Don't quite know where to categorize this post...probably between "Hey, that was my idea," and "Maybe if you'd mentioned it or moved on it..." David Edelstein looks at David O. Russell's 1999 GW1 movie, Three Kings through 2003 GW2 eyes:
Again and again, he uses color, sound and surreal interpolations to break through the viewer's movie-fed, CNN-filtered, rock-'n'-roll-fueled dissociation. With its jarring mixture of tones, "Three Kings" was not a box-office blockbuster. But it looks more and more like a classic.What timing.A year ago, I met David when he came to NYC for a MoMA film dept. award. Since hanging out with him again in Feb., I've been thinking of the prescience of Three Kings. On his screen, Russell mapped the moral complexity on both sides in a very humanistic way, even as the twin towers of Sadaam's evil and UN/US righteousness dominated the other, television screens.
In addition to the outrage of the US not supporting Iraqi uprisings in '91 (which is acid-etched in 3K), Russell's opposed to the current, um, incursion. But what also jerks his chain is the appropriation of 3K's "blown out, grainy, kinetic, CNNish" look and feel by the Go Army recruitment campaign.
I'll root around and post some audio/video of DOR talking about Three Kings. Stay tuned. [In the mean time, try the DVD's great commentary tracks.]
