Three Kings (1999) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, 4 soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Check out India Spotlight Related News a list of 32 titles created 10 Sep 2011 a list of 34 titles created 23 Feb 2013 a list of 35 titles created 30 Nov 2013 a list of 43 titles created 22 Jul 2014 a list of 30 titles created 19 Feb 2015 Search for " Three Kings " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 8 wins & 19 nominations.

See more awards » Videos Edit Storyline A small group of adventurous American soldiers in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War are determined to steal a huge cache of gold reputed to be hidden somewhere near their desert base. Finding a map they believe will take them to the gold, they embark on a journey that leads to unexpected discoveries, enabling them to rise to a heroic challenge that drastically changes their lives. Written by imran It's good to be kings See more » Genres: Rated R for graphic war violence, language and some sexuality | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 1 October 1999 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Spoils of War See more » Filming Locations: $15,847,636 (USA) (1 October 1999) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia During the editing stages, David O. Russell attended a fund raiser for George W. Bush at a Warner Bros. executive's house.

Russell walked up to Bush and said, "Hi, I'm editing a film that will question your father's legacy in Iraq." Bush shot back, "Well I guess I'm going to have to go back there and finish the job." See more » Goofs The way "Chief" (Elgin) and Conrad are holding hands changes from shot to shot. See more » Quotes Troy Barlow : Are we shooting? Soldier: What? Troy Barlow : Are we shootin' people or what? Soldier: Are we shooting? Troy Barlow : That's what I'm asking you! Soldier: What's the answer? For Sergeant Major Jim Parker, 1946 - 1998 See more » Connections (Southampton, England) – See all my reviews A film for anyone who ever relishes the triumphal note of western war films, who gets carried away by the moral high of being on the winning side. For those who saw the good in the Gulf War, saw how many people America helped and was proud to live in the Western world. Three Kings is an anti-war film. Its opening scenes are not the declaration of war, but soldiers celebrating its end. Then coming to grips with its consequences.

Of course, Saddam Hussein is depicted in the customary role of the villain, but then so is George Bush whose abandonment of the Iraqi people he had called to rise against Saddam is illustrated with examples of human suffering - emotional as well as physical. Don't get the idea that this is a bleak and 'worthy' film, in many ways it is, but it does it with such style and black humour - that forces you to laugh even while being disgusted or perturbed - that it is eminently watchable. But still edgy, I was pleased to see one couple walk out (though they might just have gone to the toilet, who knows, I was absorbed by the film and didn't pay enough attention). Director, David O Russell, ensures that the film never gets carried away with action scenes - bullets have consequences (good and bad) even when fired by an all-American soldier. There is some stunning cinematography. Particularly shocking to me was when Iraqi soldiers fire at a tanker. Nothing's more shocking than the unexpected and dramatically understated (I didn't see the trailer, though I believe that scene was actually in it). There are some interesting cinematic devices in the film.

The next time that sepsis comes into conversation I'm sure anyone who has seen the film will call to mind scenes of a bullet travelling through the body. I've seen less violent films than some people, but have been swept away by their power many times - become blasé about bullets and cinematic death. I've seen it all too often before to care about nameless victims that stand in the way of the power, wit, and understanding of the hard-bitten, long-serving soldier, wielding a justice in the shape of a gun. Russell claimed to make every bullet count in the film, and in one memorably calm scene of confusion and crossfire, he certainly does. The style of the film however doesn't detract from its content. Three Kings doesn't have pretensions of addressing difficult issues by showing the manly, serious face of George Clooney looking a little concerned after killing a few dozen of the enemy. It has intelligent dialogue and moving scenes of confrontation between the opposing ideologies of the Americans and their 'allies' and 'enemies' alike. Not the best date movie in the world. Funny, shocking, thought provoking and honest, 8.5/10.

74 of 101 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Three Kings: Amazon.ca: Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney, David O. Russell: DVD By Vish Iyer on Sept. 19 2003 Format: DVD At the first instance, what are striking about this movie, is its cinematography, its camera-work, and the computer graphics used, to create certain scenes. Considering these elements, the movie almost certainly 'appears' superficially like a Chemical Brothers video. From the beginning to the end, the movie is chaotic. Now, the movie is most certainly a two-hour Chemical Brothers video. As a matter of fact the movie is full of contemporary music-artists: Ice Cube, Marky Mark, and a prominent music-video director, Spike Jonze. Moreover, Spike has infact directed a couple of Chemical Brothers videos. So, there is a definite connection between Chemical Brothers and Three Kings. Actually, the slick and sleek look of the movie makes it very interesting to watch and to be studied. But, there is a lot more to this flick, than merely its skin-deep look.

There is much beyond to this flick than its masterfully created outward faÃ§ade. Three kings is a brilliant satire. Mainly during its first half, the movie shows American soldiers act like Hollywood heroes, frivolously doing things as they please, at the expense of the hapless people, who they actually are supposed to protect. In point of fact, this very first half is funny as well as grossly heartless. One can either laugh one's heart out during the first half, or at the same time one can feel really sick in the gut, for some of the really gruesome scenes, treated humorously and with aberrant detachment. But, herein lies the sarcasm of the flick. The second half of the movie is more hearted and thought-provoking than its first half. If 'satire' is the word for the first half, then 'irony' is the word for the second half. Read more › One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. By Aggressive Arms on June 5 2000 Format: DVD This film was good but nevertheless something of a disappointment.

Much of it was very good; a few parts were almost infuriating, and they did not have to be. In the opening minutes, we are introduced to the four main characters: their names and one attribute appear on the screen. Unfortunately, this is about all we learn about them. (Of the George Clooney character, we learn virtually nothing at all. His motivations remain a mystery throughout the picture, which is a polite way of saying that he is drawn pretty thin. The female reporter, a fifth character, is the typical parasite-wretch. Which is not surprising, this being a Hollywood movie.) These four main characters take off on a mission for money which later turns humanitarian. The problem is that we are never told or shown why they would conspire together in the first place, or, later, why they want to do what they end up doing for the rebel Iraqis. Though the latter is perhaps explainable by human compassion, the former is completely unexplained. I presume that the filmmakers simply suspected that their viewers came to the movie expecting to see a picture about four soldiers looking for Kuwaiti gold, and accordingly were not looking for an introduction. I myself checked my DVD player twice to make sure I hadn't inadvertently skipped a scene.

This elision is not alone. Later in the picture, the Mark Wahlberg character is locked into a room. Inside that room he discovers a box full of cell phones, one of which he uses to call back to his wife in the United States. This scene is critical because only with that call can the movie end exactly as it does. Read more › Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. By Mark Cederholm on June 30 2002 Format: DVD After seeing all of the positive reviews for this movie, I was really looking forward to checking it out. Boy, am I glad I only rented it! Admittedly this movie is not entirely terrible, but after seeing all of the critical praise which it doesn't really deserve, I have a hard time saying anything good about it. First of all, any favorable comparisons to "Kelly's Heroes" are totally unwarranted. ("improving on the premise" ??!?!? wake up!) "Kelly's Heroes" is a comic masterpiece on the triumph of personal greed over political conflict.

While it gets serious and even tragic in places, it never loses sight of its satirical premise. In "Three Kings", the greed aspect nearly vanishes, as does the comedy for the most part. Some scenes are indeed very funny, but for the most part the humor gives way to shmaltz, political correctness, and downright preaching. In the end, this is not a satire but a mere adventure film with some sociopolitical pretensions. As a serious statement about the Gulf War, this movie is a failure because of its utter dependence on sentimentality and commercialism (can you say "product placement"?). And its sporatic attempts at being artistically relevant only make it more painful to watch (when a movie begins with a warning about the cinematography, that's not a good sign). Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again.

CNN - Review: 'Three Kings' -- war games - October 4, 1999 A filmmaker deploys point of view Review: 'Three Kings' -- war games October 4, 1999 By Reviewer Paul Tatara (CNN) -- The paradox of war is that you have to kill people in order to stop people from killing each other. And that twisted logic has been the inspiration for some of the finest satire of the past century. It's the central storytelling device of Joseph Heller's brilliant novel, "Catch-22," in which the inherent contradictions of modern warfare corrupt the speech patterns and thought processes of the men doing the fighting. VIDEO Theatrical preview for "Three Kings" Windows Media 80K In "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote about the senseless firebombing of Dresden, Germany, during which Allied bombers devastated a gorgeous, art-filled city, pretty much just because they could. And, of course, Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" (1970) attacked the Vietnam War through the back door, by infusing the Korean War with an especially profane kind of anti-authoritarian irreverence. David O.

Russell's audacious new film "Three Kings" -- starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube as Persian Gulf War soldiers -- may not stand in a class with those masterpieces. But Russell has made a sharp, bitingly funny action movie that has more on its mind than simple firefights. "Three Kings" is a thought-provoking slice of pop surrealism that deals with (among other things) America's casual insistence on altering the countries we liberate by dropping our disposable culture smack into the middle of the bombed-out ruins. Remember how Sam Bottoms water-skied behind the patrol boat in "Apocalypse Now" (1979), soaking the bewildered locals while Mick Jagger announced his inability to achieve "satisfaction?" That type of cultural juxtaposition is the calling card of "Three Kings." It's not every war movie that shows a helicopter being brought down by a Nerf football filled with plastic explosives, or a bored enemy rifleman wrestling with the cellophane on a Slim Jim. Russell is as concerned with the effects of all-encompassing consumerism as he is with combat. To him, Operation Desert Storm was just another byproduct of America's entrepreneurial spirit.

An astute director willfully flaunting his personal opinions is what makes "Three Kings" such a welcome relief from the scores of mindless studio films that hit our screens every year. Some people are bound to get huffy over Russell's open distaste for the Bush administration. But Russell is a filmmaker with something on his mind; he didn't determine what everyone else was thinking, then concoct a story that would stroke the all-important audience ego. And he's smart enough to throw in a little rah-rah at the end, thus sneaking the satirical meat of the film into the theater with a "God Bless America" tap dance. His vision, although sometimes unfocused, is the real successor to "The National Lampoon." He lampoons a nation. Embargo time The story opens in March 1991, shortly after "peace" has been declared in Iraq. Clooney plays Archie Gates, a Special Forces Major who hears about a map that reservist Troy Barlow (Wahlberg) found stuck in an enemy prisoner's � nether regions. Gates determines that the map leads to millions of dollars worth of gold bullion that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's men have stolen from local sheiks.

The major is retiring from the service in two weeks, and this kind of haul would be a nice parting gift. So he gathers together a group of men to travel well beyond the jurisdiction of American forces, try to ignore the Iraqi soldiers who are currently shooting local rebels and take the loot. Clooney and Wahlberg's characters get the most screen time, but their partners in the theft are just as well-written. Cube, who grimaces more than he acts, plays Chief Elgin, a homeboy with a soft heart and a powerful belief in the Muslim faith. And video director Spike Jonze is impressive as Conrad Vig, a redneck near-simpleton with an almost puppy-like devotion to Wahlberg's Barlow. Vig is a variation on the character that Woody Harrelson often plays, all boyish charm and a little empty between the ears. Jonze gets many of the best lines. It has to be explained to Vig that he and his pals aren't planning to steal the kind of bouillon that you use to make soup. Nearly every scene contains a surrealistic element, something that just about makes sense but leaves you grasping for a few seconds after it happens. The bizarre images just keep coming.

A cow explodes into a million pieces after a soldier shoots it; the men take target practice at more Nerf footballs, perhaps the strangest instance of product placement in movie history; a tanker truck turns over and a river of milk washes the men off their feet during a shootout; Jonze drives a luxury car through the middle of the desert while "Baby Please Don't Go" blasts from the CD player; Clooney and the gang burst in on soldiers who try to buy their way out of the jam with stolen food processors. When combined with the realistic-looking blood and sickening "thwap" of bullets hitting supposed flesh, the visual non sequiturs create an almost dreamlike state. It's like that from the beginning. In the first shot of the film, Wahlberg stares at a distant figure across a glistening wide-angle panorama of the desert floor. He shouts "Are we shootin' people?" to an unseen comrade. When the answer comes back to go ahead and shoot if the figure is armed, Wahlberg raises his rifle to his shoulder, shoots drops the man. It's a crazy, businesslike moment, more like a boring arcade game than a real war. All's fair Unfortunately, not all the craziness works.

The first hour moves at a thrilling clip, and it's fun negotiating the oddly distorted atmosphere. Russell loses his bearings, though, during the aftermath of the heist. There's a frightening, disorienting nerve-gas attack shortly after the robbery, then the story focuses on the soldiers' recent change of heart. Gates and the men have opted to help a group of brutalized refugees get over the border into Iran. The sudden do-gooder impulse brings the movie thudding to Earth. But, even then, there are sequences that stay with you. Foremost is one in which Wahlberg's character, captured by the Iraqis, is locked in a room full of stolen goods as his captors prepare to interrogate him. Rightfully panic-stricken, he discovers a stash of old cell phones and madly dials the local operator. The trouble is, he doesn't know what number to call. How do you contact American troops in the middle of the desert? So he does the next best thing and calls his wife in California. The sight of Wahlberg trying to carry on a benign domestic conversation while people are down the hallway preparing to torture him is one of the more jolting, darkly hilarious film sequences in years.

There's a frantic emotionalism to it that's almost been snuffed out of American movies, and Russell deserves high praise for letting the ironic sparks fly at such an exhilarating rate. The film looks fantastic, like 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" on magic mushrooms. Russell gets carried away with trick shots at times, but cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel saturates the color whenever the story moves into the hot desert sun. Light glares into the lens and all the hues seem blanketed with a grayish tint. Some shots also have the same hyperclarity as the battle scenes in "Private Ryan." When Jonze is trying to outrun an incoming attack helicopter, the grains of sand that kick up from the machine-gun blasts seem to hang in the air for an instant before they fall to the ground. MORE REVIEWS, SITES "Three Kings" is a challenging, often violent film, but it's got enough style and off-the-wall scenes in it to keep pretty much everybody occupied.

This is what the best commercial films of the 1970s brought to the table, and directors like Russell and Steven Soderbergh (who directed Clooney last year in "Out of Sight") are doing what they can to revive that sensibility. Seeing "Three Kings" might be read as your vote for such studio risk-taking. It's one of the best films of 1999. Russell goes out of his way in "Three Kings" to enter a body and show you the unglamorous way that a gunshot kills a person. But then he undermines the attempt by staging some of the killings in a hot-dog style that might get audiences cheering. People are shot at point-blank range, blood spews, heads explode, a cow explodes. There's brief nudity and bad language. Wahlberg's torture doesn't look like much fun, either. Regardless of how you feel about it, the film is a unique trip. Rated R. 125 minutes. "Three Kings" is produced in part and distributed by Warner Bros., a Time Warner sister company to CNN.com. RELATED STORIES: Salute the Troops!

Stars Who Have Played Soldiers (PHOTOS) Stars Who Have Played Soldiers Stars Who Have Played Soldiers Mark Fellman – © 2007 Twentieth Century Fox; Greg Gorman – © 2008 Summit Entertainment; © 2006 Dreamworks George Clooney, John Goodman, Matt Damon, and Bill Murray: The Monuments Men George Clooney, John Goodman, Matt Damon, and Bill Murray: The Monuments Men The Monuments Men ;was based on a true story of the Allied troops of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Program, a group that saved art and other culturally important artifacts from destruction at the hands of the Nazis in World War II. Actors playing the fictional soldiers, loosely based on the real-life heroes, included George Clooney (apparently a war movie staple!), Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and John Goodman. Cate Blanchett, meanwhile, played an art curator based on the real-life French Resistance leader and military captain ;Rose Valland. Columbia Pictures Demi Moore: G.I. Jane (1997) Demi Moore: G.I.

Jane (1997) Back when Hollywood’s reigning “It” couple was still Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Demi bulked up and shaved her head to play the first woman to make it through Navy SEALs training in the 1997 movie ;G.I. Jane. Beefcake Demi was ;strong ;— so strong, in fact, that she was able bust out one-armed push-ups during filming. (It’s unconfirmed, but we’re pretty sure she could’ve beaten up her action-star hubby at the time. Yippie kay yay, John McClane.) Demi also played a military lady in the 1992 ;thriller A Few Good Men. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Caravan Pictures – © 1997 Josh Hartnett: Pearl Harbor (2001) and Black Hawk Down (2001) Josh Hartnett: Pearl Harbor (2001) and Black Hawk Down (2001) Josh Hartnett was on a war drama roll in 2001, starring in both Pearl Harbor ;(as Captain Danny Walker) and Black Hawk Down ;(as SSG Matt Eversmann).

Josh in uniform = major ;swoon. © 2001 - Touchstone Pictures Alexander Skarsgard, Taylor Kitsch, and Rihanna: Battleship (2012) Alexander Skarsgard, Taylor Kitsch, and Rihanna: Battleship (2012) Peter Berg manned the battle stations of his 2012 blockbuster ; Battleship ;with three sexy stars: ; True Blood ’s ; Alexander Skarsgard , ;Friday Night Lights stud ;Taylor Kitsch, and Rihanna. A-Skars plays Commander Stone Hopper, and Taylor is his younger brother, Lieutenant Alex Hopper, a slacker-turned-Tactical Action Officer aboard a destroyer. ; Rihanna ;— yes, ;that ;Rihanna — joins them and a slew of other Navy personnel in an all-out battle against some nasty alien ships. “I knew it would be big and fun, but the relationship between the two brothers was the thing that got me excited about it,” ; explained A-Skars . ; The Swedish hottie honed his military skills on the 2008 HBO miniseries ;Generation Kill, about U.S. Marines during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

© 2011 - Universal Pictures Jake Gyllenhaal: Jarhead (2005) Jake Gyllenhaal: Jarhead (2005) Jake Gyllenhaal shaved his head and got super fit to play U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford in the 2005 Sam Mendes film Jarhead, based on a Gulf War memoir of the same name. The experience gave Jake a newfound respect and admiration for the Marines, which he touched on in an interview with Extra : “I do relate to the military in general in a totally different way, and with a real awe,” he said.

“The places that I had to push myself, to think that they probably had to push themselves 40 times, 50 times more than that creates an amount of respect I can’t even really [express].” Carlo Allegri/Getty Images; Amazon.com Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, and Matt Damon: Courage Under Fire (1996) Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, and Matt Damon: Courage Under Fire (1996) Meg Ryan delivers a tough-as-nails performance as Army Captain Karen Emma Walden in this Gulf War drama about an investigation into the strange circumstances surrounding Captain Walden’s death in Iraq. Denzel Washington plays Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling, the man in charge of the investigation. "If there are two things Meg hates, it's guns and helicopters," said co-star Lou Diamond Phillips in a 1996 interview with The Seattle Times . "But to get the character, she had to learn to love them and respect them, and she did." For his role in the movie — as guilt-stricken Specialist Ilario — Matt Damon lost 40 pounds in three months by running 10-plus miles every day and eating only chicken, egg whites, steamed broccoli, and plain baked potatoes.

He succeeded in looking like a heroin-addicted Gulf War vet (the point of the madness), but not without creating health issues for himself. ; According to Starpulse , Matt later said, “I went too far. I got sick and I wouldn’t do that again because it was just too much. At the same time it helped the performance. I didn't have to act at all — I was a wreck. I was getting dizzy spells and hot flashes. I didn’t say anything to anyone for a while because I was afraid I might be really ill.” Denzel also played military men in 1995’s Crimson Tide and the 1989 Civil War epic Glory. Matt delivered a memorable performance in the 1998 World War II classic Saving Private Ryan, as well as the 2010 flick Green Zone. Amazon.com; © 1996 20th Century Fox Channing Tatum and Adrianne Palicki: G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) Channing Tatum and Adrianne Palicki: G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) Channing Tatum is a star in any role he plays, and G.I.

Joe: Retaliation ;certainly wasn't the first time he repped the stars and stripes. He had previously rocked the tags in Stop-Loss ;(2008) with Ryan Phillippe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but the G.I. Joe ;series is where he showed off his action skills. ; Channing played Duke while Friday Night Lights ;beauty Adrianne Palicki took on the role of Jaye, and together they teamed up to fight their enemies, both known and mysterious. While the movie hinged on flash and action, the two G.I. Joes looked great fighting for their country. © 2013 Paramount Pictures George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube: Three Kings (1999) George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube: Three Kings (1999) George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube star in this post-Gulf War dramedy about a ragtag group of soldiers who set out to get their hands on Kuwaiti gold bullion secreted away in Saddam’s bunkers.

George plays Major Archie Gates, a Special Forces soldier close to retirement; Marky Mark plays Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow; and Ice Cube is Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin. The graphically violent film may be best known for that exploding cow scene and the close-up of a bullet traveling through a human body. Yeesh. George also stepped into uniform for The Thin Red Line (1998, as Captain Charles Bosche) and The Peacemaker (1997, Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe). Mark played Bob Lee Swagger, a retired U.S. Marine Corps Force Recon Gunnery Sergeant and Scout Sniper, in the 2007 action flick Shooter. © 1999 - Warner Bros. Entertainment Michelle Rodriguez: Avatar (2009) and Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Michelle Rodriguez: Avatar (2009) and Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Michelle Rodriguez plays Captain Trudy Chacon, a combat pilot, in James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar. “She’s a really cool, laid-back, down-to-earth pilot, not the kind that you would typically find in the military,” describes Michelle.

“A lot of military folk tend to be very regimented and hard core; she’s a little bit more loose.” Michelle got into fighting form once again for the 2011 alien-invasion movie Battle: Los Angeles, in which she defends L.A. from some seriously hostile extraterrestrials as Air Force Tech Sergeant Elena Santos. To prepare for the role, she endured three weeks of brutal boot camp. “It was 110 degrees, every day, at the time. We’d run for two miles, do sit-ups and push-ups, take apart guns and put them back together, infiltrate buildings, and rehearse,” she told Collider . “It was gnarly.” Mark Fellman – © 2007 Twentieth Century Fox Jeremy Renner: The Hurt Locker (2008) Jeremy Renner: The Hurt Locker (2008) Jeremy Renner’s Sergeant First Class William James is part of a three-man bomb disposal squad in The Hurt Locker, a movie about the Iraq War that ultimately won six Oscars in 2010 — including the statues for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay. Jeremy was nominated for Best Actor.

On the real-life members of the Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad, Jeremy tells The Washington Post , “Physically, they’re all over the map. They're 4-11, they’re 6-7, fat stomach [or] massive linebacker shape with muscles the size of my head. But all of them have that mental ferocity. But they have to. They’re playing with life and death.” Greg Gorman – © 2008 Summit Entertainment Ryan Phillippe: Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Stop-Loss (2008) Ryan Phillippe: Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Stop-Loss (2008) Ryan Phillippe made his first foray into war drama in the 2006 Clint Eastwood movie Flags of Our Fathers, about the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific during World War II. He plays Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class John “Doc” Bradley, one of the six men who helped raised the American flag on the island. Yeah, you know the iconic image .

Ryan then modernized his act in Stop-Loss, an uneven drama about soldiers trying (and failing) to readjust to civilian life after serving in the Iraq War. As U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Brandon King, Ryan brings the effects of PTSD to life opposite G.I. Joe Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who co-star as two members of Brandon’s squad. © 2006 Dreamworks; Amazon.com Damian Lewis: Band of Brothers (2001) and Homeland (2011) Damian Lewis: Band of Brothers (2001) and Homeland (2011) British actor Damian Lewis has made a career of playing American soldiers on critically acclaimed premium cable series. He first stole the show as Major Richard Winters on Band of Brothers, HBO’s World War II miniseries about the experiences of the U.S. Army’s Easy Company, Second Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in Europe. Ten years later he joined Showtime’s Homeland, impressing as psychologically damaged Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody. Both roles earned him Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor.

Damian revealed the trickiest aspect of his Homeland role to the New York Times : “It was finding a balance,” he explained. “It was knowing when to lend an air of menace and when to be a damaged returning soldier and maybe elicit some sympathy from the audience. In the end I found it was most useful to play whatever moment was in the script in a wholehearted and committed way, and just make the changes lightning quick and allow him to be mercurial.” Band of Brothers was an early-career staple for many of our favorite stars, including Tom Hardy, ; The Walking Dead 's Michael Cudlitz, and ; Gossip Girl ’s Matthew Settle. HBO via Getty Images; Kent Smith/SHOWTIME ©2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Tobey Maguire: Brothers (2009) Tobey Maguire: Brothers (2009) In this haunting drama from Jim Sheridan, Tobey Maguire lays bare the savage effects of PTSD as Captain Sam Cahill, a U.S. Marine who returns to his family after being held captive in Afghanistan for many months.

But his homecoming is more paranoid than joyful: Sam wrongly assumes his brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) is having an affair with his wife (Natalie Portman). © 2009 - Lionsgate Three Kings Movie Review & Film Summary (1999) | Roger Ebert Tweet "Three Kings" is some kind of weird masterpiece, a screw-loose war picture that sends action and humor crashing head-on into each other and spinning off into political anger. It has the freedom and recklessness of Oliver Stone or Robert Altman in their mad-dog days, and a visual style that hungers for impact. A lot of movies show bodies being hit by bullets. This one sends the camera inside to show a bullet cavity filling up with bile. Advertisement David O. Russell , who wrote and directed, announces his arrival as a major player. Like the best films of Martin Scorsese , Oliver Stone, Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino , this one sings with the exhilaration of pure filmmaking and embodies ideas in its action and characters. Most movies doze in a haze of calculation and formula; "Three Kings" is awake and hyper.

The movie takes place at the end of the Gulf War of 1991 ("Operation Desert Storm," the Pentagon publicists called it). The first words set the tone: "Are we shooting?" The truce is so new that soldiers are not sure, and a guy waving a white flag gets his head shot off in a misunderstanding. Shame. Three U.S. soldiers find an Iraqi with a piece of paper stuck where the sun don't shine. An officer issues a rubber glove and tells a private to pull if out. The guy wants two gloves, but he'll do it with one, he's told: "That's how the chain of command works." The map shows the location of gold bullion looted from Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's troops and buried in secret bunkers. ("Bullion? Is that a little cube you put in hot water?") The three soldiers are Sgt. Troy Barlow ( Mark Wahlberg ), Chief Elgin ( Ice Cube ) and Pvt. Conrad Vig ( Spike Jonze ). They attract the attention of Sgt. Maj. Archie Gates ( George Clooney ), a Special Forces veteran who decides on the spot to lead them on an unauthorized mission to steal the treasure.

This involves dumping the cable news reporter he's been assigned to escort. She's Adriana Cruz, played by Nora Dunn as a Christiane Amanpour clone so driven by journalistic zeal that she is heedless of her own safety or anything else but a story. The gold, of course, would be a story. The movie unreels with breakneck energy; it's one of those experiences like " Natural Born Killers ," where death and violence are a drumbeat in the background of every plot point. Russell's screenplay illustrates the difference between a great action picture and the others: The action grows out of the story, instead of the story being about the action. The Clooney character commandeers a Humvee and leads his men on a loony ride through the desert, where their target practice with footballs somehow reminded me of the water-skiing sequence in " Apocalypse Now ." A political undercurrent bubbles all through the film. A truce has been declared, and Hussein's men have stopped shooting at Americans and fallen back to the secondary assignment of taming unhappy Iraqis who were expecting him to be overthrown. ("Bush told the people to rise up against Saddam. They thought they'd have our support. They didn't.

Now they're being slaughtered.") Strange, the irony in Iraqis killing Iraqis while American gold thieves benefit from the confusion. Advertisement Most Hollywood movies stereotype their Arab characters. "Three Kings" is startling in the way it shows how the world is shrinking and cultures are mixing and sharing values. Clooney and his men see a woman shot dead by Hussein's men, and later meet her husband and children. Is this man a tearful, anonymous desert simpleton, grateful to his brave saviors? Not at all. "I'm a B-school graduate from Bowling Green," he tells them. "Your planes blew up all my cafes." It's a small world, made smaller by the culture of war. The TV journalist stands calmly in the middle of danger, accepted by both sides because they think it's natural they should be on television. When the Mark Wahlberg character is captured and locked in a room, he finds it filled with the loot of war, including a lot of cell phones. When he tries to call his wife in America to give her the coordinates of his position, he has to deal with obtuse telephone operators.

"Three Kings" has plot structure as traditional as anything in "Gunga Din" or an Indiana Jones picture, and links it to a fierce political viewpoint, intelligent characters and sudden bursts of comedy. It renews cliches. We've seen the wounded buddy who has to be dragged along through the action. But we haven't seen one with a lung wound, and a valve hammered into his chest to relieve the built-up air pressure. We've seen desert warfare before, but usually it looks scenic. Russell's cameraman, Newton Thomas Sigel, uses a grainy, bleached style that makes the movie look like it was left out in a sandstorm. Like many natural action stars, Clooney can do what needs to be done with absolute conviction; we believe him as a leader. Wahlberg and Ice Cube seem caught up in the action, Wahlberg as a natural target, Cube as a former baggage handler who believes he stands inside a ring of Jesus' grace. Spike Jonze, himself a director (" Being John Malkovich "), is the obligatory hillbilly, needed for the ethnic mix we always get in war movies.

It's interesting how Nora Dunn's cable journalist isn't turned into a cheap parody of Amanpour, but focuses on the obsessiveness that possesses any good war correspondent. Advertisement This is David O. Russell's third picture, after "Spanking the Monkey" (1994; liked by many, unseen by me) and the inventive, unhinged comedy " Flirting With Disaster " (1996). Like that one, "Three Kings" bounces lots of distinct characters against one another and isn't afraid to punctuate the laughs with moments of true observation and emotion. This is his first movie with a studio budget, and it shows not only enthusiasm, but also the control to aim that enthusiasm where he wants it to go. "Three Kings" is one of the best movies of the year, even if I kept wondering why it wasn't named "Four Kings." Popular Blog Posts

Question: In which 1999 film do George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube star as U.S. soldiers in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War?
Answer: Three Kings