The Kingdom

One of the perennial complaints about Hollywood is the conspicuous lack of films about the War on Terror, six years after 9/11, especially those that depict our side as the good guys and the terrorists as evil. The Kingdom, directed by Peter Berg, has arrived to fill in this void.

In the wake of a horrific suicide bombing that slaughters over a hundred Americans at a foreign compound in Saudi Arabia, an FBI forensics team is sent to help with the investigation. Leading the team is Ronald Fleury, played by Jamie Fox. His team consists of Janet Mayers, played by Alias's Jennifer Garner, Grant Sykes, played by Chris Cooper, and Adam Leavitt played by Jason Bateman.

On one level, The Kingdom is a standard action/police procedure thriller. However, since the crime takes place in Saudi Arabia, there is, to say the least, a lot of political and cultural subtext to deal with.

The perpetrators of the terrorist outrage are a group of Osama wantabes who follow the fanatical and fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam. The Saudi monarchy would much rather not have to deal with this snake in their bosom. The Saudi Princes certainly do not want a bunch of FBI infidels tramping about their country, asking questions. The Saudis are enabled by the usual group of State Department weenie bureaucrats.

So just getting into Saudi Arabia required all of the negotiating skills that Fleury possesses. But that is just the first part of the problem. Just getting permission to do their job is a headache and a hassle.

Fortunately, the FBI's Saudi liaisons/minder in Colonel Faris al Ghazi, played by Ashraf Barhorn. Clearly Philip Berg wanted in large part of humanize some of his Arab characters and he succeeds quite a bit with Al Ghazi.

At first the relationship between Al Ghazi and the FBI agents, especially Fleury, is a bit stand offish and filled with suspicion. But soon they find that they have common ground. They are both cops whose interest is catching the evil doers and putting them away. Fleury and Al Ghazi even find out that they have watched the same dumb American produced TV shows.