'The Kingdom' a Prescient Portrayal of Relentless Ghost in the Terrorist Machine

CHICAGO - In 1967, author Arthur Koestler wrote the non-fiction book "The Ghost in the Machine".

The title has come full circle with Friday's release of "The Kingdom" whereby the ghost - an Osama bin Laden-like extremist - must be extricated from his clandestine machine of terrorists.

Even if you could smoke out the ghost in the machine, the most disquieting concept of such a search-and-destroy mission is much like what happens with the mythical Hydra creature. When Heracles decapitated one of the monster's heads, another grew right back in its place.

Such can be said about today's terrorist leaders. Even when offing a big fish, the mere action itself fanatically rouses another to rise in his place.

In "The Kingdom," which can be thought of as the anti-"Syriana," wild-man director Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights," "The Rundown") touches with grave timeliness on modern-day fears through excellently evocative histrionics and relatively accurate portrayals of the abomination that is life and war in Saudi Arabia.

Following blood-splattering carnage in broad daylight, FBI agents Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman are surreptitiously dispatched from the U.S. to the scene in Riyadh to recreate the chaos and punish the executioners.

Life there - with several American families dangerously trying to live in local harmony - is a perplexing and ferocious wake-up call for many of us who lead relatively normal American lives.

The film was actually shot in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates along with at Arizona State University; in Phoenix; in Mesa, Ariz.; and in Washington, D.C.

As you could imagine, diplomats are hamstrung with slow debates of territorialism. The FBI agents quickly learn that Saudi authorities are leery and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they consider a local matter.

They nonetheless permit them local access, impart as much safe passage as possible and work as a team to bridge two innately dissimilar cultures.