Talk:The Kingdom (2007 film)

Removal of Brooke Langton's name

Brooke Langton did film a cameo as the wife of Kyle Chandler's character but having just returned from a sneak preview of the film, I can tell you she was not seen in the finished product, and therefore I have removed her from the cast list at the top of the pageObriensg1 04:56, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Citations

• Exclusive: The Kingdom's Peter Berg —Erik (talk • contrib) - 14:54, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Criticism section

The movie is rife with Orientalist themes. A criticism section is in order.

This is from a weblog, but nicely summarizes racist motifs in the film:

"The Kingdom": Film Review, Kabobfest.com

"The Kingdom", the new Saudi-Arabia-we-explain-it-all action flick, from the first few seconds of the preview: a condensed panorama of minarets, missiles, angry brown eyes, and falcons, always falcons. This movie, which should be called Delta Force IV: is plain evidence that the business of entertaining America has not moved beyond Chuck Norris and Not Without My Daughter. I thought we all had agreed these were cultural embarrassments never to be repeated again? Even the worst mistakes deserve a sequel I guess.

Basically, the movie is a Middle Eastern Studies grad student's wet dream paper topic. The symbolism is so clumsy it knocks you unconscious with a club foot: the most innocuous arabs are the ones you should fear the most (24), you can never tell the good arabs from the bad arabs, the only good arab is the one who kills his own people with impunity. American military and civilian bases in Saudi Arabia are ahistorical apparitions that are good and wholesome, like baseball/ Saudi Arabia has a dark, evil history full of malice and oblique camera angles. Arabs don't know what technology is and need America to help them sort out their own internal problems. And the most parano-hygienic people on the planet are dirty, sweaty monkeys at the end of the day.

Help is welcome on this section. --71.227.191.140 23:07, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

I've only seen one reliable source calling the film anti-Muslim or anti-Arab. I added it in the reviews section. Revolutionaryluddite 05:30, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Some critics have said the exact opposite. A commentator for Time magazine said "The Kingdom is the latest in a series of big-budget movies depicting the Middle East that reflect how Hollywood may be finally ditching the racist stereotypes of Arabs that dominated the film industry for decades." Revolutionaryluddite 05:36, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

A crtic for the Scottish Daily Record said "I would be the first to criticise any film that clouded such a sensitive issue with Stars 'n' Stripes heroics. The Kingdom is not, however, an excuse for American invasions of foreign soil. If anything, it's about how Arabs and westerners must work together to defeat a common enemy." Revolutionaryluddite 05:38, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I would add those quotes to the 'reviews' section, but it's already big enough. Revolutionaryluddite 03:07, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Why would the FBI be involved with a Diplomatic Security Case?

If a US embassy is blown up, wouldn't this be a law enforcement case of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security? Does the film state why an internal US law enforcement agency gets to overstep their jurisdiction? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fang Teng (talk • contribs) 05:56, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Not only that, but FBI agents probably aren't trained in commando tactics, urban warfare, and are unlikely be to experts with assault weapons or sub-machine guns. It's a movie. --The Radio Star 01:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You cannot be serious. Special agents are trained in the areas you listed. Also I'm willing to bet that you've never heard of the FBI HRT. HRT has been known to train with DEVGRU, Army CAG and British SAS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.209.131.102 (talk) 16:47, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

But the guys who do the investigation and analysis aren't the HRT guys. The HRT is for hostage resuce, not investigation. Saying the FBI are all trained like that is like saying cops have SWAT teams, so they all get trained like that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.178.69.19 (talk) 06:05, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• Why didn't I notice this in 2007? This wouldn't be a DSS case. It absolutely would fall under the FBI. Niteshift36 (talk) 17:22, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

WikiProject: Saudi Arabia

Why on Earth is this in WP:Saudi Arabia? --The Radio Star 01:19, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Why not? Other films are classified the same way; Das Boot is part of Wikipedia:WikiProject_Germany. Revolutionaryluddite 05:22, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Das Boot is a German film. And its realistic. This movie isn't Saudi and it certainly isn't realistic. Manxruler 22:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The similarly part-realistic/part-drama film The Last King of Scotland is part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa. Also, Ridley Scott's Black Rain and Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha are both part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan. Revolutionaryluddite 23:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The real question is, would Saudi Arabia ever make a film that was a realistic view about itself? I think not, they are too concerned with thier backwards religion.Rushingfn 00:18, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

This film is not realistic as you guys think , They didnt even simulate the accent well.  A M M A R  22:18, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Weapons ?

Can any one list the weapons used in this movie?--Max Mayr 21:43, 1 November 2007 (UTC) From what I recall (not a comprehensive list at all but...):

1. M-4 carbine (the initial baseball strafing scene) M16 A2 and all sorts of m16 derivatives throughout the movie

2. A sig sauer p226 pistol (seargant Haitham killing the gunmen)

3. A 5.56mm chain gun (gatling gun in the helicopter circling the scene of the explosion)

4. HK33 (although with folding bipod and all it looks more like a G3 but he fact that our hero handles it as if it were a MP5 suggests that it must be a HK33. I have yet to meet a man that can fire a G3 in burst and auto and hit)

5. Of course the bad guys favorite the AK in its many forms and types are scattered throughout the movie.....

6. Again can one ever accurately depict an Arab terrorist without throwing in some RPGs right?

7. There is also an MP5-k that actually isn't but hey this is a movie right.....

By the way the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is not a gun society as the US is. The Saudi's do not have the right to keep and bear arms (along with free speech, or similar). To suggest that there would be roaming militias operating with impunity in "freed zones" within the capital of a (often) repressive regime is a bit far fetched in my opinion. Of course there are extremist elements in the Saudi society who would more or less match the depiction in the movie but they would hardly be as openly and blatantly based in Riyadh as depicted. Most of the time you'd find them trying to stay off the radar in suburbs, ghettos or out in the dessert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.140.188.52 (talk) 08:32, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

8. UMP45 - Jennifer Garner uses it in the big shoot-out scene

9. Assault shotgun - Jamie Foxx, in the big shoot-out scene

98.118.62.140 (talk) 23:47, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

IMDB rating

only few movies' wiki entries contains IMDB user ratings. I beleve that is because it can be easily change by a group of users that gave very high score or very low score. Thus it is not a proper source. It's like thou can't cite WP articles because thou can edit it to suit your need.
So imdb rating removed. 154.5.52.224 22:59, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

WHO THE HELL WROTE THAT PLOT SUMMARY

kill it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.47.112.197 (talk) 23:19, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone else think the 'other grandson' as described in the plot summary is actually a granddaughter? Boys don't generally wear head covering that I am aware of... ZarhanFastfire (talk) 07:54, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

DVD release date

I amended the DVD release date for the following reason. It was originally supposed to come out on December 26th. that was moved to Christmas Eve. Finally all studios releasing major films to DVD right before Christmas gave stores to go ahead to put them on the shelves December 20th. I know this for a fact because I had a reserve down on "The Kingdom" HD DVD at my favorite DVD store in your average joe mall in Minnesota (not Mall of America) and I got a call that day That I cold pick up the film when I wanted. I came to the store to find a full display out for The Kingdom and Rush Hour 3. So the DVD came out 12-20-07Obriensg1 (talk) 04:36, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Western reception

I've commented out 2 positive reviews in this section so as not to give the positive reviews undue weight. Now 3 positive reviews are shown and 3 negative reviews are shown, similar to the ratio at the review aggregators Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. I think the 2 positive reviews I commented out can be uncommented when 2 more negative reviews are added to the section. The Middle Eastern reception section below appears to contain 1 negative review and 1 positive review, so those balance that section out. --Pixelface (talk) 03:30, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

grammar & spelling errors

I tried to correct, but for some reason it didn't take. Either that or someone reverted the article. Will the owner of the article please correct?

Err...Wikipedia articles don't have owners. David F (talk) 18:05, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

RPGs and SUVs

Does anyone think that the attack on the SUVs might be a nod and wink to Clear and Present Danger?150.203.110.103 (talk) 07:47, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

I thought the attack on the SUVs was just an ordinary attack on SUVs. Believe it or not, but that happens all the time in the Middle East. (Huey45 (talk) 09:03, 18 April 2010 (UTC))

^ No it doesn't —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.229.98.63 (talk) 15:16, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Plot bloat

The plot section was 1400 words. I cut 400 words. It is still over the recommended maximum of 700 words. David F (talk) 18:09, 6 September 2013 (UTC)