Three Kings- You Learn to Love it

Michael Frakes is a writer who has written many film reviews on movies such as American Psycho, and Three Kings. He wrote an essay based on the Three Kings for The Tech newspaper which is also found on-line at www-tech.mit.edu. Frakes explains how Russell designed his film in such a way that would force the audience to question themselves about the United States' involvement in the Persian Gulf. The film, as Frakes describes, works on a deeper level. Russell allows us to think about and understand that our involvement in the Gulf War was unnecessary. As a result of our views on this film, the protagonists seem to be the innocent Iraqi refugees who have lost their homes and families due to this pointless war. Frankes explains that this film "is great in its stylistic use of the camera and editing." Some of the scenes shown in this movie illustrate things that we have never seen before. Frakes uses the example of the scene where the camera takes us inside a person's body to show us how badly a bullet can destroy an organ. Camera shots such as these greatly impact the audiences views towards ballistic violence. Unlike many other films, Three Kings illustrates both sides of the issues when a country is at war. In this film, we are able to recognize the hardships that the civilians have to go through as well as the mental struggle that American soldiers encounter while not even knowing their mere purpose of existence in a foreign country.