Recently saw “The Kingdom” on DVD. An action-packed movie which ends with a disturbing message on hatred and violence that is oh-so-true.
Photo credit: www.thekingdommovie.com
Towards the quarter part of the movie, we were almost convinced that it only confirmed the popular notion that the Arabs were the bad guys to the Americans. The Saudis in military outfit instigated an attack at an oil company compound in Riyadh and killed hundreds of civilians, and an FBI agent. The agent’s colleagues went to Saudi Arabia to investigate … and to sort of taking revenge when opportunity arises.
The first encounter between the FBI agents and the Saudi military was marred by cultural clashes. The Saudis made their intention clear, that they were assigned to safeguard the Americans while they were on the Saudi ground, and not particularly to help them with the investigation. This conflict was resolved when both Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) asked Col. al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom) his first name and initiated a friendship. We already know almost from the beginning, after his officer was tortured during a questioning, that this Arab man was different from the majority of his kind – he’s got a heart. And so he became another target for killing, besides the four agents.
Half way to the movie, the FBI agent seems to take control over the situation and thus begin the Hollywood-style action that includes intense car chase on a crowded highway, chain collision, explosion followed by gunfire exchanges, kidnapping followed by videotapping but – thank God – the FBI came in the nik of time to save one American life before it was wasted…
At the end of the heated fight in the Suweidi neighborhood, while there were enormous casualties on the Saudi’s side including our friend — the colonel – all the FBI agents were safe with only minor bruises here and there! We could not stop wondering why the scriptwriter put it that way — would it affect the box office rank and the movie rating if one FBI agent was killed?
In the beginning scene before the attack at the oil compound, a man with covered face was seen waiting for the action to start. A boy was with him at the height of a rooftop and the man handed him the telescope to view what happened next in the compound. Then he saw the American boys were shot by attackers in Saudi military outfit and killed in a suicide bombing that ensued. Throughout the movie we saw Saudi boys and teenagers helping in the bomb making and killing people. That is quite disturbing — someone is telling us that their killer instincts were honed and the seed of hatred was sown since the early age.
A chilling message wraps up the movie: that Fleury promised Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner) that they’ll kill ‘em all for killing another FBI agent and the elder Saudi bomb maker whispering to his grandson amidst his last breath, that they’re going to kill them all.
And the cycle of hatred thus begin.
However, the movie did not address the question of the rootcause of the cycle – it merely points out to the massive oil exploration in the Middle East. There was no scene that tells us the director’s idea why oil mining in the Middle East fueled the cycle of hatred — he just went straight to the attack to US civilians and suicide bombings as the Arab’s ways to show opposition towards the mining. At the end of the day, the movie revolves around the fight-of-the-good-vs-evil theme with a missing piece of important information.
