The Kingdom

I pray that this is not a new filmmaking trend and a question comes to mind: Is everyone really going to unsuccessfully play second-rate Paul Greengrass from now on? The words of an overseas film critic who wrote that Berg invited a "permanently dancing monkey" to operate the camera sound true. Even in static shots, the chaotic shuffling of the camera from side to side, up and down, which, sitting about 10 m in front of the big screen, led to sore eyes and, after half an hour, I had the feeling I had overdosed on Kinedryl. Greengrass owns this filmmaking style, he's mastered it perfectly and gave Bourne an interesting flair. But in your case, Peter Berg, was it really necessary? Because otherwise the actors, led by the charismatic Foxx, were superb, the Saudi realism fantastic and the final action breathtaking in places. If Berg became convinced that his pseudo-documentary approach with a camera unleashed could draw the viewer more into the plot, in my case it completely missed the mark. The last two sentences of the film are great, a simple and yet so apt description of the never ending struggle between the Western world and the Islamic one! By the way, for the first time in my life I had the experience of being in the cinema completely alone! (10/28/2007)

Michael Mann has laid his guardian hands on Peter Berg and the result is a quite provocative contribution to the problem of the current sores of the Western world, i.e., terrorism emanating from Muslim countries. Yes, it's all driven by the mainstream, which doesn't allow it to be as biting in some ways as it might like, but the filmmakers still managed to go further than, for example, their colleagues with Blood Diamond. The film's train of thought is mainly that even an ordinary Muslim wants to be a peaceful person whose concerns are his faith and his own family, and that fanaticism is the work of others. Berg manages to imbue these interviews with a fair amount of authorial sensitivity, drawing decent truths about both worlds from the many words spoken. However, in order to avoid falling into boredom, he lets the actors deliver hard-hitting catchphrases and at the end, he serves up some major action that sits the viewer in their armchair in such a way that nothing that could match it this season will stick in the memory. The scene with the car-jacking and subsequent kidnapping is, in my opinion, the most effectively escalating scene of the year, which also ties in with the London station stakeout in The Bourne Ultimatum. As a person who studies the issues in the Middle East and terrorism, I was quite pleased with The Kingdom, but as a casual viewer, I was perfectly settled and entertained. PS: To say that it is mainly the work of Michael Mann is nonsense, if only for the different functionality and emotional impact of some scenes. It's like saying that Spielberg actually made Transformers and not Bay. (10/16/2007)

The craft is excellent, Berg does a good job with the action, although it all seems so polished that it is impersonal. The schematism in the world vision can be carried away, you can feel how much the screenwriter tried to plastically see the problem. Not that it is completely successful - the overall message in the style of "we all have families and we love them, so we are just people" is pleasantly dulled by the final point. I don't know if the creators wanted to suppress that cleverly cynical message at the last minute, and I really didn't understand the choice of music. Given the acting and the really frenetic and swollen last twenty minutes, The Kingdom will definitely pay off... A mastered genre film, but Peter Berg still lacks considerable dose of individuality to achieve the brilliance of Mann or Scott. (01/18/2009)

The Kingdom is a precisely constructed and directed thriller with a generic plot that very much conforms to the American geopolitical agenda of the time, but also attempts to disguise its propagandistic dimension by building kitsch-laden sympathies for some of the characters of other nationalities. In the end, it even allows itself to poke at the supposed moral superiority and unambiguous firm resolve. But, of course, it remains solely at the level of an easily digestible mainstream flick that resolutely does not go against the grain. However, the effectively built team of main characters, each with their own role in the narrative, and especially the action are definitely worthy of praise. Though viewers will have to wait until the end for that, it is the natural culmination of the preceding events and the depicted characters, and above all it is realised with an outstanding symbiosis of dramatic construction, spatial topography, nervous camerawork and quick editing, as well as astonishing physical dynamics. (01/12/2021)

The Kingdom is a technically solid and, with the exception of the bittersweet ending, rather intelligent thriller. Dealing with the pressing issue of terrorism is as important for the film as the spectacular yet realistically portrayed action. In the end, however, it is clear that Peter Berg is more at ease with the action. It’s also a pity that the movie ends at the moment when it finally gets going. This leaves the audience entertained but not satisfied. In time, The Kingdom will become outdated like, for example, Rules of Engagement. (10/04/2007)