQ EXPOSED IN THREE KINGS
If war is hell, then going AWOL must be a relief.
Not so in Three Kings (originally called "Spoils
of War"), directed by David O. Russell, who also developed
the screenplay after eighteen months of research about the
waning days of Operation Desert Storm. At the beginning of
the film (actually shot in the deserts of Arizona, California,
and México), American troops are rounding up Iraqi prisoners
of war, one of whom has a map sticking out of his anus. Reservists
Sergeant Roy Barlow (played by Mark Wahlberg), Sergeant Chief
Elgin (played by Ice Cube), and Private Conrad Vig (played
by Spike Jonze), who have no "taste of battle," conclude that
the map locates a storehouse of gold ingots stolen from Kuwait,
and they are eager to purloin a few bars on the pretext of
returning them to Kuwait. In comes Special Forces Major Archie
Gates (played by George Clooney), who smells the plot and
wants to join and of course lead the secret mission. Although
Vig earlier sang the tune "We three Kings of Orient are .
. . , " we are perhaps reminded that Alexandre Dumas's Three
Musketeers were four. On the trail for news is reporter Adriana
Cruz (played by Nora Dunn), who wants to film the real war,
not the media pap served up by officials, but Gates arranges
to divert her to another spot so that she will not film them
replundering Kuwaiti treasure. The dialog of the film is at
a rapid clip, as confusing as war itself, but Russell appears
more interested in alerting us to the serendipities of the
plot. For openers, Vig shoots an Iraqi in cold blood who is
surrendering, and his various maladroit antics, including
racist remarks, are excused by fellow soldiers as a function
of the fact that he never finished high school, telling us
that wartime atrocities often occur because we cannot expect
every soldier (American or otherwise) to operate by the book.
Adriana tries to find out whether Gulf War soldiers believe
that the "Vietnam syndrome" is over, a concept that they never
heard of, but the film tells us in due course that Operation
Desert Storm is a macabre Vietnam replayed. When the four
jeep to an oasis where the map indicates a cache of plunder
from Kuwait, the war is supposed to be over, and American
soldiers are under orders not to break the ceasefire. Iraqis
seeking to revolt against Saddam Hussein (under "instructions"
but clearly no supplies from President George Bush) are under
the thumb of Iraqi soldiers, who have arrested the local ringleader,
telling us that Bush was in effect responsible for the massacres
of southern Iraqis who expected the arrival of American troops
to help them to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Although the Iraqi
soldiers try to deceive the Americans at first, they ultimately
help to load ingots from a secret underground bunker into
one of their trucks, the Americans' eyes are opened to the
reality of desperate Iraqis who oppose Saddam Hussein. However,
after they leave the oasis, the Iraqi soldiers bomb the truck
and jeep and release poison gas, and most of the Americans
quickly take refuge in another underground bunker along with
more Iraqi rebels, who are controlling a fleet of limousines.
However, Barlow has been captured and is being tortured at
the first oasis by Iraqi soldier Captain Sa'id (played by
Saïd Taghmaoui), who tells him that he lost his only son in
the bombing of Baghdad and that he was trained in torture
techniques by the Americans to fight Iran.
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When
Sa'id asks Barlow to admit why the Americans have attacked
Iraq, Barlow mouths the platitude that Iraq was attacked because
it annexed Kuwait, and Sa'id then presents Barlow with a beverage
that was the real reason for the war-oil. Meanwhile, the three
American soldiers insist on returning to the first oasis to
rescue Barlow, and the Iraqi rebels allow them to use the
limousines on condition that they will provide safe conduct
for the refugees to the Iranian border.
During
the ensuing battle Vig dies. Next, the three take on more
refugees and lead the convoy to the Iranian border so that
the refugees will reach safe haven. At this point, the American
military command somehow discovers where the AWOL soldiers
are located and helicopters to the Iran-Iraq border to apprehend
the four. The three insist that the refugees should be allowed
safe passage, and they persuade the regular army commander
to do so before taking the AWOL soldiers back to face a court
martial. Adriana gets the story, and the three are given honorable
discharges thanks to her reporting. A special revelation in
the film is what happens when a bullet hits someone: if the
impact does not kill, sepsis (pathogenic bacteria invading
the bloodstream) multiplies, and death follows if antibiotics
are not available; the medical process is displayed through
two animations during the film. Although the anti-war elements
of the film should be clear to the perceptive filmviewer,
the advertising and trailer direct audiences to yet another
action film. The result is that some may not decode the full
message, audiences seem to laugh in the wrong places, and
there is not enough action to satisfy those who want to see
the death penalty enacted on the screen. With the action and
dialog at such a fast clip, the intrigued filmviewer may be
challenged to see the movie again just to sort out the complexities,
which prompt the Political Film Society to nominate Three
Kings for an unprecedented four awards-as an exposé
that raising political consciousness about the need for greater
democracy in foreign policy decisionmaking, human rights issues
involving both Iraq and the United States, and the need to
resolve conflicts peacefully. MH
POLITICAL
FILM SOCIETY INVITES NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS
Members of the Political Film Society can nominate feature
films released in 1999 for awards in the following categories:
democracy, exposé, human rights, and peace. Nominations close
on December 31 each year, and voting will take place in the
first two months of the year 2000 for the film that best raises
political consciousness in each of four categories.
NOMINEES
FOR 1999
DEMOCRACY:
Three
Kings
EXPOSÉ: Bastards, Cabaret
Balkan, One Man's Hero,
Three Kings,
Three Seasons
HUMAN RIGHTS:
The
General's Daughter, Hard,
One Man's Hero, Three
Kings, Three
Seasons, Xiu Xiu
PEACE: Cabaret
Balkan, Earth, One
Man's Hero, Three
Kings, West Beirut
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