บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ 1999 Best. Movie. Year. Ever., a conversation – Episode 11: “Three Kings”

about those lessons and trying to apply them to the Gulf War, which also did not have a whole bunch of pop cultural movies because that was my primary sort of artistic medium. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:42.479 Three Kings is eight years after the fall of that, and it is about the days after the Gulf War is concluded when America rolled up Saddam, pushed him out of Kuwait, and quote, won, unquote. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:51.360 I remember this vigorously from when I was, I think, a senior in high school, worried about what the draft might mean if this should not go off and be solved in a month's time. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:51.520 Yeah. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:58.719 It's just funny because then ever since then we've pretty much been in tons of them the entire time because they don't as much. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:00.000 They're so wonderful. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:02.319 They make so much money for so many amazing people. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:02.560 Trevor Burrus, Jr. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:04.879 That very remark is the heart of this movie. 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:05.919 Why were we there? 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.319 And was it just to enrich people who aren't here? 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:25.120 Now I grew into skepticism during the 1990s, after the Gulf War was done, when this kind of thing was beginning to s unspool in the imagination first of John Ridley, who would eventually go on to an Oscar for twelve years a slave and some good TV work. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:31.280 And he's a black American writer, considering the American experience from a position that's not normally given pride of place. 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:31.759 Right. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:34.879 And he spins this idea and he gets in collaboration with David O. 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:41.919 Russell, who was then kind of the one of the doyen of the independent movie scene, having done Spanking the Monkey and become a sundance favorite. 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:44.479 Did he not do iHeartHuckabe? 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:45.840 That was later, but he did. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:46.879 That was also his movie. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.520 And flirting with disaster was in his close rear view. 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:53.599 And so he was understood to be a guy who was funny, but not in a ha ha kind of a way. 00:03:53.840 --> 00:04:00.639 And if you could just give him the right material, maybe it could be something that's bigger than just funny ha-ha, maybe it's funny a-a-to, maybe it's all of those things. 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:02.080 And so let's make a war movie. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:14.560 So I went into Three Kings then, imagining all of these features, where generally we don't make movies like we did during World War II, which were made in World War II to support the World War II war effort that our country was involved in. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:20.959 Since Korea, it's like our country has been hesitant to squarely look at the conflicts that we've just been involved with. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:29.120 For good or for bad, we don't examine them very well, especially in popular media, meaning fictional media, meaning movies, novels, at least not in the mainstream. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:39.839 You can't be much more mainstream in late 1999 than George Clooney being a vehicle with Mark Wahlberg right out of the funky bunch with Ice Cube who's selling platinum albums anytime he decides to burp. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:49.360 This is all background, because when I finally saw the movie with this anticipated experience of thinking about something that had been well reviewed, but not very well seen. 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:50.480 It was not a popular movie. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:52.000 It didn't earn back its budget. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:54.160 In fact, in that respect, it was a failure. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:56.959 But it was considered a thoughtful but weird movie. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.000 Not that it was incomprehensible, but a strange tonality. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:05.519 That's so funny because that's exactly how I feel about every David O. 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:08.000 Russell film I've seen, including this one. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:08.639 Yeah. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:22.639 The inconsistency for this movie rubbed me the wrong way when I saw it, let's say it was early 2000s, something like that, when I finally pulled that DVD off the shelf at my mom and pop shop in Queens, New York, walked myself home, popped it in the machine, and watched what was there. 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:29.360 I didn't quite follow along with what was going through this movie, what it was working on, what its issues were. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:32.800 But I mean to say, my memory of this is that it wasn't a very good movie. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:42.240 That's one reason why I wanted to dig it out of the sandbox and use Raftery's remarks about it, which I don't recall having an editorial position about, that he thought it was good or that it was bad. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:43.920 It was more a phenomenon of the time. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:44.800 A lot of his book is that. 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.439 Yeah, it's a phenomenon from 1999, but not a judgment. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:47.759 Right. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:48.959 And we're just judgy pitches. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:49.920 So that's what we're trying to do. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:50.639 That's the whole point. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:51.120 Right. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:57.279 So pulling this thing out, re-watching it now, age 53, 2026, I think it's excellent. 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:04.959 I found parts of it howlingly funny, other parts of it just degradingly, humiliatingly dreadful on purpose. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:06.879 And I see the purpose of it. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:08.959 I see the design. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:14.319 But it's not a movie that can squarely be called a comedy, which I think is kind of how it was marketed. 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:15.279 It's not

exactly what I'm saying. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:23.519 Right, which is weird, because yeah, like it there was obviously there were moments of levity, but I would not consider this a comedy by any means. 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:25.360 And it's not a conventional war movie. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:26.399 It's a heist picture. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:54.959 It is, and it overlaps to a degree with Westerns, but it depends upon its background, its very specific background, having to do with the rollback of Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait, Kuwaiti gold that has been stolen by his army and hidden in bunkers, these service members from the American military who are going to quickly be pulled back home, and they're reservists, so they're going to go back to their nine to five jobs, which they generally don't like, and they don't know what they've been doing. 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:56.959 They don't know what the violence has been for. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:59.199 They're not sure what's happening or why. 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:23.279 And alongside that, we have meaningful glimpses of different pockets of Iraqi civilization circa 1990 when this was all jumping off, including loyalists to Saddam in his army, people who had left his army because they found the whole thing profoundly bankrupt, citizens caught up in the mix, some of whom are purely innocent, some of them who are revolutionary and rising up against Saddam, and all that's just bubbling inside of this heist. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:24.879 There's a lot there. 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:32.160 I guess another thing I want to emphasize is there were a number of movies that caught my attention at the very same time this came out that I know I went out of my way to go see. 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:40.639 This includes like Kevin Smith's Dogma, which I thought was totally disappointing, The Insider, which I thought was pretty provocative but super duper wordy. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:44.079 This is the season when Bringing Out the Dead by Martin Scorsese shows up. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:52.800 The Liony is out, Fight Club is out, Bean John Malkovich, American Beauty, all of these things are out. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:08:01.680 What we have with Three Kings is a few days after the collapse of Saddam's army has been pushed out of Kuwait because of American military power. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:06.959 We've got a forward military base of a bunch of American youth, bunch of men who were just running amuck. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:08.800 They're all high on what they've just done. 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:12.879 Central to that is Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:14.319 That's Mark Wahlberg. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:18.240 He's a young husband with a baby he's not yet met, born stateside. 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:21.600 He wants to get home safe and see them and look forward to his life. 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:27.439 We have Ice Cube playing Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin, who works in Detroit at the airport, loading luggage. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:30.639 We have Spike Jones playing private first class Conrad Vig. 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:33.679 This is before he'd really made it as a filmmaker on his own right. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:37.279 Although at the same time, his movie, Being John Malkovich, was reaching theater. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:39.039 So that's kind of a funny get. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:39.360 Yeah. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.440 And then they are pulled together by George Clooney, who plays Major Archie Gates. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:46.159 Major Archie is about to retire from the military. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.360 He finds the whole thing a bankrupt edifice where he can no longer find his way forward. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:50.480 Of course he does. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:50.720 Yeah. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:53.840 The Clooney, you know, it's funny, he's kind of got a type. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:54.320 Right. 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:58.000 There's a limit to how far he can deal with bureaucracy, and he's got to just be, I'm done. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:08:59.600 His higher ups don't like him. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:06.720 He doesn't like his higher-ups, but he's been assigned press duty to help the embedded journalists get the scoop in the story and tell what's going on to the American public. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:09.200 So we folks back home are not in the dark. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.039 Consequently, he hates his job. 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:11.440 Right. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:12.799 He's no longer a war fighter. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:14.559 He doesn't know what the war fighting was even about. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:19.360 He feels great, great shame at what he's been involved with, which is one reason why he's retiring. 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:26.879 Sergeant Barlow, he's recently shot a soldier who was trying to retreat and surrender, but he he shot the man through the neck. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:28.559 So he bears this guilt. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:33.519 And what happens is they're frisking the surrendering Iraqi soldiers. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:39.120 And one of them that they strip down in the Iraqi sun, they discover up a guy's butt, he's got a map. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:39.279 Yes. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:44.399 It seems to be a treasure map to maybe one of these bunkers where Saddam is reputed to have kept his treasure. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:47.600 So the major decides this is what we're going to do, fellas. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:53.759 Take a truck, go find this stuff, and do so in this privileged moment when everybody thinks the Americans are badasses. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:10:03.440 Nobody's going to stop us because the Iraqi army is trying to turn back the Iraqi revolutionaries and then go home in a couple of days when our tour is up and we will be rich men. 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:05.279 We will never work honestly again. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:06.080 That's the premise. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:08.000 I

know that was a big long-winded statement. 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:08.799 But there it is. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:12.399 Everything goes wrong as soon as they commit to that premise. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:16.320 Which is the any high any any highest picture worth itself. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:17.039 That's right. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:29.279 In this movie, it's they misread the map, they discover where the right stuff ought to be, and it's buried inside of a village, and then they become witness to genocidal practices by the Iraqi army who is exterminating civilians for no reason. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:30.960 And they can't stomach this. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:35.360 Each of them has a stake in trying to be good citizens because each of them is questioning why are we here? 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:36.399 What are we doing? 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:38.480 Are we here just to save oil? 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:39.919 Are we say here to save people? 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:41.120 Are we here to save Kuwait? 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:42.080 Because they're not in Kuwait. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:42.399 Right. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.200 We're here looking at Iraqi civilians being slaughtered. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:46.720 And we can't allow it to happen. 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:52.799 They get involved, they get over their head, they do find the gold, and then they have to squander the gold to preserve their lives. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:11:02.960 And in the course of events, the journalists they've been holding at May become pivotal to making sure that they get off scot-free and not court-martialed because they've gone completely AWOL, they disregarded their instructions. 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:10.000 But in the end, we learn through the epilogue of the movie they've each turned into people who have a healthy civilian life after the army. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:18.000 We also realized through their actions that they enriched these civilians they handled and helped with a little bit of gold to get their lives started, and of all places, Iran. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:35.600 American corruption and high ideals are hand in hand throughout this movie. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.799 The high ideals that certainly got me jazzed in high school. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:43.679 Yay, our army's gonna go liberate a country that has been assailed by a foreign aggressor. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:44.799 Go Kuwait. 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:47.120 I couldn't find Kuwait on a map in 1989. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:48.159 I couldn't find it now. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:54.720 The one good thing about American war experiences and American military incursions in the world over, it teaches me the geography of planet Earth. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:55.759 Yeah, that's true. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:12:06.480 I know the names of tons of countries and leaders that I wouldn't uh otherwise know, probably because I've absorbed them via, you know, osmosis courtesy of weakness. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.360

We've dispatched a destroyer group to the coast of Blah. 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:10.720 I guess I now know where Blah is. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.360 I mean some sailors were killed outside of this port. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:14.639 I now know where that country is. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:22.799 Maybe the relentless barrage of the 24-hour news cycle just grinding us into the dirt is actually good. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:23.919 Yeah, yeah. 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:30.879 And some of that connection, the grinding 24-hour thing, is traceable to CNN and its coverage of the Gulf War in 1990. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.799 So what we're doing basically is we're destroying aircraft inside a shelter. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.559 That's an air hardened aircraft shelter. 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:43.840 On one hand, some scenes will go very, very hard at how corrupt the American project is. 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:56.639 And then in the next scene, we'll learn how heroic and wonderful Americans are on an individual basis because we're watching this group of young men go save people they have no relationship to because they have a moral conscience. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:00.320 And I want to claim that space through one scene. 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:11.840 In our time together, we've talked about the movie La Haine, which starred a then much younger Saeed Hagmawi, who is an Egyptian, I think, an Egyptian French actor. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:25.360 He plays in this movie a guy named Captain Said, who is in the Iraqi military in one of these underground bunkers, storing a bunch of stolen goods, including the gold that our little squad goes and identifies and finds. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:34.559 At the very end of the movie, that's right, because he has been torturing Wahlberg's Troy Barlow. 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:36.080 And there's this sit-down. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:45.039 Said is talking to Barlow and explaining that not so long ago uh I joined the military because it was the way to have a secure future. 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:49.840 It was a way to make sure I could feed my family, feed myself, I could give myself security in a home. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:55.679 I don't much care for what the military is doing, but it was a job that was useful and it was respected in my community. 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:57.519 Is that why you're in the army? 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:01.279 And then, yeah, yeah, well, I have a regular job, but I'm in the reserve. 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:06.240 You know, so there's this there's this conversation among men of a similar social class, but in different countries. 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:11.679 The scene has a couple of different cuts to it, so we see it prolonged over a longer sequence. 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:19.759 And each time we go back to the scene of potential torture and then relaxation from torture and conversation, more torture, relaxation, and conversation. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:32.399 One of the torturous moments is that

Saeed uses one of his fellow soldiers to pry open Barlow's mouth with, I think, a metal tray, so he can't close his teeth, and then pours engine oil in his mouth. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.399 This is what your war is about. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:36.960 And you're confronting like 10 weight 30 engine oil. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:41.679 It's just there it is, just going glug, glug, glug, glug, right down Barlow Wahlberg's throat. 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:47.120 And I can remember thinking, yeah, this was a war of choice to protect oil fields. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:47.600 Right. 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:48.960 Well, it's it's funny. 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:54.879 Uh and I'm not trying to give anybody any undue credit here or cut anybody, any government, a pass. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:57.440 But like, so like Vietnam, right? 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:04.159 When you have these wars, they kind of are like working at like two different ends. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:13.200 A lot from it's my understanding from what I've learned that a lot of Vietnamese people were super happy that America was there. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:15.840 And they were like, dude, yes, you're saving us. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:16.960 This is awesome. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:24.480 That's why we had so much uh uh Vietnamese immigration, uh, like it towards the end of the war and stuff like that. 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:28.000 But really, like why are they actually fighting it? 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:35.600 Like, I don't really believe they were there to save those people, but at the same time, sort of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:45.840 So it's kind of the same thing in this, like, oh, we're there to the liberate the Kuwaiti people, which we did, I uh think, but that's not actually why we were there. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:46.159 Yeah. 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:46.559 Right. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:16:00.240 We were there for money and oil and to enrich Halliburton uh and and well, and because because we we we so wonderfully have so many men of faith uh in positions of of political power, and they have uh they have crusades to fight. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:05.360 Yeah so there's that element of it too, you know, the taking out the infidels in the desert. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:11.440 But at the same time, like these guys, these refugees that uh are Archie and Co. 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:13.600 save, they're stoked. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:18.320 It's this problem of jingoism, because jingoism is one note, rah-rah, rah. 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:21.840 But the truth of every human behavior has layers to it. 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:33.519 So at the very same time that our country or any other gigantic military power can exert itself on a smaller country and a smaller military power, because it can, it can also be saving people. 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:33.679 Right. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:38.960 It can also be conserving wildlands, it can also be doing a lot of different things

at the very same time. 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:46.960 But the primary virtue of making that thing happen is the exertion of power for something it's going to gain through having exerted the power. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:17:02.879 I'm not any longer much of a fan of thinking our statecraft is doing good works for people first that can be enabled by doing the good works for corporations, for oil fields, for natural gas fields, for access to waterways. 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:14.160 But the issue with Kuwait and with Iraq, at least as I've matured, is very much trying to reserve and respect allied relationships that had been signed into international contracts and treaties. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:15.680 You have to do that work. 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:17.920 You have to help your allies when they're in need. 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:18.240 Right. 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:32.960 But if it also helps secure a big oil field and it also helps secure a gigantic waterway you need access to to move around the world your cargo, and if it also helps you beat back the rivals religiously and politically, and if it also, and if it also, and if it also eventually saves some children, great. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:33.519 Save them. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:34.400 Right, right. 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:39.440 And I think part of what this movie is is chewing on, and that's the reason why the tonality is a little bit all over the place. 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:55.279 When we meet the characters, and it's got a very robust beginning, big montage, busy stuff of their waning days of being in the shit as war fighters cut to their celebration, drinking way too much in their tents, just partying hard, because they won. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:58.240 But that each of them has tried to go to the crucible of war. 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:02.160 Honestly, I'm here as a trained killer, and I need to kill. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:02.880 That's my job. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:04.079 I need to kill somebody. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:09.359 It's one of the things that visits us with the character of Vig, played by Spike Jones. 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:11.200 He's kind of a dummy from Texas. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:13.599 He's racial in his in his statements. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:17.039 He upsets Ice Cube's character because he keeps saying the wrong thing. 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:18.960 But I don't think it's because he's racist. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:20.240 It's because he's uneducated. 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:22.319 Yeah, it's not it's not malice, it's ignorance. 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:23.440 He's the white trash kid. 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:24.640 It's Hanlon's razor. 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:27.279 But he's there because he wants to whoop ass. 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:29.279 He wants to kill, and never has. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:30.960 The major has. 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:35.759 He knows how dreadful that is, and he doesn't want to do that because a truce has been drawn. 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:41.759

If there is an American who fights and shoots at an Iraqi during the truce, it blows the whole thing apart, and he knows this. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:46.799 There's an internationally important stake that they cannot violate while trying to go get this gold. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:52.480 Barlow has recently killed a man and feels great regret and shame over it because it wasn't a firefight. 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:54.799 The major is both the oldest. 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.079 He's got a greater understanding of strategy and of tactics. 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:11.759 And at a certain point, when the four are in the back of a Humvee racing off following this ass map they got from the Iraqi surrendering soldier, they're headed towards a village, and the Major realizes these kids, because they're really kids, Tim, these kids are hot-headed. 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:15.119 They're doing foolish things, they're shooting their guns wildly, drawing too much attention. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:22.720 And he takes them on the side of the road, parks the Humvee, and walks them over to a charred body of an Iraqi soldier and points basically to say, This is war. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:24.160 This is what happens. 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:29.039 You want this, I want to get rich, and I want to walk away from this. 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:37.440 Those layers, now that I am the age of the guy who's approaching a retirement or the getting out of the game thing versus when I was a young pup, is at play in this piece. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:41.440 And maybe that wasn't apparent to me when I saw it in 1999 or 2000. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:43.359 When you first saw it, you were Spike Jones. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:44.720 Now watching it, you're George Clooney. 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:45.519 I think that's maybe right. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:46.799 And of course, I'm hotter than Clooney. 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:47.359 Of course. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:20:03.759 Sween! Sween! One of the parallel stories concerns an Iraqi citizen, a guy named Amir Abdullah, played by the Maori actor Cliff Curtis, who is widely recognizable as the absolutely every ethnic type that's not white you can cast. 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:04.079 Right. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.200 He's he's virtually the face of New Zealand entertainment to white people. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.640 Because we're used to him and he's a hell of an actor. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:13.920 I find him very handsome. 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:15.920 I've liked him all an awfully long time. 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:26.799 He plays Amir Abdullah, an American-educated man who left the United States and the career arc that he had built for himself with a solid university education, to instead go home and rebuild Iraq. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:29.119 So he finds himself in his homeland. 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:41.680 He's now married, he has a daughter, only to discover that the American army went right through their village to push back the Iraqi army and then withdrew because their job was not to protect all of these small villages, leaving them in a lurch. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:48.480 He is a known and wanted man from the surviving members of the Iraqi military who are now rounding up the resistors. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:56.319 This is pivotal because our squad arrives in the village when the military from Iraq have gotten these rebels. 00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:58.079 They've put them in chains. 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:06.880 In short order, Amir's wife is shot through the head, just like that North Vietnamese agent was in South Vietnam that made the cut. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:08.319 Oh, that super famous picture. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:16.880 Our squad can't stand by and do nothing. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:23.039 And they start a firefight where they kill a number of the soldiers that are Iraqi, rounding up these villagers. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:31.119 It allows Amir to escape with his daughter, but his wife bleeds out on the sand, having been headshot, and it allies then our squad to their moral conscience. 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:40.240 They must get over not just stealing the gold they want, but now they need to take responsibility for their actions because these several dozen people are going to be murdered for sure. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:41.599 And they try to do both. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:45.680 And of course, that's very difficult in a highest where you had the perfect crime, and then you don't you don't you gaff it. 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:46.000 Right. 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:49.920 And they gradually come to a sort of a treaty that they've got to help each other. 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:59.759 The Iraqis know where they can find vehicles and transport everybody, but in exchange, they need to be taken to the Iranian border so they can find a refugee camp and get out of the way of the Iraqi army, who will certainly explain. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:00.640 Exterminate them. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:03.039 So that sets in motion the race against time. 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:04.640 Our boys want the gold. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:10.400 The villagers want out of country so they can survive this war and whatever its aftermath will be because the Americans are leaving. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:16.559 Now, Amir's daughter is never given a personal name, but she's played by the then quite young Alia Shawkott. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:25.279 Aaron Ross Powell Who I did not notice until almost right at the end she gets a little close-up of her face when they're trying right when they're trying to get him across the border. 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:27.279 And I was like, wait, was that Alia Shockett's? 00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:30.480 I did I'd back it up and pause and then sure enough, and I'm like, how the hell did I miss it? 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:31.359 Like, correct. 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:39.839 And I didn't recognize who she was until she'd already done arrested development, and I had

noticed her as an adult performer, and then realized, oh, she was a child actress. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:40.720 Well, here she is. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:42.079 I don't know if this was her debut. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.240 I think according to IMDB, it was. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:44.799 Okay. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:46.720 And she's a dear-looking child. 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:49.279 And this man is clearly suffering through. 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:52.720 He explains to the squad, listen, my daughter's not okay. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:53.759 She's traumatized. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:55.119 Her mother was just executed. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:56.559 And we're running for our life. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:22:59.039 You know, it's of course nobody's okay in this whole movie. 00:22:59.279 --> 00:22:59.519 Right. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:10.960 The other interesting thing about how this thing is structured, aside from finding the map and the guy's butt, and then deciding they're going to do a little thing to go find that gold, that takes about the first 20 minutes of the movie. 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:16.559 But then the balance of the movie, the next 80 to 90 minutes, is this it's the heist. 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:20.400 And the heist is meant to last no more than four hours of real time. 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:25.599 What we watch is probably more like just about a full day because of the complications that ensue. 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:34.960 Eventually, the military leadership that they have gone A-WOL under, discover what's happening, and in a way come to their rescue at the very end of the movie, along with the journalists. 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:37.920 One journalist in particular, they've been shafting the whole way through. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:40.160 And this is Adriana Cruz, played by Nora Dunn. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:41.599 Very recognizable actor. 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:43.279 Yeah, actually, that's one thing. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:46.799 Uh right away, I was like, all kinds of fun people are turning up in this. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:52.079 Nora Dunn, uh obviously Alia Shockat, uh Jamie Kennedy, Judy Greer. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:53.359 Dig that Judy Greer. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:56.000 Both of them were in the specials together. 00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:58.079 Um yeah, it was it was just pretty cool. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:23:59.200 Like a bunch of those little places. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:01.119 McKelty Williamson playing the Colonel in charge. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:02.960 He's angry with the major, and that's cool. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:05.119 And the captain running between them is Holt McAlnie. 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:08.720 I feel like this was probably shot in desert areas around Southern California. 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:13.039 Yeah, yeah, I think I think IDB said California, Arizona, and I think one other place. 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:15.680 Like 29 Palms heading east or whatever. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:26.720 You can talk about

this movie as a squad movie, as a caper that meets a Western because you have the Indian figures, you have the cowboy figures, you have the innocent pioneers in the middle of this, all that maps. 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:32.160 But you've also got spectacular scenography with really big production design. 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:38.640 There's a fortress and a town, two separate giant sets that in certain scenes are populated by dozens, if not hundreds, of people. 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:39.119 Right. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:47.759 You've got helicopters, a lot of sophisticated, expensive, potentially dangerous equipment, which means the budget on this thing went up and up and up and up and up. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:56.640 That's one of the things that I think Raftery uh talks about in his book, Best Movie Year Ever, because this movie didn't need to be as expensive as it became. 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:16.559 Aaron Powell And while this Russell guy, he's got these legs and he's this sort of unproven weirdo, but maybe the weirdo's got something that we can take a lot of uh commercial interest in. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:17.440 And well they did. 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:18.240 They spent a lot of money. 00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:20.000 I mean,$75 million then. 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:22.079 This is 1999, unadjusted dollars. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:23.920 Today, this would be approaching$200 million. 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:27.039 It's a lot of bread put up on the screen. 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:28.319 And you can see where it went. 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:29.039 That's true. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:33.359 You can see you yeah, I mean, that's one of the things we always said, you know, uh put it on screen. 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:35.119 Yeah, it's not poorly spent. 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:38.640 And this is this is before Clooney's commanding$25 million to show up in a movie. 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:43.599 It's when he's probably commanding a real salary, don't get me wrong, but it's not what he would become. 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:54.319 The point I want to emphasize, though, is this movie is not just you paid Schwarzenegger$40 million to reprise a role he's already known for, and he's just gonna give you that shingle all over again. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:58.799 I feel as if these actors, headlined by Clooney, but Wahlberg does a good job. 00:25:58.960 --> 00:25:59.759 Cube does a good job. 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:01.519 I was gonna say a good job. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:07.440 This is really for I I I felt like this is sort of one of the most sort of unique roles for Ice Cube. 00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:11.519 Like it's not the kind of role I would have expected him to play. 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:13.039 Like, not have you know what I mean? 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:22.160 I mean, uh you know I do know what you mean, because he is a religious man who is aware of his spot in the lower classes of America because he doesn't have a very high-earning job. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:26.720 There's no prestige in his profession, but he's duty bound and he's a loyal man, he's a smart man. 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:27.119 Yeah. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:33.759 And because of the uniqueness of the situation, he does find a way to rise above station because he does be befriend this major. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:36.960 But he's also, I want to emphasize the religious component of this. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:42.640 One thing that got people excited about this movie is that it doesn't just give lip service to Muslims. 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:51.599 We spend time in the movie watching the civilians do that, and we watch through the position of a Christian, and that's this guy, Chief Elgin, Ice Cube's character. 00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:56.079 We watch him feel the grace of other religious traditions which touch him deeply. 00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:04.079 He joins them in worship service, not because it's the identical God, but because the big frequency is open, and he understands the power of that. 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:04.559 Right. 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:14.720 I can remember this movie being unpacked closely as this hooligan from NWA is portraying black Christianity in a Muslim circumstance. 00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:15.839 Isn't that weird? 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:20.960 Yes, it is, but it also denotes the way that there's a lot of overlap between people who feel those big forces. 00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:23.039 They're not as far apart as we want to make them out of it. 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:27.519 Which is why I don't understand why they're fighting all the time and arguing over who's right. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:29.599 Like, can't you guys just be like this? 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:44.240 To that end, when the secondary character, Vig is shot in the collarbone and he bleeds out and he dies, Amir and his fellows drag the corpse with them into Iran to give him funeral rites according to their faith and tradition. 00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:47.359 And that just demonstrates the literal bridge inside of this piece. 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:50.640 And it's one of those odd things that's awfully hard to square with. 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:51.680 It's just a scheme. 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:53.519 It's just ocean's 10.5. 00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:54.640 Right, right, exactly. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:28:00.240 You know, which was about to happen with a different group of people doing another scheme around Clooney built on his star power. 00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:03.599 These touches of unexpected things I'd forgotten all about. 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:08.960 And when they rear their head here, I thought, my God, that means that this is a complicated filmmaker. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:11.680 And David Russell, by the way, has a very complicated personal life. 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:14.079 He's not been necessarily a very good person. 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:28.240 It's so funny when you don't when you haven't worked somebody else's job, like a lot of people

really still have a lot to say about what they think about how easy it is or how what little value it has. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:33.200 Unless you've directed like a huge, high budget feature feeling, you're responsible for a lot of stuff. 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:38.640 Arrest them! Get them away from the refugee. 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:41.839 I feel like this movie succeeds. 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:51.519 It's jumble of moods, terror and success, of triumph and failure, all of that balled together in a way I found pretty captivating, this view. 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.200 I was pleased with this movie. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:29:04.000 Consequently, I think that this needs to be shaken off from the dustpan of historic things that once happened and brought forward as one of the important things of the late 1990s in American movies. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:13.039 We just recently spoke about American beauty, and while I have some positive things to think about that, I felt more about Three Kings and enjoyed it from the feelings I got. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:24.079 I I I sometimes as as someone who's a huge, huge fan of on cinema at the cinema, I I realized like the folly in suggesting that any films are truly important. 00:29:24.559 --> 00:29:24.880 Yeah. 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:28.720 But at the same time, some of them feel that way. 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:32.079 I can't help but you know, Shoah felt important. 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:39.920 I was getting more from this than like American Beauty is a fun kind of like peek behind the curtain of like American suburbia. 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:45.680 But I I feel like Three Kings has much more to kind of say about the human condition. 00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:47.200 It has more to say. 00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:47.599 Right. 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:49.440 There's more it wants to offer us. 00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:49.839 Right. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:59.359 And because it has more to say and it wants to offer us quite a lot, it can't really give a very complete message to any one of the many things it wants to share with us in under two hours. 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:01.200 I don't think that's a reasonable expectation. 00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:01.599 Right. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:06.319 I've been married for more than 25 years, and we're still chewing on some things we haven't quite worked out. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:06.559 Right. 00:30:06.799 --> 00:30:09.759 And I suspect that will be the nature of our ongoing relationship. 00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:23.279 So to expect this artist with these other artists to present us a coherent view about one of the hardest things that happens: war, but in particular, a war of choice that our country engineered potentially for its own selfish needs. 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:24.880 Well, that's an awful lot to do. 00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:30.480 I'm being held captive by Iraqi troops outside a bunker near the gritty city of Kabbalah. 00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:32.480 You said gritty city again. 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:34.240 Who gives a shit what I said? 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:36.720 These people are dying for Christ's sake. 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:40.720 There are two other movies that I bring to the conversation. 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:44.720 One is Courage Under Fire, Ed's Wick, I think it's 1996. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:51.039 It's a Denzel Washington vehicle with also an all-star cast of then-emerging people, including Matt Damon and Lou Diamond Phillips. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:53.359 Meg Ryan is central to that story. 00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:58.400 And then there's one that follows this movie, and I think it was Sam Mendez's follow-up to American Beauty. 00:30:58.480 --> 00:30:59.279 It was called Jarhead. 00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:00.160 And that's it Jake Gillen Hall. 00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:01.359 Oh, Jake Gyllenhaal, yeah. 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:03.279 I recall seeing that on the shelf at Blockbuster. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:12.240 So you put courage under fire, you put Three Kings, and you put Jarhead together as a portrait of American recognition of and reflection on what the Gulf War was about. 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:14.240 Because each of them is kind of about that event. 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:28.960 Courage under fire has to do with with trauma, post-traumatic stress, and the idiosyncrasy of personal and historical memory to define what happens in the middle of a firefight, which proves pivotal to the case Denzel Washington is trying to figure out. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:30.880 It's a mystery that he's unraveling. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:33.599 You have this movie, Three Kings, which is a caper movie. 00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:36.880 Jarhead, you got a guy who goes into the core, he's a sniper. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:38.400 He wants to get pink missed. 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:41.680 He wants to kill somebody and never quite can make that happen. 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:50.559 And then each of those three movies deals with the after effect, because we are dealing mostly in those movies with what happens after the war experience is done. 00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:56.880 The unfortunate thing about Three Kings is the war experience, while done, they've prolonged it through their caper, which is ill-advised. 00:31:57.119 --> 00:32:00.240 Jarhead, you watch them train for various things, but it never gets to come true. 00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:07.519 And finally, in the end, the central figure becomes the person who goes to graduate school and becomes the writer, and he writes the book Jarhead that becomes the movie we're watching. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:11.920 Wow, I was gonna say that's kind of like analogous to my life a little bit. 00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:15.440 All this training for stuff, and then I just can't do it now. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:17.119 There's no job for me. 00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:19.279 The key is you gotta go ahead and write the book of the case. 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:19.839 I guess so. 00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:21.759

I guess that's it, right. 00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:24.079 I guess I I guess the path is clear now. 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:43.200 Trevor Burrus And then Denzel in Courage Under Fire unwinds competing stories of what actually happened to a critical event in the centerpiece of this war, involving a Blackhawk helicopter and its squad of people on board, but also to absolve himself of the responsibility he once felt as a tank commander sending men off to die. 00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:43.599 Right. 00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:45.920 So these are weird stories. 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:57.519 And from my perspective, as a pure civilian who was too young to be involved in those wars, I was under 18, and then as somebody who didn't have to serve because it concluded before I had to go be drafted or had to go volunteer, and I went to college instead. 00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:07.119 It has nonetheless been pivotal because I remember going to the then-called Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego and standing as part of a human American flag assembly. 00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:08.799 Oh, yeah, I remember a colored t-shirt. 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:10.160 Yeah, I remember that. 00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:10.640 Yeah. 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:15.119 Got together with a group of my buddies, and we were in the red stripe towards the bottom. 00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:17.680 It was a big day for us to go be participants. 00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:23.599 That was the first and probably last time I felt a huge groundswell of overwhelming patriotism. 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:26.160 You hadn't realized that you'd been lied to yet. 00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:34.880 And I felt like it was a true burden that our country's main it's the masthead of America is protect the helpless because we have the power to do so. 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:35.680 Yeah, right. 00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:37.599 But I want to put a little pin on it. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:48.240 In the very beginning of Three Kings, we're watching our soldiers party because they've won the war, and we hear them reciting Lee Greenwood's song. 00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:11.679 I can remember hearing that song for the first time in my life, standing in that flag statement out in the parking lot at dawn, awaiting this overhead picture. 00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:15.360 I've got it somewhere here in my garage, the photograph of that thing blown up to poster size. 00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:16.480 It was a big day for us. 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:23.760 That song has become like just the the the the like just such a signifier of false patriotism. 00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:34.960 Does there rain no doubt I love this land? 00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:38.639 God bless the USA. 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:50.159 A lot of my life's experience is partly based on you have the experience, you have to sift the memory, you have to revisit the memory, but then you have to have it refracted through some new reference point. 00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:52.079 You read the book that tells you something new. 00:34:52.239 --> 00:35:03.039 Somebody tells you a story of the same day you were at an event, but their experience was entirely different, but you have a common reference point, so you go, yeah, yeah, maybe what I think was the case has more stuff to it. 00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:05.199 This movie functions like that for me. 00:35:05.440 --> 00:35:08.320 And then there's funny ironies to how the movie does conclude. 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:21.360 When we learn from the epilogue that while all three were drawn up on charges and were threatened with court-martial from their captain and from their colonel, they were all given an honorable discharge and left the military to then begin civilian careers. 00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:32.239 We learn that Elgin goes to work with Major Gates and they become consultants to Hollywood, doing stunt choreography and the like as military consultants with that past background experience. 00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:40.400 But then I suppose the happy ending of all of this is Troy Barlow, who in uh in the firefight that they're involved with, he's shot through the lung. 00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:41.679 It looks like he could die. 00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:42.320 He doesn't. 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:43.840 He survives his injuries. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.480 He goes home and he quits the job that he had and he starts a carpet company that has multiple branches. 00:35:48.639 --> 00:35:56.480 And not only does he have one infant who he never met when the movie's unspooling, but when we see him in the end of the movie, he's watching his workers pull carpet out of his shop. 00:35:56.639 --> 00:36:03.119 His wife is there with his now toddler child, and he's got a newborn who he picks up and hoists to his shoulder and looks very happily at the camera. 00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:09.519 He's got that sort of typical buttoned-up short-sleeve shirt that people wear in their building trades with a tie around his neck. 00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:18.239 And in some ways, this experience of being involved in the war, being a veteran, getting an honorable discharge launched him into a future which is the middle class vision. 00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:19.840 That's the American dream, right? 00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:20.880 And he's lived it. 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:23.840 Lie, cheat, steal, and hurt other people to get there. 00:36:33.760 --> 00:36:36.079 1999, best movie year ever? 00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:37.679 I guess the jury's still out. 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:39.599 Boop-boobity doo.