The Big Picture
- George Clooney and David O. Russell had a physical confrontation during the filming of Three Kings .
- Despite the conflict, Three Kings turned out to be a compelling anti-war satire, showcasing Clooney's acting talents.
- Both Clooney and Russell went on to have successful careers after Three Kings , but their collaboration ended there.
George Clooney is one of those actors who practically all of Hollywood would jump at the chance to work with. He's proven himself to be an impressive performer with his work in movies such as The Descendants, The Ides of March, Michael Clayton, and Up in the Air. He's also directed a fair number of films, most notably the stellar Good Night, and Good Luck, which he is bringing to the stage for his Broadway debut. This has led Clooney to interact with a wide range of actors and directors, and even reunite with them; Jon Watts' crime drama Wolfs will see him re-team with Brad Pitt. But there's one director that Clooney has sworn off working with, due to the fact that a confrontation between him and said director turned physical. That director? None other than David O. Russell, who directed Clooney in 1999's Three Kings.
Three Kings
RActionComedyWar Release Date September 27, 1999 Director David O. Russell Cast George Clooney , Mark Wahlberg , Ice Cube , Spike Jonze , Cliff Curtis , Nora Dunn Runtime 114 minutes Main Genre Adventure Writers John Ridley , David O. Russell ExpandWhat Is 'Three Kings' About?
Three Kings opens in the closing days of the Persian Gulf War, as Major Archie Gates (Clooney) is struggling with a heavy bout of disillusionment. After another soldier, Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg), finds a map on a deceased Iraqi soldier, Archie manages to convince him that it leads to a shipment of gold that was stolen from Kuwait. They decide to take it for themselves, but end up running into several obstacles along the way, including the uprisings against Saddam Hussein. Gates and Barlow, alongside fellow soldiers Elgin (Ice Cube) and Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze) try to stay one step ahead of the combat while holding onto their ill-gotten gains.
Three Kings marked a change of pace for both Clooney and Russell. Clooney was looking to transition from his role on ER into movies, but his previous efforts, including the infamous Batman & Robin, hadn't lit the world on fire. After reading the script for Three Kings, Clooney was blown away by it, and lobbied to play the role. (He got lucky when Nicolas Cage wound up signing on to Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead.) Russell, on the other hand, was used to working in indie films. Three Kings was his biggest project to date, which led to conflict with Clooney and other figures.
David O. Russell Was a Problem Before the Movie Started
From the jump, Three Kings was plagued with behind the scenes problems. Chief among them was conflict between Russell and Warner Bros., as the studio reduced both the shooting time and the budget over concerns about the source material. "Some people at the studio thought we might be in danger making the film — danger from terrorists," Clooney told Entertainment Weekly in a 2005 interview covering the making of Three Kings. There was also the matter of the screenplay; John Ridley originally wrote a script tilted Spoils of War, which would focus on a heist set during the Gulf War.
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When Warner Bros. approached Russell, they showed him a list of scripts and Spoils of War appealed to him due to the heist angle, which caused conflict with Ridley. Ridley ended up getting a "story by" credit on the final cut of Three Kings, but he blocked Russell's efforts to get the screenplay published in book form. "I get calls all the time from the producers and the studio asking me to please let him publish this thing. But I’ve been completely disrespected through this whole process and now they’re asking for a favor? The answer is no." Russell's also been linked to abusive incidents throughout his career. This includes screaming at Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees and putting Christopher Nolan into a headlock to demand that Jude Law drop out of filming The Prestige so that he could work with Russell.
George Clooney Hated How David O. Russell Treated People During Production
This eventually led to the infamous fist fight between Clooney and Russell. During shooting, an extra had an epileptic seizure and Clooney rushed to his aid, later taking Russell to task for his indifference. Then, in a scene featuring Ice Cube's character Elgin, an extra was having difficulty throwing him to the ground, so Russell stepped in. Clooney thought he was being too rough with the extra, which led to the two fighting and Clooney putting Russell into a headlock. Producer Charles Roven recalled the fight in detail during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
Now we’re shooting the climax of the movie. Helicopters, explosions, gunfire. It’s chaos, madness. And George sees David talking to the extras’ [assistant director], and it looks like he’s yelling at him. But he’s yelling to be heard. And George comes running over and goes, “I told you, motherf—er, if you’re going to pick on somebody, pick on me.” And David goes, “Why don’t you just f—ing remember your lines for once?” And boom! They grab each other, and they’re tussling. And so I pulled George away. That was it.
Both Clooney and Russell gave their own conflicting version of the event; Clooney told EW that he saw Russell going "nuts" on the extra and decided to step in. "So I got him by the throat. And I was yelling at him and he was screaming at me and we were at it.” Russell had a far more charged response back in 2004: "I never physically attacked him. If I ran into him, I'd say, 'Shut the fuck up, you lying-ass bitch.'"
'Three Kings' Turned Out To Be a Compelling Anti-War Satire
Despite the chaotic production, Three Kings turned out to be a truly unique war film. Part of that was due to how the film was shot, as Russell opted to use handheld cameras throughout shooting. The end result makes the audience feel like they're a part of the film, resulting in some truly disturbing sequences. Case in point: when soldier Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze) is fatally wounded, the point of view shifts to inside his body, showing a bullet piercing multiple organs. The same happens when a bullet pierces Barlow's chest, causing air to crush one of his lungs. None of this is pretty, but it's a compelling picture of the physical toll war takes on its combatants. Russell also leaves room for some truly absurd moments, including a moment in the third act where Elgin finds a Nerf football stuffed with C4...and takes out a helicopter with it.
The real highlight of the movie, however, is Clooney's performance as Gates. This is a man who's been thoroughly demoralized by war; he's sunken into a pit of debauchery and sees the heist as a way to find a sense of purpose. When he asks the other soldiers what the most important thing in life is, the answers range from respect (Barlow) to "God's will" (Elgin). Gates responds, "Necessity," and when pressed to expand upon this, he continues: "As in, people do what is most necessary to them at any given moment." This is a haunting line, made all the more haunting by Clooney's intense stare as well as the way he delivers his lines with fierce, unwavering clarity. Clooney also gets to deliver some stinging one-liners, including a bit about a map of Saddam Hussein's bunkers that should not be as funny as it is. This ability to shift between acerbic and melancholic was proof of Clooney's talents, and it's a balance he'd employ in future roles.
George Clooney and David O. Russell Hit Highs and Lows After 'Three Kings'
CloseThree Kings proved to be a major career boost for both Clooney and Russell, as they'd continue to score high profile projects and work with the cream of Hollywood's crop. Clooney would join forces with Pitt and Steven Soderbergh for Ocean's Eleven, one year after Three Kings. Russell went on to direct a trio of critical hits, including The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Hustle, pairing him with the likes of Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams and Christian Bale. But in recent years, both men have seen a dip in the reception of their projects. Clooney's last two directorial efforts, The Tender Bar and The Boys in the Boat, debuted to mixed reception, while Russell's most recent film, Amsterdam, was a star-studded box office bomb. It's a miracle the pair were able to complete Three Kings, though it's probably for the best that they never work together again.
Three Kings is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
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