← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · JoseyWales
Thread ID: 17981 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2005-04-26
2005-04-26 21:52 | User Profile
[url]http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808529407&cf=info[/url]
i seen a blurb about it on tv, anyone think it will be any good ?
2005-04-26 22:36 | User Profile
You can view a trailer in here:
[url]http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/kingdom_of_heaven/international/[/url]
Petr
2005-04-27 16:30 | User Profile
I truly hope it is in the style of the adventure books of years ago, where the gallant Western, Christian knights overcame tremendous odds and pushed the dangerous Sarcens back from the Christian holy places. I'm not holding my breath, however. I am expecting something more along the lines of -- a devout, young man joins up to march East because he is duped into thinking it is a just cause. After endless, heavy-handed scenes of sadistic, self-righteous, racist, and sexually-repressed Christians being mean to the noble, tolerant, cultured Muslims for absolutely no reason whatsoever except Hate, the boy will become disillusioned with his Christian faith and will realize that everybody is actually completely equal, except for white Christians, who are much worse than everyone else. So, I have a little tiny bit of hopeful optimism countered by a huge amount of healthy skepticism.
2005-04-27 16:48 | User Profile
I dug up a few more things.
An article in The New York Times, which attempted to stir up controversy by supplying a number of academics with a purloined copy of the script, quoted one expert on Islamic history as saying the movie would teach people to hate Muslims by propagating stereotypes of them as "retarded, backward [and] unable to think in complex form". Hey, that's sounds promising. But don't get too excited. An article in the 'Telegraph' quoted several British academics who believed the film (which no one has seen) pandered to Islamic fundamentalism by portraying the Muslims as sophisticated and civilised and the Crusaders as brutes and barbarians. And then, there is the piece de resistance, a quote from the director, Ridley Scott, himself. According to Scott, though, it's actually the Christian forces that come off worst. "All you've got to do is tell the truth," says the director. "The whitest knight was Saladin and the worst fundamentalists were Christian. They made the problem." Ah, yes, if only the Christians hadn't forced the poor Mohammedan dears to invade the Christian Middle East. Those evil Christians! Well, we'll see, I suppose. I'm not terribly optimistic.
2005-04-27 17:18 | User Profile
Quantrill - you confirmed my own doubts as well.
2005-04-27 18:34 | User Profile
[QUOTE]According to Scott, though, it's actually the Christian forces that come off worst. "All you've got to do is tell the truth," says the director. "The whitest knight was Saladin and the worst fundamentalists were Christian. They made the problem." [/QUOTE]
Well, Ridley Scott is a great director but apparently an opportunist as well. He's taking advantage of the disastrous George Bush presidency, where his "Christian" army is currently slaughtering Muslims, as well as pleasing his Jewish Hollywood masters' ongoing program of 'only-White-Christian-Europeans-can-be-bad-guys-in-movies'.
Whatever it is, it's NOT the truth, Ridley Scott.
2005-04-28 15:18 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill] I am expecting something more along the lines of -- a devout, young man joins up to march East because he is duped into thinking it is a just cause. After endless, heavy-handed scenes of sadistic, self-righteous, racist, and sexually-repressed Christians being mean to the noble, tolerant, cultured Muslims for absolutely no reason whatsoever except Hate, the boy will become disillusioned with his Christian faith and will realize that everybody is actually completely equal, except for white Christians, who are much worse than everyone else. [/QUOTE] Iââ¬â¢ve heard, via synopses, that the movie is ââ¬Ëeven-handedââ¬â¢ in its portrayal of the opposing sides; this normally entails that all the non-Europeans are entirely virtuous while not all the Europeans are irredeemably evil. The central character, played by the ever vacuous Orlando Bloom, starts the plot as an atheist but finds religion along the way, albeit a somewhat fuzzy humanist version of Christianity. His original disillusionment with Christianity was due to the (mis?)deeds of eeeeevil fundamentalists Christians. Iââ¬â¢m unaware if any eeeevil fundamentalist Muslims are portrayed.
The movie actually sounds like it may be rather good, but I fear Bloom is far too lightweight for the subject matter. Considering the movieââ¬â¢s director and historical theme heââ¬â¢s hardly going to compare favourably to Russell Crowe.
2005-04-30 00:18 | User Profile
The film sounds like it might be ok, but not great. It may be better than most of the trash hollywood puts out. Saladin was a blond Kurd and so many of his knights. He is most often shown in a somewhat positive light even by the Christian historians. The Turks often used white europeans to do their fighting for them.
"Despite his fierce opposition to the Christian powers, Saladin achieved a great reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight, so much so that there existed by the 14th century an epic poem about his exploits, and Dante included him among the virtuous pagan souls in Limbo. The noble Saladin appears in a sympathetic light in Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman (1825)."
2005-05-02 00:12 | User Profile
I think the movie will be good as it relates somewhat to our own crusade to democritize the middle east.
History also bears out Saladin as being chivalorous(spelling) You may say Saladin presents a case of revisionism. For many years(more like centuries) Saladin in Europe was more than likly thought as the demon that thwarted God's will. I'm sure many Europen scholars throughout the centuries fond evidence oppisite of what they were told but did not reveal it for fear of persicution. Does it sound like some things today?
I was watching Chris Mathews and he interviewed Ridley Scott. CM interjected about Israel taking away Jerusalm from Jordan saying they had the right to. Scott did not reply.
The Jews in Hollywood let Ridley Scott make this movie because many Jewish historians regard Saladin as a liberator of Jews living in the holy land. Back then Arabs were good so long as they were doing things that were of great benefit to the Jews.
2005-05-02 18:20 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust]"Despite his fierce opposition to the Christian powers, Saladin achieved a great reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight, so much so that there existed by the 14th century an epic poem about his exploits, and Dante included him among the virtuous pagan souls in Limbo. The noble Saladin appears in a sympathetic light in Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman (1825)."[/QUOTE] Yes, although he was Christendom's mortal foe, I have always understood Saladin to have been an honorable and upstanding warrior. That is one of the hallmarks of Western Civilization -- the ability to respect an honorable enemy, even while recognizing that his cause is unjust.
2005-05-02 18:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill]a devout, young man joins up to march East because he is duped into thinking it is a just cause. After endless, heavy-handed scenes of sadistic, self-righteous, racist, and sexually-repressed Christians being mean to the noble, tolerant, cultured Muslims for absolutely no reason whatsoever except Hate, the boy will become disillusioned with his Christian faith and will realize that everybody is actually completely equal, except for white Christians, who are much worse than everyone else.[/QUOTE]
Dang, its like I've seen that movie 500 times already, albeit with different actors, locations, plot devices, etc. I wonder why a cinematic industry, devoted entirely to profit, of course, would conclude that was the best way to go about fleecing the White Christians at $9 a pop (you literally have to pay nine dollars if you want a soda pop to drink while you're at the movies, and don't get me started about how much the freakin' tickets cost) would be to constantly portray them as worthless piles of ignorant, sadistic, cruel, dishonest, cyncial, hypocritical morons who are only born on this Earth so that they may experience the humiliation of their just defeat by a morally and culturally superior person from, well, anywhere but Europe, essentially. It seems a strange premise from which to operate a multi-trillion dollar, profit-driven, entertainment enterprise directed primarily towards persons of European lineage. Very strange.
You think, just maybe, there might be some other motive involved?
2005-05-05 01:34 | User Profile
I thought it looked interesting til I watched the preview--the White Christian Knight goes after the dark 'exotic' girl--more AMALGAMATIONISM...
:twisted: