The Kingdom (2007)

Directed by: Peter Berg | 110 minutes | action, drama, thriller | Actors: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, Jeremy Piven, Minka Kelly, Frances Fisher, Kyle Chandler, Trevor St. John, Richard Jenkins, Amy Hunter, Brian Mahoney, Tom Bresnahan, Yasmine Hanani, Tim McGraw, Ali Suliman, Merik Tadros, TJ Burnett

It’s easy to frame ‘The Kingdom’ as a patriotic, pro-America, anti-Arab movie. Like a slick Hollywood movie with big stars that uses the situation after 9-11 to ventilate spectacle and oversimplified military-political views. But the truth is that “The Kingdom” is an intense, rather subtle, and realistic account of an American response to a terrorist attack. Add to that solid to good acting from the cast full of sounding names, and documentary-like camera work, and you can speak of a successful and compelling drama that the serious film-goer does not have to turn his nose up at.

The relatively inexperienced director Peter Berg, known as an actor from films such as ‘Collateral’, ‘Copland’, and ‘The Last Seduction’, but especially from the hospital series “Chicago Hope” knows how to draw the viewer directly into the film through a dynamic opening montage, in which all kinds of facts about the oil-based relationship between America and Saudi Arabia are quickly poured out on the viewer and are visually supported by photos and simple drawings and animations. The (visual) link to the attacks on the WTC is somewhat simple, but the viewer does get a concise and effective overview of relevant political history with this introduction.

Then the main character Ronald Fleury (Foxx) is introduced as he tells the story about the birth of his son – the most beautiful day of his life – at his kindergarten. A touching and funny story at the same time, in which he explains in detail how the caesarean section worked and he was able to finally take his son in his arms. There are several beautiful scenes of Foxx with children in the film, bringing out his softer, sensitive side once again, instead of the tough macho he often plays anyway. In ‘The Kingdom’ he shows a fairly broad spectrum of character traits, which make it credible that he was ever able to win an Oscar. Foxx gives his rather one-dimensional role here quite some depth. This is done to a lesser extent by Jennifer Garner and Chris Cooper, who do not disappoint in terms of acting but unfortunately do not get very much to do. After the gripping opening cut, the film seems to lull the viewer into a reassuring calm for a moment with those cute scenes with the kids and the feeling that nothing is wrong. Until the viewer is brutally pulled up in his chair, when a brutal and shockingly realistically filmed attack takes place in Riyadh. Innocent civilians, Saudi and American, are randomly mowed down with submachine guns from a jeep, and later a bomb attack takes place. So gruesome and heartless is this scene, it’s hard to keep your eyes on the screen.

And then there’s the reaction of Fleury and his buddies. He actually wants to immediately investigate the affected area but does not get approval from his bosses, who consider it too risky politically and militarily. Then Fleury has to take action herself, which causes the first unbelievable point in the film, and the viewer’s fear that this is going to be a typical Hollywood revenge film. Fleury intimidates the Saudi ambassador, with the aim of gaining access to the area in question, along with only two comrades. Strangely enough, this works and Fleury can put things in order. And there are more indications that this could turn out to be a disappointingly one-sided film. For example, Garner’s character uses some simple war rhetoric when she describes the war with al-Qaida. Also, it seems too much of an anti-Arab movie as Cooper and Garner on the plane prepare Fleury for the country they are going to visit (the country looks like it is on Mars, and women are looked down upon). Finally, the local technicians and investigators at the crime scene are portrayed as very incompetent. Maybe it’s all based on truth, and Americans are indeed a lot better grounded in investigating crime scenes, but it’s a good thing that this sense of superiority doesn’t come too much to the fore. Fleury, for example, does get frustrated when he encounters all kinds of opposition and he has little freedom to investigate the attack, he ultimately remains respectful of his contact person, Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom). Al-Ghazi doesn’t seem very cooperative at first, but as a character turns out to be more than just an obstacle for our heroes to overcome. Al-Ghazi is a layered character. Someone who also lost friends during the attack, but is unsure about his position and knows how difficult it is to get something done in his country. The bond he develops with Fluery is one of the main dramatic pillars of the film. And it is beautifully and captivatingly designed by Ashraf Barhom. The ultimately cooperating prince of Saudi Arabia, who can be reasoned with, also ensures that ‘The Kingdom’ has a greater (moral) reach.

Another scene that does this, but only after some reflection, is the one in which Fleury and his mates, in their search for the culprit, stumbled upon a computer room full of children playing shooters or war games. At first, you as a viewer run a shiver down your spine: “These children are, of course, all trained to be terrorists.” Or: “You see, warmongering is in the blood of those Arabs”. Until the realization presents itself that a computer room in the West looks exactly the same. It is as if Berg wants to hold up a mirror to the viewer and say: “don’t judge too quickly”. The question is whether every spectator interprets the scene in such a way, but it seems to be the intention. The film’s horrifying last sentence confirms this balancing, mirroring approach. Just when it seems to be mainly an American success story, with clear moral winners, a final witch or sledgehammer blow puts everything back into (the right) perspective. There is no simple truth. It’s details like these that give ‘The Kingdom’ extra substantive value and lift it above the average Hollywood war film.

Unfortunately, the middle part is not always exciting. The frustration of the main characters becomes the frustration of the viewer. Stagnation in the research process is perhaps very realistic, it does not always make for catchy cinema. Also, the camera is sometimes a bit moving; as in the last two Bourne films, this one hardly stands still. But these objections do not carry much weight. ‘The Kingdom’ is above all a fascinating, compelling film, with good acting and an intelligent story.