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Saw Three Kings last weekend, and I loved it. Best
movie I've seen so far this year. Great camera work (I hate to
use that phrase but I lack a better one right now) and excellent
humor.
I just went back and read the reviews, and there's no need to
go through a bunch of similar words. Just a couple things I
wanted to address:
- I did not get the impression that, in Wahlberg's torture,
the director was trying to convince us that the
war was about oil. I sensed a presumption that everyone
had heard that truism by now. At the time, though, in
some parts, it was not uncommon to believe earnestly that
the war really was about liberation; I would not be at
all surprised if a US Army base was one of those places.
So it is entirely believable that Wahlberg's character would
believe that, and that we are not to imagine ourselves in
his chair at that moment.
- I also did not get a sense of moral conversion. Clooney's
character, for example, wonders almost the first time we
meet him "what we did there," and his
frustration is apparent. It is entirely consistent that
he would react as he did to the atrocities at the bunker.
Indeed, I think a possible criticism of the movie is that
Someone In Charge appears to have been aware of the moral
conversion angle, and Clooney's early not-so-subtle moral
sensibilities are exaggerated to defend against the
charge that this is a Message Movie.
- The humor was caustic and plentiful, but the whole damn
movie isn't a comedy. I really hate watching movies when
people laugh at inappropriate times. Crude-stained teeth
ain't funny.
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