Posted on 05/06/2005 3:33:56 AM PDT by Racehorse
Trust this director to turn the Crusades, a subject fit to overflow with muck and mania, zeal and bloodlust, into a delectably pretty 12th-century castle tour. Kingdom of Heaven is stultifying . . .
If you thought the Crusades were really about Christians and Muslims being nice to one another, this is the film for you. It's set during a talky respite between the Second and Third Crusades, with Jerusalem in the hands of the Christian "leper king" Baldwin IV . . .
The Saracens, led by wily old Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), are biding their time before the next recovery campaign, while our main character, the blacksmith Balian . . . is that rare Crusader who has no particular religious beef and generally prefers to stay out of trouble. . . . you couldn't accuse it of being anti-Islam, anti-Christian, pro either, or ultimately pro anything. It's a paragon of vapid fairness.
[. . .]
. . . Kingdom of Heaven, . . . comes very close to blaming just two power-hungry Knights Templar . . . for generations of religious warfare . . .
[. . .]
. . . These historical epics can preach a vague anti-war message until they're blue in the face, but their bellicose showmanship and swooping adoration of combat tell a different story.
And while Scott's latest boasts the requisite money shots, fireballs bombarding Jerusalem as the Saracen siege towers totter and tumble, it looks edited in a hurry - key sequences never find their rhythm, and the pacing is sluggish and uncertain. The longer cut that Scott intends to release on DVD may iron out some of these problems. But only an enormous injection of added purpose could bring this comatose epic back to life.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
"It's a paragon of vapid fairness."
LOL!! Thats a funny line.
I'm going to skip this one.
Yeah why not. Buy a ticket and support their crap.
Support whose crap?
Yes, it appears to be another PC revision of history. On O'Reilly last night the director was on and from what I gathered, he's made Saracen, the Muslim marauder who slaughtered millions of Christians, into the hero of the movie. I'm sure the Islamists will love it and will rededicate their efforts to have Jerusalem as their capital.
They feel an irresistable urge to write things the way they wish they were in the mistaken belief that their fiction is more compelling than the truth. When you have the slightest inkling of the truth, the fiction is just plain tasteless. It would be like choosing an evening with a cardboard cutout of Ann Coulter instead of the real thing.
In the end, contemporary Hollywood epics fall flat because they are just a bit of eye candy pasted onto Hollywood's standard philosophical fare that is behind everything else they do.
You of course meant Saladin, the Muslim marauder........who, just to make things more interesting, was in real life apparently a Kurd. The Kurdish peoples were much stronger before the Turks conquered the whole region.
It will be on the shelf in about 3 months, why give money away support crap?
I'd pay to see an accurate film on Mohammad though, show him for what he really was, which would make Ghingis Khan look like an alter boy.
Support the crap this Director and others in Hollywood are putting out. When you buy a ticket you are supporting these people. Thats should be pretty easy for anyone to figure out.
During the period of “enlightened” Muslim rule, the Christians of Iberian Toledo, who had first submitted to their Arab Muslim invaders in 711 or 712, revolted in 713. In the harsh Muslim reprisal that ensued, Toledo was pillaged, and all the Christian notables had their throats cut.
Those who were brought in alive [having surrendered] were beheaded, after which a tower of skulls was erected in the camp.
Islam is truly a "religion" of peace and is constantly "reaching out" in the true spirit of ecumenism.
This is where we agree. The director wants the hype and discord because that will induce more and more people to PAY for a seat, if only out of curiosity. Unfortunately, when the director sits in his multi million dollar mansion and laughs at all the fools who parted with their hard earned money, he has it both ways. Beat us up AND took our lunch money! Not mine!!! Those people who will bash my values, my morals, people who will unashamedly bash the Catholic Church (THE oldest institution made by man, held by man and known to man on earth)I say, when these money grubbing autodidacts cash in on their own hatred and stupidity, they only do it with the support of consumers who are not astute enough to BOYCOTT this propaganda (because that is what it IS). Remember, the dollar is the loudest voice in their world. Heck, I'm not even Catholic and I am angry about this!
. . . Kingdom of Heaven, . . . comes very close to blaming just two power-hungry Knights Templar . . . for generations of religious warfare . . .
This is the same guy who did Blackhawk Down, which I thought was a darn good movie. This film may not have the same tight and fast action as Blackhawk, but it still looks to provide good entertainment, especially on the really really big screen where I plan to see it.
What is hard to figure out are those who bash the film without having seen it. Now that's crap.
Should posters who have seen the movie start bashing it, I might reconsider buying a ticket.
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Perfect headline !!!
And don'tcha just know it's gotta be loved by every pig worshiping Muzzle-em !!! ;-))
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