Discuss the subplot to the film "The Three Kings", comment and analyse on the ideas that the director tries to convey.

Authors Avatar

Media Essay

The Three Kings

Discuss the subplot to the film “The Three Kings”, comment and analyse on the ideas that the director tries to convey.

On a superficial level, the film, “The Three Kings” appears to be an action/adventure film, in which four American soldiers take on a secret mission of their own to find and steal the gold that Iraq has stolen from Kuwait. As the film progresses, the soldiers begin to learn that not everything in life is about wealth, and they change their perspective, sacrificing their wealth, in order to help the Iraqi civilians to safety.

        However, it emerges, when analysed on a much more critical level, to a deeper extent than the sub plot exposes, there are, in fact, a great many more inferences that have been delivered intentionally by the director, as he attempts to convey his own ideas through the medium, of film. By conveying his ideas through this medium, he is extending his audience, as many more people will see or hear of a film than will read a specific book etc.

        Perhaps one of the most significant features regarding the inference of the director’s ideas was the fact that the director, David Russell, was not only the director of the film, but also the writer. This meant that he occupied both of the positions that, in filmmaking, have the most influential position over how the film, and any of its messages are going to be conveyed. This meant that Russell could convey the exact messages that he wanted to, without anybody else’s personal or creative inclinations diluting the way in which he wanted his messages conveyed.

        David Russell, it would appear, wishes to convey his concern regarding American attitudes and values, and their seeming lack of compassion and tolerance for other cultures. He conveys his disgust at the culture of racism in the USA and the fact that the American government always seems to feel the need to intervene with everything else in the world that is happening. He condemns the way that the American portrayed the situation, attempting to glorify what they were doing. He targets what he believes to be America’s primary reason for invading Iraq, to maintain low oil prices, and to stabilise their trade route with Kuwait.

        The reason as to why Russell believes this to have been America’s primary concern was due to the historical details of Kuwait. It began when Kuwait flooded the market with vast amounts of oil, thus lowering the price of oil. Obviously, to a highly developed nation such as America, there is high demand for oil, at the lowest price possible. However, Iraq, having just been at war with Iran, was bankrupt, and therefore needed the oil prices to be high, as this was their main source of income, in trading their oil with the rest of the world. Because of this, Iraq was forced, by economic devastation, to invade Kuwait. The Americans, on the other hand, wanted to maintain this trade route with Kuwait, keeping their oil prices low, and consequently, they invaded Iraq.

        David Russell clearly disapproves of many of the actions, attitudes and values of the USA and I shall now examine in more detail how he uses film techniques and other methods to effectively convey his ideas.

In the opening scene of the film, we are presented with an image of about four of five armed, American soldiers, in the desert, supposedly just keeping everything under control. It does not appear that anything significant is happening, but then an Iraqi appears somewhere in the distance. The soldiers are all talking to each other, with such irrelevant conversations, such as “do you want some gum” “I think I got a grain of sand in there [his eye]and one man is just seemingly staring into space. The other man, having seen the Iraqi, is saying, “Should I shoot this man?” The fact that these conversations are all on the same level, and the fact that there is a chance that a man could be shot, just symbolises how little Russell believes the Americans to value the lives of the Iraqis. They value it no more than asking for a piece of gum, for example.

Join now!

        The camera shot that the audience sees the Iraqi by, is symbolic of the American values towards the Iraqis. We are shown the Iraqi via an extreme long shot, which is used to emphasis the surrounding s and therefore decrease the significance of the subject in the shot, in this case, the Iraqi. When the soldier sets his sight on the Iraqi, we can clearly see that he is waving a white flag, a universal signal of peace and surrender. However, the soldier either doesn’t see it, or just blatantly ignores it for all of its value, a symbol of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay