Three Kings - critique.

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Lindy-Ann Chasson

AS Media Studies

Essay on the film 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 the event of the outbreak of the Iraqi and American soldiers, the colours of the lighting became almost too bright, as if time slowed down and the sun brightened to accent each of these moments.

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The opening of the film begins with the view of an arid landscape with the voice of someone shouting in the background.  The camera then moves to a side-view of a soldier who shouts “Are we shooting people or what?” and the camera swings to a civilian who was waving a flag in an attempt to surrender.  In some parts of the film the use of slang was used e.g. ‘rag head’, ‘towel head’ which refers mainly to the Iraqi’s wearing turbans.

There was also a shot of a cross-way argument where the audience can follow two different scenes at ...

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