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Recently Seen: Three Kings
[IMDB]
In the aftermath of the first gulf war, a small group of soldiers head off into Iraq, in search of stolen Kuwaiti gold. When they are confronted with the brutality of Saddam's opression of the local people, their first instinct is not to get involved, but their conscience tells them otherwise.
This is a very bleak, embittered view of US involvement in the Middle East. American troops are portrayed in a very unflattering light - selfish, stupid, trigger-happy, or all three. It even manages to generate some sympathy for a Republican Guard torturer, and present Iran as a safe haven.
Three Kings manages quite a bit of (very) black humour, and our initially self-centred leading men manage something resembling moral redemption by the end, which rescues things from being totally depressing.
A very thought provoking film, I enjoyed it.
(Kudos to Channel Five, for having the nerve to schedule this film in Prime Time on a weekday evening only weeks after the "end" of Gulf War II - though I'd have been more impressed if they'd shown it before the war.)
In the aftermath of the first gulf war, a small group of soldiers head off into Iraq, in search of stolen Kuwaiti gold. When they are confronted with the brutality of Saddam's opression of the local people, their first instinct is not to get involved, but their conscience tells them otherwise.
This is a very bleak, embittered view of US involvement in the Middle East. American troops are portrayed in a very unflattering light - selfish, stupid, trigger-happy, or all three. It even manages to generate some sympathy for a Republican Guard torturer, and present Iran as a safe haven.
Three Kings manages quite a bit of (very) black humour, and our initially self-centred leading men manage something resembling moral redemption by the end, which rescues things from being totally depressing.
A very thought provoking film, I enjoyed it.
(Kudos to Channel Five, for having the nerve to schedule this film in Prime Time on a weekday evening only weeks after the "end" of Gulf War II - though I'd have been more impressed if they'd shown it before the war.)