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Jamie Kennedy, Sara Oyez, Ardis Gilcoate.
Director: David O. Russell
Running time; 125 minutes
Age restriction: No under 16

THE title of this film is decidedly misleading. Nowhere in the film’s two and a half-hours is the word used or even implied.
On the other hand, there is no cause for objection: In our modern day the quickest and surest route to becoming a king is to amass an inordinate sum of money. And that’s exactly what appears to happen to three soldiers in the American army and completely unexpectedly.

The time is 1991; the month is March. I remember it well, as I was following events in the Middle East very closely. By attacking, overrunning and swallowing up the sovereign state of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s leader, had given the United Nations the excuse and pretext, felt needed, to put before the United Nations a motion which resulted in a UN resolution declaring Iraq an outlaw state.
Surprisingly, the war, which the UN levelled against this so-called “outlaw state” revealed something little expected or suspected: a not insignificant percent of the Iraqi army supported their leader, Saddam.

The current film is not in the least loath in showing us scenes of the most gruesome and blood-curdling savagery. But that is only on its outer edges. The basis for the film’s title is presented to the audience early on but then, seemingly glided over until virtually its conclusion.

Have you ever seen gold in the state in which it is stockpiled in a country’s warehouses? In this film you will see plenty of it; we are told it is the gold which Saddam’s forces liberated from Kuwait, and which represented the enormous wealth held by this small, underpopulated country due to its inordinate possession of seemingly endless supplies of oil.
At the very time the world was living with the fear that the era of dependency on oil was going to result in no end of grief.

Three American soldiers, played by George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube, stumble across this massive stockpile and are overcome with the all too human characteristic of cupidity, greed to you, and plot the steps necessary to retain possession of it.
An extremely worthwhile film from which you’ll emerge knowing many useful things of which you are currently ignorant.