Two movies opening this week—the political thriller The Kingdom (pictured)and the riveting documentary Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)—have more than a dangerous foreign location in common. Both focus on current events in places that are teeming with extreme violence, fanaticism, corruption, mistrust of outsiders and the heightened dangers that come as the chasm between rich and poor widens. Both deeply unsettling movies are terrific examples of their particular genre, and leave one feeling uneasy long after they’re over.
Over the credit sequence for The Kingdom we get a quick, informative overview of the history of oil production in Saudi Arabia, which sets the stage for the violent opening sequence. In return for U.S. protection we read, the Saudis have set up protected areas for U.S. oil workers known as ‘The Kingdom’ that, in all but geographical location, emulates the United States. A lively softball game is in progress within the closely guarded compound, but the complex is attacked by a small band of terrorists—and there are horrifying results. The Saudis do not allow a special FBI unit headed by Jaime Foxx and including Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman to enter the country to investigate.
As expected, Foxx doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and, after some fancy footwork, he and his crew are allowed limited access to the crime scene in The Kingdom. Once there, however, the frustrating limits and social protocols the team of investigators are forced to endure seem designed to hamstring their every effort to find the culprits and speaks loudly to the cultural differences between the United States and the Middle East.
Foxx and his team, determined to investigate what transpired, slowly win over their suspicious Saudi compatriots, especially the head of their security force. By the time permission is finally granted for the team to proceed outside the confines of the protected area, this incredibly dangerous proposition feels palpable and has scary consequences for the team. At that point, the movie escalates into a nail-biting cat-and-mouse last half hour that’s terrifically entertaining.
Actor-director Peter Berg (who makes a cameo) follows his inspirational Friday Night Lights with a solid political thriller that also serves as a cautionary tale. But the ironic message of The Kingdom—that both sides are committed to winning at any cost, whether through peaceful means or violence—is not subtle, but also isn’t slammed over moviegoers’ heads. (However, for once could one of these action heroes not have one of those angelic-looking little kids waiting with wide-eyed innocence for their daddy’s safe return?) Perhaps the highest rave I can give the filmmakers is that, while driving home from the screening in heavy city traffic, I saw the possibility of a terrorist attack on every street corner.
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Residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil—a city of 20 million people—would understand my trepidation. As Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) which opens exclusively this Friday at Piper’s Alley, tells it, this is one of the most dangerous places on earth. This powerful and disturbing documentary, one of the best of the year, was produced and directed by first-timer Jason Kohn. It vividly shows the effect the long-term, huge divide between rich and poor has had on Brazil. Kohn’s fascinating and horrifying movie is augmented by the hottest soundtrack of the year; the sultriness of the Brazilian music underscores the film’s alluring, dangerous subject matter and adds tension and bite. Sun-drenched Sao Paulo, the movie’s primary location, is packed with dense glass and chrome skyscrapers, ringed by massive slums and is beset with violent crime, especially kidnapping. The rich ride around in bulletproof cars or fly high above the reach of the kidnappers in private helicopters. The massive city has 80 officers in its anti-kidnapping unit (who proudly display their arsenal of weaponry), a drop of water in an ocean of crime and corruption.
Many of the Sao Paulo’s wealthiest opt to have tracking devices implanted under their skin so families can trace them should they be kidnapped. But enterprising kidnappers stick grenades on the victims (or in their mouths) to keep potential rescuers at bay, and footage of one of these victims opens the movie. Cutting off the ear (s) of the kidnap victims is so common that a plastic surgeon who’s an expert at replacing them has grown rich because of the surplus of patients; the surgeon and one of his patients are extensively interviewed. Later, there is an interview with a masked professional bank robber and kidnapper—an unapologetic man with nine children to support who still lives in the slums surrounding the city and fancies himself a modern-day Robin Hood.
Kohn also focuses a great deal of footage on a corrupt politician who investigators suspect siphoned off government billions meant for the into his personal coffers—yet who remains popular with his poverty-level constituents. One of the politician’s money-laundering schemes involved the country’s largest frog farm and, throughout Manda Bala, Kohn repeatedly returns to footage of the thousands of frogs that end up being consumed by the wealthy of the country—an apt metaphor for a culture that continues to thrive feeding on its own.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com. Readers can leave feedback at the latter web site, where there is also ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.