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By Chris Nashawaty
Chris Nashawaty
Chris Nashawaty
Chris Nashawaty is a senior writer for EW, and author of EW.com's DVD Insomniac column

Apocalypse Now...Platoon...Full Metal Jacket...Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell have to feel a bit gypped. It's been eight years since the Gulf War generals waltzed into Iraq, and for some reason, Hollywood hasn't been able to crank out a great, defining Desert Storm movie on a par with the epics that Vietnam inspired. Instead, what we now have is David O. Russell's Three Kings — a candy-colored vision of war that's so off-kilter and different from such khaki-hued combat films as Saving Private Ryan that it'll leave you slack-jawed.

In addition to a gruesome scene where Russell traces the path of a bullet after it enters a midsection, and another set in an Iraqi bunker packed to the gills with looted Cuisinarts, Nautilus equipment, and Louis Vuitton luggage, Three Kings is bursting with images of war so surreal that they'd never show up on the History Channel. ''There were a lot of days where I was like, 'This s--- is so weird — what the hell are we doing?''' laughs one of the Kings stars, Ice Cube. ''I mean, we had a cow blowing up, and cow parts all over us.''

But perhaps the most bizarre thing about Three Kings is how a movie this indie-sharp managed to slip through the cracks of a big studio in the first place. After all, the story of four soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze) who plot to steal $23 million in gold bullion from Saddam Hussein isn't exactly the same Gulf War that aired on CNN. And behind the scenes it got even stranger, because Kings is also a tale about a maverick indie director tackling a hugely ambitious $50 million movie, a TV star looking for big-screen credibility, and a studio that doesn't exactly specialize in the offbeat making one of the weirdest movies of the '90s. Put together, it's a recipe as unstable as a flask of nitro. Three Kings could easily have become either the kind of happy accident that wins Oscars, or a clash of personalities. In this case, maybe it was both.

Two weeks before Three Kings is set to hit theaters, none of these concerns seem to penetrate David O. Russell's fortress of solitude. Then again, why would they, given that his fortress of solitude is a suite at the Four Seasons overlooking swans preening on the Boston Common? Frankly, it's a pretty swank pad for a guy who only five years ago was just another struggling wannabe unspooling his $80,000 debut film at Sundance. But that cheapie — the critically acclaimed incest comedy Spanking the Monkey — quickly led to a deal with Miramax to direct the Ben Stiller indie romp Flirting With Disaster, which, in turn, led to a slew of offers from major studios.

Assuming he's neither slept with his mother nor been adopted, the 41-year-old Russell is exactly the guy you'd imagine from watching his gut-busting films — he's kind of smart, kind of funny, and kind of off. In fact, when people who've worked with Russell describe him, phrases like ''from a different planet'' and ''not exactly a people person'' tend to come up a lot. ''He's a weirdo, and he's hard to talk to,'' says Kings star Clooney, who plays a jaded, money-hungry Army officer, ''but that's what makes his writing unique and interesting.'' Adds Nora Dunn, who plays the film's Christiane Amanpour-like war correspondent, ''David's always in the moment, but it's not always going to be the moment you're in.... He has this way of staring at you, and I always feel like saying 'Didn't your mother ever tell you that was impolite?'''


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