Director captures origins of terrorism

Oil, Allah, vengeance -- and a socko car bombing that seems to detonate in your lap: "The Kingdom" hits you hard.

Starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner as FBI agents investigating a terrorist attack on Americans in Saudi Arabia, the film is sort of a faster, bloodier, more ruthlessly linear "Syriana."

The first couple of minutes especially caught our attention. They're given over to a lightning-speed, multimedia CliffsNotes version of events in U.S.-Saudi history -- oil springs out of the sand, America races in to suck it up, cozying up to the royal family, then fundamentalists see their country run amok with nonbelievers, yada, yada, boom: 9/11 happens.

We asked director Peter Berg about mainlining history along with violence and suspense.

Q: Why did you begin with that rundown of events in Saudi Arabia?

A: People don't know that 17 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi; they thought they were from Iraq. They don't know Osama bin Laden was from Saudi Arabia; they thought he was from Iraq. I felt we needed to make them realize that Saudi Arabia is important and relevant to their lives. But in a world where we're so obsessed with Lindsay Lohan's driving and Paris Hilton's driving, I guess it's not surprising that people don't think that much about Saudi Arabia.

Q: What made you think audiences expecting a guns-blazing action pic would digest a straight shot of sociopolitical history?

A: I think audiences are smart, and I think if you make it entertaining, they can take in anything. I liken it to getting a child to do homework. I have a 7-year-old son, and under the right circumstances, he'll do anything.

Q: Are we more primed for the fact-based tick-tock because of the success of "An Inconvenient Truth"?

A: I did talk to the company (that developed the opening sequence) and said, look, if "An Inconvenient Truth" can make global warming appealing, we should be able to make U.S.-Saudi relations, in three minutes, compelling.

Q: "The Kingdom" bears a pretty dark message about the future of U.S.-Arab relations. What's it going to take to break the cycle of violence?

A: Look at countries that are thriving in the Middle East, like Dubai -- capitalism is working in Dubai. Capitalism is policing the country. They're creating a climate that is business-friendly. If you don't have that, people will keep blowing themselves up because they have nothing to lose.

So we have to encourage investment opportunities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

Q: In those opening minutes of "The Kingdom," you make the case that 9/11 is explainable. That its roots can be traced back to clashing views and that the terrorists are not just crazies wanting their 77 virgins when they die. But don't you risk turning off audiences by humanizing the terrorists?

A: For sure, they're not just crazy people, and the roots do go way back. . . . But to not humanize them is to ignore them, and to ignore them is to become vulnerable.

By Sarah Kaufman

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