Translated material
In the area of special attention
"Kingdom" on Moscow screens
There was a terrorist attack on an American military base in Saudi Arabia. In order to investigate the reasons for what happened, a group of special CIA agents is sent to the scene of events, who could pass the casting in the next episode of “Fantastic Four” without audition: Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), a born leader and a fan of the old trash series “The Man Over Six” millions of dollars,” who also has personal scores with terrorists; computer doc Adam Lewitt (Jason Bateman); explosives specialist Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), personifying the salt of the American soil, and finally the only young lady on the team (but with a diploma in pathology) Janet Myers (Jennifer Garner). The fifth in the quartet, already on the spot, in Riyadh, turns out to be local policeman Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), who, however, is quite Westernized - in particular, in his own words, he chose the profession of a policeman because he doted on “ The Green Hornet" with Bruce Lee. Together, the miracle heroes give battle to the unleashed evil.There is nothing easier than imagining “Kingdom” in advance, without even watching it, the only question will be how “deeply” (by Hollywood standards) the characters will be written, and therefore, what are the chances of Oscar nominations. And in any case, the ghost of the Pentagon-Tsaresh government order invisibly spread its owl's wings over the film. The fight against terrorism is something that cannot be left to chance.
However, “Kingdom” is saved by its aesthetics. Director Peter Berg (also known as a screenwriter, actor, frequent guest on TV shows, a quite versatile and not yet old gentleman with the right social circle, judging by his filmography) has previously shown himself to be an excellent stylist, both meticulous and unobtrusive. His film Treasures of the Amazon (2003) subtly and effectively evoked the spirit of mid-80s adventure cinema, films about strongmen and creepers, treasures and comic relief from the locals - ranging from Romancing the Stone and "Walking on Fire" to "Rambo" and "Commando".
It is not surprising and fair that in “Treasures” Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared as an iconic star, even if only for a moment, who fifteen years ago would have looked like a glove in Berg’s film. In the case of “The Kingdom,” it’s time to wonder why Harrison Ford, for example, didn’t agree to a fleeting greeting here. After all, Berg in “The Kingdom” smartly and in his own inspired way plays in another genre - bulky, like aircraft carriers, and majestic, like strategic bombers, military-patriotic action films, which can be based on either a newspaper publication about a declassified operation of the special services, or even another bestseller by Tom Clancy (by the way, we had plenty of similar films).
These excellent films (they were especially actively filmed in the late 80s and at the very beginning of the 2000s) were impossible without meetings in government offices, strategic maps and the arrival of military advisers to bases by helicopter, so that the advisers covered their faces from the Arab air raised by the propellers, African or Latin American dust; without the American flag fluttering in the wind and the credits that accompanied the appearance of each new hero, invariably indicating not only the name, but also the title, and sometimes awards; without bravura battle scenes, in which, despite the hell going on around, the main character was destined, in the worst case, to be wounded or lose a fighting friend. All this and much more, mixed with much less straightforward nuances, is available in the “Kingdom” in quantities that are quite supermarket-sized. And all the elements are arranged quite professionally - it doesn’t take your breath away, but it pleases the eye.
In “The Kingdom” there is not that power that riveted you to the screen during Ridliscott’s “Black Hawk Down” or in the first scenes of William Friedkin’s “Rules of Combat”; the place of primitive rage has been replaced by the subtle calculation of a person accustomed to holding not so much a machine gun (even a fake one) , and the joystick is a computer simulator as close to reality as possible. But this is also much better. Because if, in all seriousness, you see in every machine gun burst coming from the screen a warning signal and an echo of the battle of the gods, then the muses will really go silent for a long time.