The Kingdom (film)
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For Lars von Trier's miniseries, see The Kingdom (miniseries).
| This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (January 2013) |
| The Kingdom | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Peter Berg |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Matthew Michael Carnahan |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | Mauro Fiore |
| Edited by |
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Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates
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Running time
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109 minutes |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $70 million |
| Box office | $86,579,130 |
The Kingdom is a 2007 American action thriller directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Jennifer Garner. The film is set in Saudi Arabia, and is loosely based on the 1996 bombing of the Khobar housing complex and the 2003 bombing of the Riyadh compound.
Contents
- 1 Plot
- 2 Cast
- 3 Production
- 4 Reception
- 4.1 Western reception
- 4.2 Middle Eastern reception
- 5 Box office performance
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Plot
During a softball game at an American oil company housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda terrorists set off a bomb, killing Americans and Saudis. While one team hijacks a car and shoots residents, a suicide bomber blows himself up, killing everyone near him. Sergeant Haytham (Ali Suliman) of the Saudi State Police kills several of the terrorists. The FBI Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, Special Agent Fran Manner (Kyle Chandler), calls his US colleague, Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), to advise him about the attack. Manner is discussing the situation with DSS Regional Security Officer Special Agent Rex Bura when an ambulance full of explosives is detonated killing Manner, Bura and many others.
At FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Fleury briefs his rapid deployment team on the attack. Although the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department
hinder FBI efforts to investigate the attack, Fleury blackmails the
Saudi ambassador into allowing an FBI investigative team into Saudi
Arabia. Fleury gathers Special Agent Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), a forensic examiner, FBI analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), an intelligence analyst, and Special Agent Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), a bomb technician, go to Saudi Arabia. On arrival they are met by Colonel Faris al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom),
the commander of the Saudi State Police Force providing security at the
compound. The investigation is being run by General Al Abdulmalik
(Mahmoud Said) of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG), who does not give Fleury and his team permission to investigate.
The FBI team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled (Omar Berdouni)
for a dinner. While at the palace, Fleury persuades the Prince that
Colonel al-Ghazi is a natural detective and should be allowed to lead
the investigation. With this change in leadership, the Americans are
allowed hands-on access to the crime scene. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham (Ali Suliman)
and Sykes discover the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance.
Fleury learns the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to
ambulances and police uniforms. Colonel al-Ghazi orders a SWAT
team to raid a house, managing to kill a few heavily armed terrorists.
Following the raid, the team discovers clues, including photos of the
U.S. and other Western embassies in Riyadh. Soon afterward, the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) notifies Fleury and his team that they have been ordered to return to the United States.
On their way to King Khalid International Airport,
their convoy is attacked and incapacitated. Leavitt is dragged out of
the wrecked car and kidnapped by terrorists who flee while Fleury
manages to wound one attacker. Al-Ghazi commandeers a civilian vehicle
to chase the fourth SUV and the other car holding Leavitt into the
dangerous Al-Suwaidi neighborhood of Riyadh. As they pull up, a gunman launches rocket-propelled grenades at them and a fierce firefight starts. FBI analyst Leavitt is tied up inside a complex.
While Sykes and Haytham watch the entrance to the complex, al-Ghazi,
Fleury, and Mayes follow a blood trail and kill many gunmen inside.
Mayes, separated from the others, finds Leavitt and his attackers,
preparing an execution video for Leavitt. She kills the remaining
insurgents, and al-Ghazi and the team start to leave. Fleury then
realizes there is a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment,
and al-Ghazi sees the grandfather and inspects his hand. When the old
man gives him his hand, al-Ghazi sees that the man is missing the same
fingers as Abu Hamza al-Masri[3]
in the terrorist group's many videos and confirms his suspicion that
the grandfather is the terrorist leader. Abu Hamza's teenage grandson
walks out of the bedroom and shoots al-Ghazi in the neck, then he starts
to point his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him. Abu Hamza then
pulls out an assault rifle and Haytham kills him. As Abu Hamza dies,
another grandson hugs him and Abu Hamza whispers something into his ear
to calm the child down. Al-Ghazi dies in Fleury's arms.
At al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet his family. Fleury tells
his son that al-Ghazi was his good friend, mirroring a similar scene
earlier in the movie wherein he comforted Special Agent Manner's son.
Fleury and his team return to the U.S., where they are commended by FBI
Director James Grace (Richard Jenkins)
for their outstanding work. Leavitt asked Fleury and Mayes what he had
whispered to her to calm her down. The scene cuts to Abu Hamza's
daughter asking her own son what his grandfather whispered to him as he
was dying. The grandson tells her mother, "Don't fear them, my child. We
are going to kill them all," a similar line Fleury whispered to Mayes,
implying that this is a never-ending, vicious cycle.
Cast
- Jamie Foxx as Special Agent Ronald Fleury, Team Leader
- Chris Cooper as Special Agent Grant Sykes, Bomb Technician
- Jennifer Garner as Special Agent Janet Mayes, Forensic Examiner
- Jason Bateman as Special Agent Adam Leavitt, Intelligence Analyst
- Ashraf Barhom as Colonel Faris Al-Ghazi, Saudi State Police
- Ali Suliman as Sergeant Haytham, Saudi State Police
- Jeremy Piven as Damon Schmidt, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy
- Richard Jenkins as Robert Grace, FBI Director
- Tim McGraw as Aaron Jackson
- Kyle Chandler as Special Agent Francis "Fran" Manner, Legal Attaché
- Frances Fisher as Elaine Flowers, Investigative Reporter, Washington Post
- Danny Huston as Gideon Young, US Attorney General
- Kelly AuCoin as Ellis Leach
- Anna Deavere Smith as Maricella Canavesio, Deputy National Security Advisor
- Minka Kelly as Miss Ross
- Amy Hunter as Lyla Fleury
- Omar Berdouni as Prince Ahmed bin Khaled
- Trevor St. John as Earl Ripon
- Ashley Scott as Janine Ripon
- Peter Berg as FBI Agent (uncredited)
- Carlos D. Chavez as Saudi Arabian Military Personnel [4]
Production
Prior to filming, director Peter Berg spent two weeks in Saudi Arabia researching the film.[5] Filming commenced July 10, 2006, on the west side of the old Maricopa County Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona. Additional scenes were being filmed concurrently in Mesa, Arizona; the scenes at the American compound were shot at the Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University.[6] In some of the trailer frames, saguaro cacti
not native to Saudi Arabia are visible in the background. The scenes in
the men's locker room at the beginning of the film were filmed in the
men's locker room and detention area of the Gilbert
Police Department. The FBI briefing scene was filmed in the media
amphitheater/classroom in the same police building. The high speed
driving scenes were filmed on Highway 202, which runs through Mesa and Gilbert, just prior to its opening for public use only a few miles from the ASU campus.
While shooting on location in Mesa, Berg was involved in a fatal
accident that resulted in the death of another member of the production
team. The SUV he was riding in collided with a John Deere Gator all-terrain vehicle
driven by Nick Papac. Papac died three hours later. On August 8, 2008,
Papac's parents Michael Papac and Michele Bell filed a lawsuit against
the director, a driver, and the production company.[7] The lawsuit was dropped in 2008.[8] Filming resumed one day after the incident.
On-location filming took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for two weeks in mid-September.[5] Since Universal Pictures
does not have an office in the Middle East, the production was
facilitated by a local production firm called Filmworks, based in Dubai.[9] Filming also took place at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi.[10][11]
The film's production cost $80 million.[12] The Kingdom was released on DVD December 20, 2007.
Reception
Western reception
The film received moderate reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 51% of 180 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.8 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that "While providing several top-notch action scenes, The Kingdom ultimately collapses under the weight of formula and muddled politics."[13] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 0—100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 56 based on 37 reviews.[14] Right-wing Weekly Standard columnist John Podhoretz called the film "perfectly paced" and "remarkably crisp and satisfying", arguing that it evokes the films The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Dog Day Afternoon, and The New Centurions.[15] New York Times critic A.O. Scott called it "a slick, brutishly effective genre movie". He also stated that "Just as Rambo offered the fantasy do-over of the aftermath of the Vietnam War, The Kingdom can be seen as a wishful revisionist scenario for the American response to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism."[16] Evan Williams of The Australian
called it "an excellent thriller" and stated that it "may be the first
Hollywood film to confront Saudi involvement in international
terrorism."
New York Post critic Lou Lumenick stated that "Hollywood provides the Islamic world another reason to hate America with The Kingdom," calling it "xenophobic" and "pandering."[17] AV Club
critic Scott Tobias gave the movie a C, criticizing the movie's "queasy
brand of escapism" by offering the audience the pleasure of "[w]inning
imaginary wars" and giving an idealized portrayal of the efficiency of
American intelligence. He says the film appeals to the audience's
"basest instincts" and that, despite one sympathetic Arab character, the
film could be tarred as racist.[18] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly accused the film of "treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines".[19] Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times
called it "a slick excuse for efficient mayhem that's not half as smart
as it would like to be." He added that "the film's thematic similarity
to those jingoistic World War II-era 'Yellow Peril' films makes it hard not to feel your humanity being diminished."
Middle Eastern reception
Faisal Abbas, media editor of the London-based international Arabic journal Asharq Al Awsat,
wrote on the newspaper's English website that "despite some aspects
which might be perceived by some as negative, many might be pleasantly
surprised after watching this film, bearing in mind that Arabs have for a
long time been among Hollywood's favorite villains." Faisal concluded
that "In all cases, the film is definitely action-packed, and perhaps
Saudis and Arabs may enjoy it more than Americans, as events are
depicted as taking place in the Saudi capital…and it is not every day
that you watch a Hollywood-style car chase happening on the streets of Riyadh. For Westerners, the movie might be an interesting “insight” to a culture that is very different to their own."[20]
In a review titled One good Arab for The Guardian, Palestinian
writer Sharif Nashashibi argues the film is one in a long tradition of
Western works where Arabs are vilified and Americans are portrayed as
heroes, only that this time it bothered to add "a token Arab 'good
guy'", equating good with pro-American, "to make up for the fact that
the rest of the Arab characters are bad." All other Arab characters in
the movie, he says, "are portrayed negatively - from the brutal,
hate-filled, anti-western, religiously fanatical terrorists, to the
inept, corrupt, heavy-handed, secretive and frustratingly bureaucratic
Saudi authorities", as opposed to the "humanity, grief, compassion,
determination, ability and patriotism of most of the American
characters". He concludes that "The Kingdom perpetuates negative
stereotypes for a quick buck and an adrenaline rush, at a time in the
world where breeding such ignorance and prejudice has proven
catastrophic." He also took issue with star Jamie Foxx's anti-Arab comments to the US press despite being "treated 'like royalty' in the United Arab Emirates" during the shooting.[21]
Box office performance
The film grossed $17.1 million in 2,733 theatres in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office.[22] It also grossed £919,537 in the United Kingdom,[12] about $1.9 million.[23]
As of December 15, 2007, the film has grossed an estimated $47,536,778
in the United States and $39,042,352 at the foreign box office with a
worldwide gross of $86,579,130.[24]
The film has been successful in the rental market, including Netflix;
grossing $77.4 million in the United States as of April 13, 2008.[25]
See also
- Insurgency in Saudi Arabia
- Counter-terrorism
- War on Terror
References
"Weekly DVD/Home Video Rentals, April 7–13, 2008". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
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