at first glance , three kings looks to be just another war movie , the 90s version of all those favourite war movies with names i cannot remember . the 90s version , it definitely is , just another war movie ? not in your dreams ! imagine pulp fiction approach to saving private ryan , tha's three kings for you . believe it or not , it bears the cool of the former and the stark humane meaning of the latter . the story brings us to the twilight of the gulf war , with the allied troops victorious . majpr archie gates ( clooney ) leads an enterprising bunch of grunts to a rather unorthodox post-war looting spree ; the millions in gold bars secretly stowed away by saddam in a desolate village in the desert . as the rest of the troops are celebrating their victory and getting ready to be shipped home , this ' wild bunch ' goes awol on an armed hum-vee ( the vehicle of choice of the us army ) . they soon find out that they have much resistance , as they get tangled with the local rebellion against saddam's forces . frequently switching their modes between looters and robin hood's merry men , they become consciously attacked by their own morals . as the film begins to roll , it seemed to have a rather 'light' mood to it . 'special' effects such as when gates describes to his men how a bullet can kill simply paves the way for a light-hearted funny action movie . three kings is much smarter than that . as the conflict becomes more and more complex , the audience will be trapped in a limbo , trying to stay focussed on that light-mood/serious-mood that the film seem to portray . i personally found this analogous to the same feelings of the main characters involved in the film ; trapped between their initial plan paved by greed and their own sense of humanity . this simply made the entire experience of watching three kings <POS> truly brilliant </POS> . action sequences are not shot as your old-fashioned war films nor anything like steven spielberg's in-your-face war violence . they are <POS> carefully built to generate tension with just the right tight close-ups and pauses </POS> , right before the action starts . not john woo for sure but more of sergio leone's spaghetti western style ( tons of them starring clint eastwood ) . <POS> great performances </POS> by clooney and wahlberg but <POS> the brilliance have to lie in the conception of this film </POS> ; the screenwriter and the director . three kings ranks <POS> among the best films of the year </POS> , well , for me at least . <POS> highly recommended </POS> .
