MovieChat Forums > The Kingdom (2007) Discussion > A few offensive things in this movie.

A few offensive things in this movie.

posted 14 years ago by Ro-bust
8 replies | jump to latest

And Im not talking about the depictions of muslims in general, as I thought they did it quite well and with respect, I just thought that movies had moved on from showing americans as the all knowing powerful bad assess.

Two things really that annoyed me was, the investigation not really heading anywhere until the great americans where finally given the go ahead to take over (how patronising) and the only guy to die out of the group just so happened to be the arab guy.

I also thought the dual line at the end seemed a bit forced, although I do get the point they where trying to make and had to finish the film on a profound note, but i dunno I just didnt take to it, fair dues if you thought it was poetic but it wasnt for me. Actually thinking about it, it wouldnt seem like Foxx would be the kind of man to say such a thing even when his two colleagues had died, as seen when the grieving father wanted to blame the saudi security officers for the initial attack, I dunno I just had the feeling Foxxes character was more respectful of the people and new that the whole conflict wasnt just as simple as us vs them.

[–] dream-catcher-2 14 years ago

The action was wicked fun in this movie ...very intense
The rest was nonsense, the ending seemed out of my place to me too ..

I hurt people, thats my job !

[–] information_police 13 years ago

I thought the dual line a the end was a cop-out. I just don't think they knew what they wanted this movie to be. An action-packed "shoot the Arab" reactionary blood-fest? A political thriller (how it seemed to start out). A story of hope between two different peoples? A movie about pointless vengeance?

No clear point of view.

Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate.

[–] mattbg 13 years ago

Yeah, the beginning was pretty good but it kinda fell apart as it went along.

So most of the Arabs are normal-looking, semi-ugly people (by Hollywood standards) and all of the Americans are charismatic, good-looking folks who can solve the crime just by looking at it for a few minutes.

And as long as you get some old Arab guy who looks like he's planted a bomb or two in his time to confirm that some other old guy was capable of using an American detonator, that must mean he's the one responsible for the whole thing (what happened to the investigation after that point?).

Not in a mean-spirited way, I was kinda hoping they would cut Jason Bateman's head off. It would at least have added some dimension to the whole thing if the Americans took at least one hit and would have broken the happy path to the end. It's kinda weird to see so much chaos and uncertainty and then have everything go according to plan.

I didn't know FBI agents were trained to fight like marines or mercenaries, either...

The ending lines were just stupid.

But, despite all this, I kinda enjoyed the movie.

[–] Etherdave 12 years ago

The fact that all the American investigators survive in this film, while so many around them perish (horribly, often enough) is highly improbable, especially given their constant and wilful proximity to Crazy Arabs and gunfire.

[–] praxis44241 9 years ago

Actually, the point was not that the Americans were so much better than anyone at solving crimes; it was more that Fleury's crew was not willing to bend to the State Department's red tape, and Ghazi's hands were tied by the Saudi's own red tape.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] mobocracy (902) 2 years ago

This kind of crime, though, is one that the Saudis would be more than happy to sweep under the rug even if the alternative was paying every victim's family $10 million dollars.

The Saudis definitely want to minimize any perception that they don't have iron-fisted control over their country, and as central as conservative Islam is to their culture and the Royal Family's political control they don't want to confront Islamic terrorism, either, especially when they've put so much effort into exporting Wahabbism.

It's literally the kind of crime they don't want to solve for fear that its going to blow back on them somehow or raise uncomfortable questions.

But all this begs the question as to whether the Saudis actually had the kind of technical expertise to solve this kind of crime. The FBI has poured a lot of money and resources into solving bombings through technical analysis. The Saudis simply want to beat the shit out whoever is convenient.