Sunday, December 11, 2011

The Kingdom Review

I watched Peter Berg's The Kingdom with my friends a few days ago. The Kingdom is about how a team of FBI agents go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to investigate the bombing of an international facility. The film's plot, script, acting, and cinematography are all great! It is a very realistic film and it is well directed by Berg. The emotion in the film is very personal as it deals with the horrors of terrorism.The film also includes an all star cast with Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, and Jeremy Piven.

The best performance of the movie was Ashraf Barhom as Colonel Faris Al Ghazi, a man involved with the Americans' help in finding the person responsible for the bombing. Colonel Faris is easily the most emotionally interesting character of the movie. He is angry, concerned, protective, caring, and courageous throughout the movie. You become entranced in his desire for justice against terrorism and his respect for his family and country. As the film goes on, Jamie Foxx's character(also a noteworthy performance), Ronald Fleury, discusses his thoughts with Faris on the terrorist crisis at hand. I noticed that these two characters were very similar. Both of them want nothing but to find the terrorists responsible so they can protect their family, friends, and country. There is a emotional scene between Faris and Fleury as they talk about finding the terrorists...

Faris-"I'm forty-two years old. I have two daughters and a son. Beautiful son. And I find myself in a place where I no longer care about why we are attacked. I only care that one hundred people woke up a few mornings ago, and had no idea it was their last. When we catch the man who murdered these people, I don't care to ask even one question. I want to kill him. Do you understand?"
Fleury-"Yes, I do."


Although it bothers a lot of people, I liked the shaky camera in the movie. It makes the film more realistic as it should because the plot is completely plausible. The tension grows stronger and stronger throughout the movie as everyone tries to figure out the location of the terrorists. The final act of the film is a long action sequence between the American agents(and Faris) against the terrorists in a battle for justice. As much as I enjoy action scenes, this one was very well shot and emotionally engaging. I completely understood why the Americans were trying to kill the terrorists. Honestly I felt this could almost be a revenge film in reference to September 11th. Terrorists brought chaos to the United States, and every American immediately wanted revenge. But does revenge always solve the problem? This film suggests that terrorism and revenge doesn't allow anyone to win.


The Kingdom is quite an emotional action film. The movie dives into how terrorism emotionally affects individual lives and how it can only makes things worse. Jamie Foxx and Ashraf Barhom both do a fantastic job of portraying honorable men who want to fight back for their friends, family, and country. The terrorism in the film feels shockingly real and is the central discussion of the film. The quote above pretty much sums up the message of the movie. Revenge is a powerful emotion, but  does it always solve the problem? The Kingdom suggests that terrorism and revenge doesn't allow anyone to win.






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