Review of Kingdom, The

Introduction

The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a long and complex one, that effectively got serious when oil was discovered in the country back in the 1930`s. The formation of Amarco, the joint US/Arab oil company, has played a dominant part in the relationship between the world`s largest oil consumer and the world`s largest oil supplier. With tensions mounting in the Middle East and annoyance at US intervention in the area and the whole Israeli question, militant Islamic eyes focus on Saudi and what can be done.

A group of American ex-pats are enjoying a community game of baseball in the heavily guarded Al Rahmah Compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With a couple of terrorists disguised as Saudi policemen drive around shooting anyone they come across, a suicide bomber draws people to him by also pretending to be a policeman looking to evacuate and protect them. An explosion kills a number of men, women and children, bringing the local US intelligence and law enforcement officials to the scene as well as the emergency services. Whilst FBI Special Agent Fran Manner (Kyle Chandler) is trying to gauge the scope of the incident and organise the recovery effort a bigger secondary explosion rips apart ground zero and kills most of the rescuers and the remaining injured survivors.

Back in the US, Manner`s friend Ron Fleury (Jamie Foxx) is both trying to work out what happened but also come to terms with the fact that his friend is dead. Fleury wants to take hi 30-40 strong team into Saudi to comb the area for evidence, the FBI being the lead organisation whenever US citizens are attacked overseas. Political pressure and hand wringing within the State Dept shuts off that avenue and Fleury is furious at not being allowed to do his job. Using some subtle blackmail on the PR conscious Saudi`s, still overly sensitive at US public opinion after it was discovered that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, Fleury is allowed to take a team of four to Riyadh.

His team consists of Forensic Examiner Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner and her ever impressive top lip…), Intelligence Analyist Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Bomb Technician Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper). When they arrive, the team find that things aren`t going to be as easy as they thought. The Saudi Royals have appointed General Al Abdulmalik of the Saudi National Guard as chief investigator, allowing the FBI team to walk the crime scene but not touch anything. The team are escorted by Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom) of the Saudi police and his subordinate Sergeant Haytham (Ali Suliman). The Saudi police are under suspicion as the attackers used Saudi police uniforms, and Haytham was initially suspected due to requisitioning extra uniforms and thereafter brutally interrogated by Abdulmalik.

Despite a shaky start, Fleury and Al Ghazi develop a mutual respect and start to work together within their limited scopes and despite friction between the police and National Guard, some of whom consider the policemen traitors for helping the Americans. During a dinner with the Prince overseeing the investigation, Fleury takes a chance against advice from the local State Dept representative and tells the prince his suspicions and persuades the Prince that Al Ghazi would be a better lead investigator as a trained policeman with good instincts than a military man with no such instincts. The two then find themselves committed to a proper investigation and make steady progress. But hateful eyes are watching them…

Video

The picture is bleached and has a quasi-documentary feel to it, a process that is deliberate right down to each of the main characters being introduced with their own name/position captions. All shot on hand held`s as well, the final actions scene`s are very up close and personal and remind me of Black Hawk Down in style, editing and execution. All very believable and stunning to watch.

I have to mention the screen captioning included in this PR copy of the film. As per the likes of United 93 that I reviewed last year, this film also has the same captioning in the middle of the screen. It would appear that the studio has listened to some of the criticism though. The caption appears on screen for only 25 seconds at a time and then only every 15-20 minutes and thus is nowhere near as obtrusive as it could have been. Fair play to them for this. Of course, would be better if it wasn`t there in the first place, but it`s progress…

Audio

Very dynamic surround soundtrack. The explosions are as powerful coming through the speakers as you would expect and the automatic weapons fire is as good as I`ve heard for a while. Good subtitles.

Features

Deleted Scenes - Probably cut for time, but should all have remained as it`s only a few minutes overall.

Character by character: The apartment shootout - Very interesting featurette that shows the apartment room clearing from the perspective of each of the `teams`, some extra footage here that works beautifully. It`s a real shame that it wasn`t all included in the final edit.

Constructing the highway sequence - 18 minute piece on the quite spectacular crash sequence at the (near) end of the film.

Creating The Kingdom - long making of featurette, can be watched as separate short chapters or as a whole.

History of the Kingdom - Interactive time line that`s a nice history lesson of Saudi Arabia, showing major events in the Saudi/US relationship over the last 60+ years (mirroring to a degree the film`s opening sequence)

Commentary with director Peter Berg - I didn`t really take the time to listen to this so no idea how interesting it is. To be honest, I was more interested in watching the film again (and again)

Conclusion

I loved this film, so much so that I`ve watched it a couple of times already since receiving it. It`s not a straight forward thriller, it comes with a real message. The style has an almost documentary feel from the impressive opening sequence that explains all the major events in recent Saudi history to the introduction of all the major characters. The film also covers all the political wrangling and diplomatic face saving on both sides, the US coming off slightly worse in terms of political cowardice. The Kingdom examines the US/Saudi relationship and also the impact of Islamic militancy within its own borders. The focus of this is the Suweidi area, a kind of ghetto estate that is so hateful of both the Americans and Saudi Royals that Al Qaeda can apparently recruit directly from the shop fronts.

What I liked about this film was the immersion factor, I was drawn in from the start with a very impressive opening sequence after some quite different opening titles. The first hour or so is very slow burning with both political wrangling and investigation, interesting but deliberately slow and methodical. The last half hour or so kicks off with a bang and is relentless in the same way that Black Hawk Down was (but the latter much longer, obviously). I just found the whole thing quite stunning and very believable. The film attempted to show all sides of the story, including the home life of the Saudi`s without attempting to be patronising (despite various opinions on iMDB).

The cast was solid, not a duff performance anywhere and despite billing from the likes of Foxx and Garner, the stand out performance was from Ashraf Barhom. His first film I believe and hopefully not his last. Both he and Ali Suliman (but Barhom in particular) were incredibly impressive as the Saudi policemen who just wanted to catch the bad guys (and shoot them). This latter view kind of threw me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The whole film, the parallels in the real world, is about the hatred felt on all sides of the story. This film is definitely subscribing to the theory that one man`s terrorist is another man`s freedom fighter without either ramming it down your throat or even insinuating the US were in the wrong (which would be the natural reaction from political fanatics where there are only extreme views prevalent and little understanding). It doesn`t really address the political aspects of this view, but it is shown clearly and the parallels in the last words of the film sum it all up quite succinctly, even if it isn`t what most people want to hear or recognise. Overall this is a worthy attempt to bring some kind of common understanding to the predominantly US audience this is aimed at but not one that most of them will be too willing to hear or appreciate. There`s a clear demarcation in public perception between either US and Arab and the good guys and terrorists. It`s not that clear here as attitudes on display are reflective.

This is definitely one of the best films I`ve seen in the last year or so and this will definitely stand up to repeat viewing. Recommended unreservedly.