The Kingdom

"The Kingdom" is a very smart movie, if you can get past the history lesson during the first few minutes. The lesson, however, is essential to understanding the story. Most viewers would simply enjoy the action, which is intense, and miss the more subtle subplot, which is delicious.

I shed a tear within the first 14 minutes and was literally on the edge of my seat for the last 30 minutes. My taste for action movies was well fed by this thinking-person's shoot-em-up. Each character is very well-played by a cast of familiar faces and newcomers.

Look to the last two lines of dialogue, actually the same line uttered by two different characters, as one of many reasons peace in that part of the world has been so elusive, and why it will probably never come.

"The Kingdom" gives average Americans a look into a part of our world we think we know and understand, but which we actually lack clues of all sorts. Main characters verbalize our ignorance and learn to appreciate the strengths of other cultures which we value in our own. But only if you are really paying attention.