The first good movie Mark Wahlberg made “without having to beg for it”
Mark Wahlberg is a bit like an old car.
Most of the time, he is broken down and rubbish; he can’t do hill starts, he can’t wipe his windows properly, and you’re pretty sure one of his wheels is about to fall off. However, every once in a while, the car functions properly, and you are so bloody happy.
His career is littered with truly dreadful movies, but it only takes one good day for everyone to be happy with him again, and one example from his filmography of this is Three Kings. Released in 1999, the film follows the fortunes of three American soldiers, played by George Clooney, Ice Cube, and our old pal Marky Mark, at the end of the Gulf War as they stumble across a map that supposedly leads to a huge stash of buried treasure.
It sounds like it could stray into goofy Tintin territory, but critics absolutely ate it up, with Three Kings often cited as one of the reasons that 1999 was such a premium year for film.
Reviewers praised the movie on multiple fronts: on the surface, it’s a fun action romp full of great set pieces, a fun story, and strong chemistry between the three leads, but on a deeper level, it speaks to a wider truth about Western involvement in the Middle East, such that even non-critical cinemagoers lapped it up, carrying the movie to a very healthy box office return.
Wahlberg was one of the many people who benefited from being involved in this film. He’d proven his worth on an indie level two years earlier with Boogie Nights, but this was the first time he’d struck the balance between critical acclaim and financial triumph, and reflecting on this time with Entertainment Weekly, the Boston-born star revealed just how important it was that he got this gig.
”It was the first time I was offered a good movie role without having to beg for it,” he said, ”David probably had me in mind because he dislikes me and figured, ‘Who better to beat the shit out of while he’s tied down than Mark Wahlberg?’ He probably took a poll and asked all guys, especially guys with girlfriends. And all of my ex-girlfriends.”
The ‘David’ he is referring to is David O Russell, the film’s director, for whom this was his third feature and one of the first to show signs that he was a special talent. This genius comes at a price, however, as the filmmaker has been dogged by claims of on-set bullying, a short fuse, and was also accused of sexual misconduct by his niece, but that is a separate issue. Plus, Clooney bore the brunt of Russell’s fury on Three Kings, with the two almost getting into a fistfight.
Even if he did explain it in the most ‘Mark Wahlberg’ way possible, the star is seemingly very grateful for the opportunities that Three Kings provided, even working with Russell two more times in I Heart Huckabees and The Fighter, despite the various claims against him.
