by Eric Ruark

Created on: January 02, 2009

Does "The Three Kings" correspond with Christ's Birth?

"Three Kings" (1999), screenplay written and directed by David Russell has more in common with Brian Hutton's "Kelly's Heroes" (1970) than it does with Christ's birth. "Three Kings" is the story of a gold heist that takes place during the first Persian Gulf War and how the men have to choose between keeping the gold or helping a group of Shia rebels. It's an action packed, humor filled film with a cutting edge message, especially if you oppose US involvement in both Persian Gulf wars. If you liked Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Telly Savalas and Don Rickles in "Kelly's Heroes", then you will like George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube in "Three Kings".

But if you are looking for similarities, either real or symbolic, with the story that's told in Matthew 2:1-16 in the New Testament, don't bother. There are none.

The story in Matthew is simple. Some wise men (no mention of the number nor whether or not they were kings) from the East come to Jerusalem in search of "the one who has been born king of the Jews." They are led to a house and find Jesus (approximately 2-years old) with his mother. They fall down and worship him by giving him gold, frankincense and myrrh and then they leave. Joseph then has a vision/warning from an angel to take his family into Egypt.

The story of the "Three" kings that we know and that has married itself to our Christmas tradition was chronicled by the fourteenth-century cleric, John of Hildesheim. In his HISTORIA TRIUM REGNUM (The History of the Three Kings), John compiled all the legends of the Magi into one story. He gave the wise men a number (three) and raised them to kingly status. He also gave them names and countries (India, Chaldea and Persia). He then related how Constantine's mother, Helena, traveled to the Holy land, found the kings' bones and brought their relics back to Constantinople. From Constantinople, the relics were moved around Europe before coming to rest in 1164 in Cologne where they are tody.

When both the Matthew and Hildesheim stories are held up to David Russell's screenplay, there is simply no comparison, which in no way denegrates the Russell screenplay. Russell's men face a crisis of conscience in which they must decide whether or not to keep the gold they have stolen at the expense of the lives of innocent men, women and children who are being persecuted because they are following the lead of the United States government who has since abandoned them.

The wise men of the New Testament have no such crisis of conscience. At no time did they ever contemplate keeping the gold, frankincense and myrrh. They were on their journey to give a specific offering to a specific individual. Russell's men were there to take, not to give. That they ended up as givers is what makes the movie so compelling.

Russell's "Three Kings" is a morality play in which his protagonists learn to do the right thing. if anything, it has more in common with the Prodigal Son story than it does with the Magi story. Regardless, it is a good movie and well worth the 114 minutes running time. This film also won the Political Film Society Award, the Critics Choice Award, and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award.

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