Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Kingdom



The Kingdom is a politically-minded action film set in the heat of Saudi Arabia. Its mission is to address the situation in the Middle East while pleasing those who watched the trailer and came to see guns fired and cars blown up. It succeeds at both, though when the smoke clears I left the theater unsatisfied and disappointed.

The Kingdom follows a team of F.B.I. agents (Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman) who finagle their way onto Saudi Arabian soil to investigate a terrorist attack on Americans living within an oil industry community.

Upon arriving, the agents are told by their Saudi military liaison played by Ashraf Barhom that they will be playing by his rules. The agents do not like that. They want to go to work immediately. It is apparent that they do not understand the danger their lives are in just for being there. That, or they do not care. Their need for revenge is clear.

We learn that the police investigating the attack are incompetent navel-gazers who do not know how to find and process evidence. It is up to the Americans to set them straight and bring the culprits to justice.

This sets the tone for the film. The Americans are here to "help". That means leading, planning, and shooting a helluva lot of Saudi extremists in a bloodbath in the film's burst of energy approaching the end of the film. The Saudis are seen as
a people who need direction. The F.B.I. team are just the ones to provide it.

The presentation of the Saudi people could be accused of being too one-sided if not for the presence of the liaison. It is hard to praise the characters in this film because there isn't a lot offered in way of development or background. However, deliberate strides were made to make the liaison a more complicated man than any of the other Saudis we meet in the film. While I appreciated this attempt, it made me wonder why this wasn't the case with more of the Saudis we meet. We have the liaison and one more policeman who is brutally interrogated about the attack that present the other side of the conflict in Saudi Arabia. Everyone else is an extremist or a narrow-minded, incompetent, brutal, or oblivious officer, prince, or policeman.

The film also attempts to present a strongly political message about America's foreign involvement, but still stays loyal to the confines of the expectations of its audience. The film has been marketed primarily as an action film of sorts. The filmmakers don't really stray from some of the genre's conventions.

The agents and their liaison are in a terrible crash, the kind that flips a car over numerous times, slams it against the ground and slides it for what seems like forever. It is a mere matter of seconds between the time the car stops sliding and the team and the liaison are out firing at their enemy and hopping into a car to pursue them as they flee. There're cuts, scrapes, and blood, but no one seems to have any broken limbs, concussions, or be in need of medical attention.

The team becomes involved in a firefight in a corner of a village. They are only four of them surrounded by dozens of extremists with rocket launchers, machetes, assault rifles, and grenades. Still the team blasts their way through.

There is an air of authenticity that the film tries to create, but moments and flaws like the ones I mention detract from any maintenance of that air. It cannot survive under the weight of its own illogical entertainment. Some of these complaints are nitpicking, but much of this will be apparent to any discerning audience member who sits down in a theater seat and watches.

There is a scene where someone asks what was whispered to someone to stop them from crying. I was expecting something profound like "this too shall pass," but I heard a more honest answer. He whispered that they were gonna kill them all. There is some quality to the film because there is a look of disgust as the one who said that earlier in the film recounts his prior mindset to his team. The film presents the idea that that state of mind will not end the conflict in the Middle East.

**1/2

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