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.
18 Interesting Facts About Three Kings
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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."
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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