Three Kings Film Analysis

“Three Kings” (“Es ist schoen Koenig zu sein”) is a 1999 war film written and directed by David O. Russell. It tells the story of four American soldiers in the immediate aftermath of “Operation Desert Storm” in Kuwait and Iraq, as they scheme to find a secret trove of stolen Iraqi gold. While the film contains unique filmmaking and narrative techniques, it has clear signs marking it as a traditional American three-act film.
In the first act (Set-up in Syd Field’s “Paradigm”), we see the exposition of the film. The viewer is introduced to the main characters and the backdrop of the story. An interesting aspect to this film is that it wavers between two central protagonists – Troy, a sergeant who has just become a father, and Archie, a major who is about to retire but is unhappy with his job. We also get an introduction to the world in which the characters operate. The very first scene sees a group of unprofessional, uncertain American soldiers on patrol in the desert. When they see a possible armed

Here all the problems set up in Act 1 and 2 get resolved. This does not happen, however, without even more tension and action. There is a show-down at the border, between our protagonists who want to help the Iraqi rebels over the border, and other US soldiers, who want to stop them and let the Iraqi forces arrest them. Implicit dramaturgy comes into play here. The colour scheme throughout the film is in shades of brown and yellow. It is hard to distinguish the Iraqis and the Americans, right from wrong. Now in the border scene it is sunsets. The day is almost over, the film is almost over, and Troy is lying on the ground dying from his wound, because American soldiers who arrested him won’t help him with his wound. This is a moment of “Verzögerung” - when it seems like the story could go very differently. Troy could die. The Iraqi rebels could be arrested and killed. Clooney and Chief could go to prison. It does not happen that way