Ice Cube, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg

Lucky for us safe in our homes and local multiplexes, war has also made for a helluva lot of great movies. Classic films like The Longest Day, Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter have tried to interpret man's undeniable desire to blow his neighbor's brains out and take his wife, children and possessions – all for only the noblest causes, of course. Something of a cross between Kelly’s Heroes and Catch 22, in marches Three Kings (Warner Brothers) starring George "ER" Clooney as Captain Archie Gates, a cynical career soldier with a plan to retire as a rich civilian. "Marky" Mark Wahlberg plays Sergeant Troy Barlow, who's such a good guy and so handsome you can barely wait for him to be captured and tortured. Ice Cube (no nickname necessary) acts admirably as Chief Elgin, a former airport baggage handler whose devout faith in Jesus gives him the focus he needs to do whatever must be done.

Spike Jonze

These three soldiers and their redneck buddy Private Vig, all too convincingly played by Spike Jonze, take a day's unofficial leave from their tour of duty at the end of the Persian Gulf War to help themselves to a bunker full of gold bullion (approx. $23 million worth) that Saddam Hussein (last seen heating up the screen with Satan in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) originally stole from Kuwait. Of course, things go very wrong and Gates's original plan of "We leave at dawn and we'll be back for lunch," is abandoned like the Iraqi rebels whom the US government swore to support, then left "twisting in the wind."

The Three Kings "go for the gold" scenario could have easily deteriorated into a cavalcade of clichés a la Delta Force, Iron Eagle, Rambo et al. But thanks to the sharp-shooting direction of David O. Russell, whose biggest hit to date is the incestuously weird and erotic Spanking the Monkey, the action doesn't let up and neither does the controversy. Russell also co-wrote the script and spent two years intensely researching the Gulf War and recreating its immoral dilemmas in surreal graphic detail. Death is faced from point-blank range and examined from the inside out as slow-motion footage trace a bullet's path through its victim's torso and close up on the septic bile that follows. Russell notes that although the story is fictitious, "Almost everything in the film is true. Saddam did steal the gold. When he had to return it, some was missing. Many American soldiers were dissatisfied about leaving Saddam in power and seeing him beat up his own people." The scenes in the movie portray this; the characters of Clooney and company are forced to make decisions that betray their hollow-pointed exteriors and ultimately leave a key character bleeding fatally into the desert dust. Hey, you know, they ALL can't pull through!

Not to say that Three Kings is without a jester's touch. There is indeed, within the film's mercenary framework, a streak of black comedy that is a trademark of Russell's slightly off-centered worldview. Ironic images and ideas such as a fleet of luxury cars serving as convoy for desperate refugees, a prisoner calling for help from the middle of the desert on a stolen cell phone, and a running gag about whether Lexus, the car manufacturer, makes a convertible, all underscore the madness that is war and the gallows humor that soldiers adopt to survive it. There is also a semi-comedic sub plot involving Nora Dunn, best known for her work on Saturday Night Live, as a network war correspondent competing for respect and ratings by getting the most exclusive story and trying not to lose her dignity, or her underwear, in the process. There aren't many laughs, but they do come at just the right moments.

In case you haven't gotten it by now, Three Kings is as exciting and action packed as it is absorbing and thought provoking. Comedy, tragedy, victory and defeat all intertwine like barbed wire on an electric fence. You'll be caught up in it immediately and doubtless be shocked before it's over and you can leave the theater safe in the fact that at least for the audience, unlike the thousands still terrorized by the unresolved Gulf conflict, Three Kings was only a movie.