Jarhead (2005) -vs- Three Kings (1999)

Review by Bryce Zabel 

Let's just imagine that -- because you've got only so much of your brain's hard-drive to devote to Iraq -- you're either going to go out to catch Jarhead before it leaves the theaters or you're going to rent Three Kings. Both films, of course, deal with Iraq, but not the current conflict. We're talking about the 1991 Gulf War to kick Saddam out of Kuwait after he rolled his tanks in. Is there a difference, you ask? Oh, yeah...

"All I want for Christmas is one clean kill-shot."

These are both awfully good films, with the caveat, in their own way. Three Kings is a story, you see, and Jarhead is an experience. The former is driven by incident and the latter is driven by not much. This is not necessarily a slam on Jarhead, by the way. That film is about a psyched up soldier/sniper who goes to Iraq hoping to see a little action but ends up spending all his time in the desert waiting around and, even after hostilities break out, he never gets to fire his weapon. It's existential.

Three Kings is about action and comedy and political anger with a radical visual style. It's about some soldiers who, after the shooting stops, end up with a map that shows where a lot of gold bullion looted out of Kuwait has been stored, and they set out to get it. That's story, even though it goes soft and wobbly at the end when it gets a little preachy and politically correct, but it's a great ride up to that point. It's extreme.

Three Kings. Because it will grab your attention and hold it, and you can always rent Jarhead and watch it a little bit at a time if it bores you.