I'm still not sure why it was so harrowing for me; it didn't seem to affect my friend as strongly. I certainly wasn't prepared for it, expecting a light-hearted romp as I did. It's such a complex, knotty story that I won't even attempt to explain the plot, but to give you an idea of what it's about, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze, in Iraq as part of Desert Storm, go in search of some looted Kuwaiti gold. What they find is a political and moral quagmire, like a tar pit where the more they struggle, the deeper they sink.
Three Kings reminded me of a lot of movies, but it has a fierce, driving energy unlike anything I've seen in a long time. It's got a split personality, yanking the tone back and forth from dry comedy to grueling drama in a way that'll give you whiplash, and Russell is over-fond of gimmicky camera work. I'm also not sure how plausible it really is. But the power and the hell-bent-for-leather pace thrust me right past the uneven spots. My whole body ached from the tension, and I literally couldn't catch my breath for a long while after the movie ended.
Clooney is terrific, playing the rogue/reluctant hero type that seems to fit him like a glove. Wahlberg and Cube are fine though not outstanding. Jonze is too much the stereotypical dumb hick, right down to the redneck drawl (although I can't say those types of folk aren't in the Army Reserve, having been in a serious relationship with a Reservist who fit that description to a T except for the drawl--in fact, I remember crying hysterically because the manager at the Staples store where we both worked thought it would be funny to tell me my boyfriend had been unexpectedly called to serve in the Gulf War and had to leave so suddenly that he wasn't able to call me himself. Real fuckin' funny, Kevin.). Nora Dunn could have been great as the tough-as-nails war correspondent, but when she's called upon to produce anything other than angry tenacity -- like, say, compassion -- she fails spectacularly.
My beef with the Warner Bros. marketing is that they're not preparing people for the wrenching, often horrifying sights they'll see in the movie, which results in inappropriate laughter and even some fucking moron bringing a small child to the movie and not taking it outside even though it was screaming and crying. I know I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight; I hate to imagine what that poor child must be feeling. (Speaking of which, be warned that there's a horrific torture scene.)
So, I recommend Three Kings highly, with the caveat that you know what you're getting into. Sorry this isn't more coherent and precise, but I'm having a hell of a time writing this: I'm tired but still too rattled by the movie to go to bed.
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