Advertised as a buddy-buddy war/action movie, with the obligatory main stream actor (George Clooney) and the equally obligatory rap star (Ice Cube) which Hollywood movies tend to be moving towards recently. Three Kings (TK) is a story adapted from a short plot summary called Spoils of War. Based at the tail end of the Gulf War, it follows the story of four American soldiers who find a map leading to millions of dollars worth of gold. Predictably as with all heist movies, not everything goes according to plan and the soldiers are brought into the front line, forced into helping refugees escape Iraq.

"Up until now the Gulf war was deemed too close for comfort... this so called media war was considered out of bounds... Adios to delicacy, because David O'Russell's battering ram of a war movie has by-passed the usual 15 years

This film wanted to break conventions of action movies to alter the conventional opinions of certain things which are cliched and accepted in this genre of movie even though the majority of this does not happen. For example when Chief Elgin blows up the helicopter with an American football, the celebrations are very muted. As David O'Russell stated in his commentary on the DVD, there are no high fives or self-congratulatory images, just Elgin and the Iraqi prisoner looking at the destruction that they have caused. It is a very crucial moment for the film itself as it shows the change in attitude of the soldiers from glorified thieves to soldiers who want to help the country they have been sent out to defend.

Socially speaking the film took a very non-Hollywood look at the American's, especially in it's classification of the Iraqi people. In the film the soldiers referred to the Iraqi soldiers and people as 'sand niggers, dune coons or towel heads. Three very racially unacceptable phrases. Through researched O'Russell discovered these phrases by speaking to soldiers who were on the frontline, rounding up the Iraqi soldiers. It is rare that a film would use such blatant racism, but as O'Russell said, it was common phrases used by the soldiers and portrayed the exact thing that he wanted to show the hypocritical and almost unbelievable events of the Gulf War. This was shown best when the character of Conrad Vig (played by Spike Jonze) calls the Iraqi soldiers 'dune coons' in front of Chief Elgin played by the (significantly) black Ice Cube. Troy Barlow seeing Conrad error reprimands Conrad telling him that towel head is a suitable replacement for sand nigger or dune coon, obviously p!

For me the major point to come out of the film was to show some of the historical holes in the Gulf War. George Bushes statement to the Iraqi people to rise up against Suddam Hussain, only to then pull out of Iraq and leave the people to fight him themselves, and the treatment of the Iraqi civilians by the soldiers, and the American soldiers who could do nothing about it. It is amazing how powerful fictional Hollywood film can be when it tries.

it is increasingly shaped by those who create or manipulate the images of the conflict.

Projections of War - Thomas Doherty (1993)

Some common words found in the essay are:
Clinton O'Russell, Gulf War, George Clooney, Culbert Chambers, Elgin Iraqi, Troy Barlow, Mark Wharlberg, American Dream, David O'Russell, Warner Brothers, gulf war, iraqi soldiers, david o'russell, world war, george clooney, spike jonze, shots fired, ice cube, movie pop star, films kings, iraqi people, action packed conventional, pop star actors, star actors dramatic, heist movie pop,
Approximate Word count = 4650
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page double spaced)