The Kingdom movie review

On Friday night we got out a couple of movies. Ironically they were both about terrorism and both from different views.

Interesting.

This was a very interesting movie. At the start is has a timeline of events in the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I couldn't find the same timeline so I have compiled my own timeline from what I could find off the net. I hope it has the same effect on you as it did me.

1932 - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is established.

1933 - Oil found in Saudi Arabia.

1938 - Oil is discovered and production begins under the US-controlled Aramco (Arabian American Oil Company)

1957 - Osama bin Laden born

1960 - Saudi Arabia is a founding member of Opec (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries).

1972 - Saudi Arabia gains control of a proportion (20%) of Aramco, lessening US control over Saudi oil.

1973 - Saudi Arabia leads an oil boycott against the Western countries that supported Israel in the October War against Egypt and Syria. Oil prices quadruple.

1979 - Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic relations with Egypt after it makes peace with Israel. Extremists seize the Grand Mosque of Mecca; the government regains control after 10 days and those captured are executed.

1980 - Saudi Arabia takes full control of Aramco from the US.

1981 - Bin Laden visits mujahedeen refugees and fighers in Pakistan who fled after Soviet Invastion of Afghanistan. He sympathizes with them and begins collecting funds and supplies for the mujahedeen.

1987 - Saudi Arabia resumes diplomatic relations with Egypt, severed since 1979.

1990 - Saudi Arabia condemns Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and asks the US to intervene; it allows foreign troops, the Kuwaiti government and many of its citizens to stay in Saudi Arabia but expels citizens of Yemen and Jordan because of their governments' support of Iraq. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, bin Laden volunteered to the King of South Yemen to bring all the Arab mujahedeen to protect the kingdom.

1991 - Bin Laden was about to mobilize his forces, but was disappointed to learn that the U.S. was sending forces to Kuwait.

1994 - Islamic dissident Osama Bin Laden is stripped of his Saudi nationality.

2000 - Saudi Arabia becomes the no.1 oil producer in the world, and the USA becomes the no.1 oil consumer.

2001 - 11 September - 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in attacks on New York and Washington are Saudi nationals.

I highlighted the points I found interesting.

1990, bin Laden had offered his help to the Saudi Arabians, and they turn to the U.S. for help. This probably pissed him off just a little.

It is also very interesting the way that Aramco was slowly taken over and out of the hands of the U.S.

Now, I don't know much about the history of all this, and it is hard for my feeble mind to understand all of this, but I find it very interesting to see how everything came into play, don't you?

The movie was about a bombing that happened in a U.S. facility populated by Americans in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The F.B.I then sends 4 agents to Saudi Arabia to investigate, and they in turn become targets.

It is a little biased towards Americans, but I feel that they did well to show the side of a Saudi Arabian cop. They showed him at home with his family and praying with his family. It causes the audience to sympathise with him and to see him as a human being, not as another 'arab' who is frustrating the case (to begin with).

The one line at the end of the movie is "Don't worry we will kill them all". Which leaves you feeling that the violence in this world will never end. It was a bit of a depressing end unlike the other movie we saw on the weekend.

I would recommend this movie as it gives a little insight into the history of the country and how we have ended up in the 'kufuffle' we are presently in. It is a little gory and has a bit of language but its message is worth it.

There are so many other things you pick up in this movie, but I can't go into them all as my mind is still a little 'all over the shop'. I would need to watch it again and physically write down points as I saw them.

If you've seen this movie and picked up something that I haven't written about yet, feel free to leave a comment...I'd love to hear what other people got out of it!