I HAVE already written extensively about a movie called “The Kingdom.” I finally saw the movie after I recently attended a sneak preview of the much anticipated adventure thriller. The $80 million blockbuster, scheduled to be released on Friday, is based on terrorist incidents in Saudi Arabia over the last few years.
Let’s take a look at some facets of the movie that you might not hear about from the major movie reviews. The movie opens with a scene reminiscent of President George W. Bush’s reading a book to small school children when the 9/11 attacks took place. In this case, FBI agent Ronald Fluery, played by Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx, is reading to his son’s elementary school class when he receives a message from an FBI agent in Saudi Arabia who is witnessing a terrorist attack.
We are next treated to a subplot in which Foxx tries to convince a Washington Post reporter to leak an alleged story about Saudi princesses in Boston giving money to Arab-American cultural foundations. This subplot eventually leads to a story of funds being sent to terrorist organizations in Indonesia. Foxx uses the threat of the leak of this story to browbeat the Saudi ambassador to the United States into allowing an American FBI team into Saudi Arabia to investigate the terrorist incident opening the film.
Once in Saudi Arabia, we are shown Saudi military and police personnel with masks over their faces. This is very suggestive of the scene of the Palestinian masked kidnappers of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Although the film states that it was made in Arizona, Washington, D.C., and Abu Dhabi, the Kingdom Tower and the Al Faisaliah Tower from Riyadh are clearly in the background when we are treated to a building-top view of the compound that was hit by the terrorists.
When Jennifer Garner, playing a female FBI agent who specializes in forensics, tries to perform an examination on deceased Saudi soldiers, she is abruptly stopped and told that non-Muslims are not allowed to touch dead Muslims. Also Garner is excluded from a meeting at a Saudi prince’s palace as she is told that women are not allowed to go to a meeting with the prince.
Justin Bateman who also plays an FBI agent doesn’t even seem to know why he was brought to Saudi Arabia. He wisecracks his way through the movie joking about the Saudis every chance he gets. Other than Col. Faris Al-Ghazi, not one of the other Saudi police or military officials are shown to have any competence at all in criminal or terrorist investigations. As a matter of fact, most are depicted as ruthless, incompetent buffoons with no redeeming qualities. And even Col. Al-Ghazi has to mention that he was trained at the Quantico Marine base in the US, which seemingly afforded him all of his investigative and police/military skills.
There are also many other parts of the film that further degrade and misrepresent Saudis, Arabs and Muslims. But after having said all of the above, I must say that “The Kingdom” probably gives the most sensitive and touching perspective on Saudis and Saudi Arabia that I have ever seen in a Hollywood feature film.
Producer Scott Stuber and director Peter Berg are making the media rounds to promote the film and their comments regarding the movie are really notable. Stuber was quoted in the Variety newspaper commenting on the Saudi colonel in the movie. Stuber said, “It was so important that this character had a heroic dimension and that we showed an Arab character who was heroic, altruistic, wants to do right and cares about his family. I think American audiences want to know, and need to know, that there are good people everywhere. ...from a Western perspective...people really need to know what’s going on right now.”
And Palestinian actor Ashraf Barhom who portrays good guy Saudi Col. Faris Al-Ghazi said in the same Variety article, “This film is different from other American films which have tackled the Middle East because it takes things a step forward by going a little deeper. It doesn’t play the game of good and bad people. It shows that people on a human level are not just what their political views are.”
Director Peter Berg said in the International Film Journal, “We wanted it to be a different experience. We wanted to make a more accessible story about the Middle East, to not overly politicize or intellectualize the situation there. First and foremost, lead with strong action.” Berg continued, “I always thought of this film as a buddy film between an American and an Arab. An unknown Arab at that, given who is available in the US, and someone the audience was going to have to connect with deeply. Ashraf’s so instinctive, and he had to really work to understand the English in the script. I loved watching him trying to figure out what he was trying to say, because it all worked for his character.”
Even actor Foxx has pitched in with positive interviews about the film and his experiences in the Arab world while he made the film. Over and over again Foxx is quoted on the entertainment blogs throughout the Internet saying, “It was wonderful.” and “We got a chance to really see how beautiful the culture is.” And he even mentions throughout the interview that his biological father is a Muslim and that gave him extra perspective and some additional insight into the culture of the region.
Saudi technical adviser Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, with whom I stayed in close contact throughout the production of this film, needs to be given special credit not only for the incredibly accurate technical aspects of the film, but also for sensitizing the film makers to the very human and compassionate side of Saudis and Saudi Arabia.
The scenes that show Saudi families relating to one another in much the same way that American families do and the examples of camaraderie between Col. Al-Ghazi and FBI agent Fluery are all very touching moments.
The movie also shows that the sense of justice in defeating the terrorists is, in the final analysis, the same for the Americans and the Saudis. Maybe we might all use this movie to help better US-Saudi understanding and the bilateral relationship.
