The Kingdom

The movie started out very well. It was shocking and convincing and then it just deteriorated into the usual crap Hollywood adventure movie where you have this "Team America" of heroes from the US who have to come in and wipe out the bad guys because the Saudis were not smart enough to do it themselves.

There was far too much gratuitous violence whereby our heroes narrowly escape death twenty times a minute but still manage to take out the bad guys.

Its a shame. It could have been a great movie but in the end just catered for the low IQ masses who do not have the patience to think. Syriana was much better and much more thought provoking. If you want a good movie, you need to involve George Clooney.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. Mahatma Gandhi

I left the movie after watching for about 30 min. Reason; couldn't cope with the way they were vigorously moving camera from one spot to another, you know what I mean. I don't know who told these directors that vigorous movement of camera from one spot to another creats better cinematography. I think it only shows that the movie is a low budget one.

pigheadedness??? I beg your pardon, my dear...I resemble that remark...lmao...

Cheers guys

t-coffee-or-me, did I not make it clear that your kind of post was not what I was looking for? You have done this before and I find it annoying beyond belief!

"My personal opinion is that it was a pretty gutwrenching hour and a half, and that certain things were scarily similar to Doha. But on the other hand, it shows the difference between the societies that a film like this can be shown here, like 5 times a day!"

Pretty sure I made it clear that we MY PERSON OPINION. Im sure you are just wonderful in real life, but your pointless hot air is not at all what I want to read.

Others - cheers, Im quite surprised to be honest. My comment about the similarity was nothing to do with the incident, but the setting. For instance some of the old shops and stuff reminded me a bit of the souqs. (which I think is fairly obvious as it was filmed in Abu Dhabi for thos scenes)

I thought that it was quite a brave film, because it does show the pigheadedness of the American attitude, but also how that can be tempered to work well with others - they bade their time, worked by the rules, and in the end got what they wanted.

So thanks again - I'll see what I can put together!

it was an absorbing movie ....but to me it was too much of a balancing act.they seemed to be going all out in order not to hurt anyone s feelings.i thought it took away from reality a little bit..in spite of all that it still did get managed to get banned in KSA.BY THE WAY IF YOU DO A SEARCH YOU WILL FIND A LITTLE MORE DISCUSSION ON THE KINGDOM IN AN TOPIC BY PM.

do it right - the first time!

I'm behind the times...I must go google!

Did anyone ever see East is East the British film. Very funny and true but banned in Egypt if I remember correctly.

in fact, saw it twice because I wanted my husband to see it too. yes, they took a LOT of creative license with it..and in another post like this one about The Kingdom...the audience, Muslims and expats were laughing and crying at the same things...I don't think it portrayed the Americans in a bad light, nor do I think it portrayed the Saudis in a bad light...to me it was a very good balancing act. The final comments certainly make you think, tho...

Thatguy...ahh come on...yes there were some issues with the inability to understand other cultures but it went both ways...what about the PINK comment and having to uninvite someone???

you should air your views before soliciting our views

I guessed as much you are a journalist so please use your brains for a change

I would rather have one rose and a kind word from a friend while I'm here

Than a whole truck load when I'm gone

I lived in Jeddah and Riyadh for several years and I found the Kingdom pretty fairly depicted as a society with a couple of obvious oversights, i.e. Saudi men wearing yellow gold and the discrepancies in geography/cityscapes (Arizona is close but really not Saudi as I know it). I draw no political opinions, however, but in my many years there I came to know Saudis as kind, family oriented and generous people who would have no hesitation in punishing those who kill others so from that perspective, it was correct in many ways. I have to say the aftermat of the bombing at the compound scence was very true to life for me as I've experienced that first hand including the desperation and helplessness of the folks still living there. It was superbly done in many ways but creatively licensed in many more. All in all, worth seeing for more than entertainment value. Hope this is a little bit useful to you.

uh ...just curious but how does it show similarity of doha... considering the fact that there hasnt been any activity like this in years...

and the only investigations going on are those about who hit who in a car accident...

i my self went to the theater and saw it and some one said 'boom' before the actual bomb went off and it didnt have any ill effect towards anyone because everyone here knows that this is the least of there worries...

the biggest concern here is going threw round abouts

but as for the movie... i dont think it was gut wrenching at all and it depicted the american way of thinking to the T... so as for a movie it was great... and made us americans look foolish to our inability to understand other cultures at times...

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just hanging out and watching dvd's with helen keller... kind of a quite night.