A Critique of Three Kings

A Critique of Three Kings Three Kings (1999) shows the use of various genres such as war,

adventure-when the four soldiers set off to steal and find the gold,

comedy-a map found in a prisoner's bum, an exploding cow, action-a man

diving for the camera in slow motion whilst a truck explodes behind

him and drama. The premise of the film is that in the aftermath of the

gulf war, four soldiers set out to find gold that was stolen from

Kuwait, but they discover people who need their help. The narrative

structure of Three Kings comprises a prologue which includes the main

characters in the film; George Clooney (Sergeant Maj. Archie Gates),

Mark Wahlberg (SFC Troy Barlow), Ice Cube (SSG Chief Elgin), Spike

Jonze (PFC Conrad Vig), Nora Dunn (Adriana Cruz), Cliff Curtis (Amir

Abdullah) and Said Targhmoui (Capt. Said).

Throughout the whole film, the colours used were mainly dark colours;

blue, white, black, green and brown. These colours are associated with

the sandy desert as well as the clothing of the soldiers and

civilians.

The lighting through out the film were high key lighting which made

the film appear as normal and realistic to the eyes if the audience.

There were a few low-key lighting for example in the sequence where

the four soldiers were studying the map under a blue lighting and in

another situation where a night vision glass was used in the day by a

soldier who wanted to try it out. This green lighting of the night

vision glasses gave an illusion of the matrix which was very

interesting. The part where the shot moves in slow motion in ...

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...out firing any shots.

When he was queried, he detailed both verbally and visually the result

of a bullet entering the body. This dialogue sets the pace in which

scenes of violence will be treated.

Throughout the course of the film, each scene involving violence, is

approached with a variety of techniques. In some scenes, the film

slows down to show each shot fired and when the bullet hits; in other

scenes, specific use of graphic close-up shots are used to illustrate

the effect of the bullet. When violence was a probability in the

scene, the camera begins to use close-up shots of all of the guns that

would be involved if violence erupts. The film was edited in a way

that the sound of a gun shot sounded natural. Techniques such as these

begin to afford the audience time to process violence that is being

portrayed.