FILM · 1999 · USA
Three Kings
- Directed by
- David O. Russell
- Runtime
- 114 min
- Studio
- Village Roadshow Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, Village-A.M. Partnership
29 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that's destined to change everything.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (29)
- #001
Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, who plays an Iraqi refugee selling cars stolen from Major Gates in Kuwait, was tortured in real life by Saddam Hussein's security forces, who kicked him in the eye and blinded it. Like many of the film's consultants and extras, he is a genuine Iraqi refugee.
- #002
One scene shows a hypothetical bullet traveling through Mark Wahlberg, an idea that came from David O. Russell asking a doctor friend what a bullet does to the body. "I said, 'What's the weirdest wound?' And he described that particular wound (which was used in the film). You can take a wound that doesn't kill you. A bullet goes through your lung and you can walk around, but every time you breathe, air leaks out of your lung, so your own breath can kill you, because your own breath will crush your organs. It turns into a balloon in there and they have to puncture it to let the air out. He told me those two things and I said, 'God, that's never been in a movie.' I want to do that."
- #003
In the scene where Troy Barlow is tortured with electric shocks, Mark Wahlberg was actually shocked. He said he wanted to get into the role, and since all the equipment was there, they strapped him down and shocked him.
- #004
The film was banned in Iraq.
- #005
The scene where the milk is poured into the village was shot twice, because the extras had not been told to start drinking the milk after throwing it, so the set had to be cleaned up and the scene reshot.
- #006
In the celebration scene in the tent at the main camp, several soldiers are drinking something that looks like mouthwash. During the Gulf War, soldiers complied with General Order Number 1, which banned alcohol consumption. In this case, they asked their loved ones to send them vodka with blue food coloring in mouthwash bottles. Students had used the same trick in Toy Soldiers (1991).
- #007
During filming, George Clooney contracted bronchitis after being exposed to supplemented water and turpentine. For five weeks he had to wear an oxygen mask between takes.
- #008
David O. Russell never wanted George Clooney for the lead role; he only accepted him after his first choices. Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Nicolas Cage, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman all turned the role down. As a result, his relationship with Clooney during filming was tense. Clooney said, "There's a side of David that's over his head… he was defensive and selfish, and that showed itself in a lot of yelling." When Russell's frustration boiled over, Clooney took on the job of defending the crew and extras, which increased the tension. When an extra had an epileptic seizure on set, Clooney rushed to help, while Russell apparently remained indifferent to the matter. Clooney later criticized Russell for ignoring the incident, but Russell later said he was busy preparing a shot a few meters from the extra and was not aware the extra was having a seizure. Another clash between the two on set occurred while shooting with a Humvee with a camera mounted on it. Clooney recalls Russell yelling at the driver to go faster. Clooney then approached the director and told him to "let it go." Russell remembers the incident differently: "The camera broke, we were losing the day and I was upset about it. So I jumped off the truck and said, 'Damn it!' I was just stirring things up, and then George was very passionate about defending the driver, to whom I had actually said nothing." During filming, Clooney was exhausted because he shot ER (1994) in Los Angeles three days a week while working on the film the other four days. Regardless, Clooney was determined to stay in the role. Staying faithful to the script, Clooney helped persuade the executives to support certain aspects of the film (such as the exploding cow). Although he decided to stay on the film, his contract demanded compensation, so Clooney wrote a letter criticizing Russell's behavior a few days before shooting the film's finale, without another fight breaking out, after Russell's last attempt to make peace between the two. In the film, the three main characters try to escort Iraqi rebels across the border to Iran. The conflict began after an extra had trouble throwing Ice Cube's character to the ground. After several takes, Russell came over to the extra and had him perform the movements of the action. Some people present on set during the incident state that Russell was only showing the extra how to move convincingly in the scene. However, Clooney and others thought Russell threw the extra violently to the ground. Clooney recalls: "We were trying to do this shot but then he went crazy. He went crazy on an extra take." Clooney approached Russell and began criticizing him again, coming to the extra's defense. The two started yelling at each other before it turned into a physical fight. Second Assistant Director Paul Bernard was so fed up with the experience when the fight broke out that he put down his camera and walked off the set, effectively quitting. Clooney concludes: "Will I ever work with David again? Absolutely not. Never. Do I think he's extraordinarily talented and should be nominated for an Oscar? Yes." Russell offers a different view, saying, "We're both passionate guys who are the two biggest authorities on a film set," and maintained that the two remained friends. Ice Cube felt the conflict helped the film and said: "It put the set into a different gear where everybody was focused and we finished strong. I wouldn't mind the director and the star arguing on all my movies." Although the fight was initially kept secret, both Russell and Clooney eventually made official statements saying the argument was over and that neither bore any ill will toward the other. However, Clooney continued to recount the incident in later interviews and also said in the cover story of Vanity Fair's October 2003 issue: "I can't stand the belittling, screaming and yelling at crew members who aren't allowed to defend themselves. I don't believe in it and it drives me crazy. So my job then was to belittle the people doing the belittling." Executive producer and production manager Gregory Goodman later said of Clooney's comments in the media: "It doesn't reflect very well on Clooney. It seems like a silly sandbox argument." In early 2012, Clooney stated that he and Russell had repaired their relationship, saying, "We made a really great film and we had a really hard time together, but that's a situation that comes with both of us getting older. I really appreciate the work he continues to do and I think he appreciates what I try to do."
- #009
On the film's original posters, all writing credit belongs to David O. Russell, even though the story is based on a draft written by John Ridley. Ridley did not receive a "Story by" credit until he initiated legal proceedings. Ridley blocked the publication of the novelization of the screenplay. According to Ridley, he wrote the screenplay as an experiment to see how quickly he could write and sell one. It took him seven days to write it, and Warner Brothers bought it eighteen days later.
- #010
Mark Wahlberg introduced Saïd Taghmaoui, the actor who plays the Iraqi soldier who tortures his character in the film, to his chef brother Paul Wahlberg on an episode of the series Wahlburgers (2014), where he prepared an authentic French dish that impressed Saïd. Apparently Mark and Saïd became friends during or after the filming of this film.
- #011
The film's production process was especially difficult for David O. Russell, who took various risks with a $42 million studio film. At the time the film was shot, Warner Brothers had not financed an auteur film for many years, and executives were hesitant to give that much money to filmmakers accustomed to working independently. The film's political implications also worried the studio, especially at a time when conflicts in the Middle East were still prominent. As a result, Warner Brothers imposed various restrictions on Russell. The shooting schedule was cut to only 68 days instead of the 80 days Russell initially wanted. The studio wanted the budget reduced to $35 million. Executives also demanded the removal of violent scenes such as the cow exploding and an Iraqi woman being shot. Russell also had to sign a legal document requiring the removal from the film of scenes involving pedophilia accusations against Michael Jackson.
- #012
Matt Damon and Matthew McConaughey turned down the role of Troy Barlow.
- #013
"Hollywood actor" George Clooney drowns in the epilogue sequence. He also gets the helicopter pilot to sing toward the beginning.
- #014
At the beginning of the film there is a disclaimer explaining that the film's unusual look was designed by David O. Russell. The vivid colors are due to their using "Ektachrome" slide transparency film instead of standard film stock and to the "bleach bypass" process, which actually gives the prints a much deeper black. Silver halide is completely opaque, so it is a "true" black. However, leaving all that silver in the prints made distribution costs much higher.
- #015
The role of Archie Gates was actually written for Clint Eastwood, but Russell decided he wanted a younger actor. George Clooney pursued the role aggressively, but Russell wanted Nicolas Cage instead. However, when Cage was cast in Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Russell preferred Clooney.
- #016
While the production team was shooting in the Arizona desert, they had the misfortune of encountering the region's first rain in thirty years.
- #017
All the explosions in the film were shot in a single take, unlike a typical film where each is covered by multiple cameras. David O. Russell explained: "To me it's more real. The car explodes on this guy and we park the camera. Of course the producer says, 'we should use three cameras!' But if I cut it three ways, then it just looks like an action film."
- #018
In the scene where the three soldiers enter the hidden room in the bunker with the stolen goods and televisions, you can see Captain Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) watching the Rodney King beating video, which must have been shot a few weeks before the film's production period, perhaps intentionally or unintentionally emphasizing the underlying racial tension between Vig and Elgin in the first half of the film.
- #019
David O. Russell told the Foley department that he did not want to make a "Bruce Willis-ized" version of the film, and had the gunshots toned down.
- #020
Christian Bale auditioned for the role of Conrad Vig. David O. Russell would later cast him in The Fighter (2010) and American Hustle (2013).
- #021
David O. Russell planned a 2004 re-release because of the Iraq War. The film was to be shown alongside Soldiers Pay (2004), but Warner Brothers opposed the idea.
- #022
Barlow, Vig and Elgin wear the emblem of the US Civil Affairs/Psychological Operations Command, and Barlow in fact describes himself as a Civil Affairs soldier. Barlow also mentions being a reservist, which appears to be accurate given that two of the three Army Civil Affairs groups are Reserve Component.
- #023
Anthony Wiethoff was initially cast as Cut Troy's Cuff Soldier, but left the set over disagreements with David O. Russell regarding scenes of torture of US soldiers.
- #024
This was Alia Shawkat's debut.
- #025
For the chase scene in this film, David O. Russell imitated the linear cutting technique he admired in Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993).
- #026
George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg also appeared in The Perfect Storm (2000).
- #027
The film's cast includes two Oscar winners, George Clooney and Spike Jonze, and two Oscar nominees, Mark Wahlberg and David O. Russell.
- #028
Following the critical praise for Three Kings, including for his own performance, Ice Cube's next film project was, surprisingly, something entirely opposite: an action-horror film titled "Stray Dawgz." Based on a spec script by Darryl Quarles that was bought by New Line Cinema, the film was to follow a parolee who returns home after a new breed of werewolves begins taking over the city and soon has to save not only his sister but the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The film, planned with a $25 million budget, was to be directed by Gregory Dark, and both he and Cube were to produce. According to Dark, however, New Line kept postponing the film, and the production never happened even though he and Cube really wanted to make it and Cube was already known for starring in another successful action-horror film, Anaconda (1997).
- #029
The film was screened at the White House for President Bill Clinton.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work