The Kingdom (film)
The Kingdom | |
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Directed by | Peter Berg |
Written by | Matthew Michael Carnahan |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Mauro Fiore |
Edited by |
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Music by | Danny Elfman |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $70–72.5 million[3][4] |
Box office | $87 million[4] |
The Kingdom is a 2007 action thriller film directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, and Jennifer Garner. The film is set in Saudi Arabia, and is based on the 1996 bombing of the Khobar housing complex, also on the 2004 Khobar massacre and the two 2003 bombings of four compounds in Riyadh. It was released in the United States on September 28, 2007.
Plot
Al-Qaeda terrorists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, detonate an explosive at an American oil company housing compound, killing both American and Saudi citizens. A suicide bomber, disguised as a police officer, blows himself up and terrorists shoot at the survivors before they are stopped by Sergeant Haytham of the Saudi State Police. Francis Manner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, alerts his colleague, Special Agent Ronald Fleury, to the attacks before being killed by a second bomb.
At
The team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled where Fleury convinces the Prince that Colonel al-Ghazi is a better fit to lead the investigation. With this change in leadership, the Americans are allowed direct to the crime scene. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham and Sykes discover the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance and that the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to ambulances and police uniforms. Al-Ghazi orders a raid by the Saudi Emergency Force on a terrorist stronghold, killing several of them. Afterward, Fleury's team discovers clues, including photos of the U.S. and other Western embassies in Riyadh. The U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt notifies Fleury and his team that they have been ordered to return to the United States.
On their way to
While Sykes and Haytham watch the entrance to the complex, al-Ghazi, Fleury, and Mayes follow a blood trail and kill many gunmen inside. Mayes, separated from the others, finds the room holding Leavitt and saves him just in time. As al-Ghazi and the team start to leave. Fleury then realizes there is a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment, where a family stays. After noticing several clues, al-Ghazi realizes the grandfather, Abu Hamza, is the terrorist leader. Hamza's teenage grandson walks out of the bedroom and shoots al-Ghazi in the neck, then points his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him. Al-Ghazi bleeds out in Fleury's arms. Hamza pulls out an assault rifle and is killed by Haytham. As Hamza dies he whispers something to his other grandchild.
At Al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet and comfort his family. Fleury and his team return to the U.S., where they are commended by the FBI Director for their work. Leavitt asks Fleury what he whispered to Mayes, earlier in the film, to get her to stop crying over Manner. Fleury responds that he had told Mayes "we were gonna kill 'em all". Elsewhere, Hamza's daughter asks her son about his grandfather's last words; The boy tells his mother, "Don't fear them, my child. We are going to kill them all".
Cast
- Special AgentRonald Fleury
- Chris Cooper as Special Agent Grant Sykes
- Jennifer Garner as Special Agent Janet Mayes
- Jason Bateman as Special Agent Adam Leavitt
- Ashraf Barhom as Colonel Faris Al-Ghazi, Saudi State Police
- Ali Suliman as Sergeant Haytham, Saudi State Police
- Jeremy Piven as Damon Schmidt
- Richard Jenkins as FBI Director Robert Grace
- Tim McGraw as Aaron Jackson
- Kyle Chandler as Special Agent Francis Manner
- Frances Fisher as Elaine Flowers
- Danny Huston as US Attorney General Gideon Young
- Kelly AuCoin as Ellis Leach
- Anna Deavere Smith as Maricella Canavesio
- Minka Kelly as Miss Ross
- Amy Hunter as Lyla Fleury
- T.J. Burnett as Kevin Fleury
- Omar Berdouni as Saudi Prince Ahmed Bin Khaled.
- Raad Rawi as Prince Thamer
- Mahmoud Said as Brigadier General Al Abdulmalik
- Tom Bresnahan as DSS Agent Rex Burr
- Trevor St. John as Earl Ripon
- Ashley Scott as Janine Ripon
Production
Prior to filming, director
While shooting on location in Mesa, Berg was involved in a fatal accident that resulted in the death of another crew member. The SUV he was riding in collided with a John Deere Gator all-terrain vehicle driven by assistant property master Nick Papac. Papac died three hours later. On August 8, 2008, Papac's parents Michael Papac and Michele Bell filed a lawsuit against the director, a driver, and the production company.[7] The lawsuit was dropped in 2008.[8] Filming resumed one day after the incident.
On-location filming took place in
The film's production cost an estimated $70–72.5 million.[3][4]
Reception
Critical response
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 51% based on 189 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While providing several top-notch action scenes, The Kingdom ultimately collapses under the weight of formula and muddled politics."[12] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has an average weighted score of 56 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Middle Eastern reception
Faisal Abbas, media editor of the London-based international Arabic journal
In a review titled One good Arab for
Box office performance
The Kingdom grossed $47.5 million in the United States and $39 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $86.6 million.[23]
The film grossed $17.1 million in 2,733 theatres in the United States and Canada in its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office.[24] It also grossed £919,537 in the United Kingdom,[3] about $1.9 million.[25]
See also
- Insurgency in Saudi Arabia
- Counter-terrorism
- War on terror
References
- ^ "The Kingdom (2007)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
- ^ "The Kingdom". Lumiere. European Audiovisual Observatory. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
- ^ a b c "The Kingdom". Box Office Mojo.
- ^ a b c "The Kingdom (2007) – Financial Information". Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^ a b "Exclusive: The Kingdom 's Peter Berg - ComingSoon.net". 21 September 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^ "ASU Campus makes big screen debut in 'Kingdom'". ASU State Press. October 1, 2007. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007.
- ^ "'Hancock' director sued over death". CNN. 2008-08-08. Archived from the original on August 14, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
- ^ "Lawsuit dropped against director Berg". ContactMusic. 2008-12-08. Archived from the original on 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
- ^ Jaafar, Ali (December 3, 2006). "Dubai surfaces as regional film hub". Variety.
- ^ "Nos. 51 and 52: Peter Berg, Director of The Kingdom". 19 September 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^ Gorov, Lynda (September 23, 2007). "Feeling the heat". The Boston Globe.
- IGN Entertainment. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
- CNET Networks. Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- ^ "Home". CinemaScore. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
- ^ Podhoretz, John (October 8, 2017). "One for the Good Guys". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ^ Scott, A. O. (September 28, 2007). "F.B.I. Agents Solve the Terrorist Problem". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ Travers, Peter (October 4, 2007). "The Kingdom". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ^ "The Kingdom". The A.V. Club. Sep 27, 2007.
- ^ "Movie Review: The Kingdom". Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ Bayoumi, Moustafa. "The Race is On." Middle East Report, March 10, 2010. Accessed on January 13, 2022.
- ^ Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English) Archived October 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "One good Arab". The Guardian. October 29, 2007.
- ^ "The Kingdom (2007) – International Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
- ^ "The Kingdom (2007) – Weekend Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
- ^ "Currency Converter – Yahoo! Finance". Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
External links
- Official website
- The Kingdom at IMDb
- The Kingdom at AllMovie
- Article about the banning of "The Kingdom" from Babylon & Beyond, the Los Angeles Times' Middle East blog