‘Three Kings’ a complex, paradoxical, strong look at Gulf War

In theaters

THREE KINGS

Right up until its final moments, David Russell’s “Three Kings” does what the best movies do — it trusts its audience implicitly.

There’s no hand-holding here — there’s no time. This political film is on a mission, one that defies genre categorization because it knows too much about the war it depicts to be pigeonholed so neatly.

This is the sort of film that finds humor in a wayward cow being blown to bits in the deserts of Iraq, and then, only moments later, finds horror in the disturbing, graphic execution of a frightened woman pleading for her life.

Is “Three Kings” a comedy? A morality tale? A war movie? It’s all three. As dark as “Apocalypse Now,” “Full Metal Jacket” and “The Deer Hunter,” it has one essential difference: Unlike those films, this film isn’t so much about comprehending war, as it is about exploiting war for personal gain — first monetarily, then spiritually.

The film is set in March 1991, immediately after the Gulf War, which, as CNN showed every hour on the hour for several months, differed from Vietnam in that it was mostly fought with high-tech weaponry.

Push a button, obliterate a bunker. Flip a switch, cripple Saddam’s army. For those ground troops sent overseas to halt Hussein’s infiltration of Kuwait, much of their time was spent in the desert waiting for some sort of ground action to happen — which, for the most part, it didn’t.

To Russell’s great credit, he nevertheless leaps into this dry cinematic terrain and mines a terrific story out of it.

The film is a work of fiction dependent on fact. It follows four men (George Clooney, Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze) who go AWOL in search of the gold bullion Hussein stole from Kuwait. It is about their greed, their thievery, and finally the humanity and heroism inadvertently unleashed because of their greed and thievery. It showcases man as monster and man as God, but its great achievement is in how it draws such a line between the two. Loud and showy, its colors bleached as if the film itself were left out in the desert sun, “Three Kings” mirrors Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” in that it emerges as something of a paradox; it couldn’t succeed at the box office without the fast, brutal action of the war it depicts, yet it’s an anti-war movie staunchly opposed to violence.

Its performances are strong, particularly Clooney’s, who once again proves he can carry a film, but Russell’s ending is a misstep. When a director asks his actors to react to the film’s ending in a series of silent close-ups, when he has them part their lips at the sheer profundity of all that’s taken place in the past two hours, he’s essentially asking his audience to react the same way. In a film as good as “Three Kings,” that simply isn’t necessary.

Grade: A-

On video

PUSHING TIN

Mike Newell’s “Pushing Tin” has one thing on its mind: which of its two rival air-traffic controllers — Nick Falzone (John Cusack) or Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton) — is packing, well, the bigger jumbo jet.

Initially, the film suggest that man is Nick, who is so cocksure in the control tower, he gives off the air of being the very best at what he does — pushing airplanes safely through the congested skies of New York City.

Still, he’s a lightweight next to Russell, a rough, tough, cowboy controller from out West who seems to be made of beef jerky, nails, sewage and gasoline. Storming into New York with his cheap bombshell of a wife, Mary (Angelina Jolie), Russell is a gifted, hotshot air-traffic controller who quickly steals Nick’s limelight with his daring style in the control room.

Predictably, sparks fly: Nick has an affair with Russell’s wife, and Russell, in turn, chases Nick’s wife, Connie (Cate Blanchette). The literate script by “Cheers” creators Glen and Les Charles skillfully keeps things moving until the final act, when the film takes a sudden nose dive with plot and character developments that are, to say the least, a bit too turbulent to stomach.

The cast is always a pleasure, particularly Cusack and Blanchette, who are just quirky enough to make these friendly skies fetchingly neurotic. But viewers should be forewarned: “Pushing Tin” is so soaked in masculinity, audiences — including women and small children — may grow full beards while watching it.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear each Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “News Center 5:30 Today” and “News Center Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on WCSH’s statewide “Morning Report.”