The Kingdom is a conundrum of a film. On the one hand, it is unusual in its efforts to depict a connection between Islamic extremism and Saudi Arabia, and it does deliver a powerhouse woman character. On the other hand, that woman character is the only woman with more than a few lines in the movie, and the story – on the face if it – is yet another ‘America is good, Arab cultures are bad’ tale.

Directed by Peter Berg and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, It begins with an attack by al-Qaeda on an American oil company housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is a coordinated, devastating attack that combines an initial bomb, gunfire from a hijacked car,...

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