The Gulf War has just ended, Iraq has rolled over, and the US army is triumphant. Major Archie Gates (Clooney), along with Sgt. Barlow (Wahlberg) and Chief Elgin (Ice Cube), has found where one of Saddam's secret gold caches is hidden. And so they set out to retrieve the gold for themselves.
This is the first modern war movie. After The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan it's refreshing to have a film in which the main characters aren't saints in a difficult situation. It deals instead with the strange kind of war that America had in Kuwait. There are some great moments along the way, like the husband of a murdered Iraqi woman, turning out to be a graduate of an American business school. Great direction, great acting, great script: this film has it all. Much better than the overhyped Ryan, Three Kings is the quintessential war film of this generation.

An unlikely trio of prospectors (Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Tim Holt) discovers gold in the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico. They are shot at by bandits and suffer water shortages but their greatest enemy is greed, as they mistrust each other and seek to keep the gold for themselves. Based upon the novel of the same name by Berwick Traven, and shot on location, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a classic and much imitated tale of the corruptive effects of greed on the souls of men. John Huston won Oscars for screenplay and direction, and his father, Walter, won for best supporting actor. Humphrey Bogart delivers one of his most memorable and underrated performances. If you've wondered where the "stinking badges" quote came from, see this film.