Re: [Marxism] Crusades

["Paul H. Dillon" <illonph@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

and also showing the historical greatness of Saladin which is the film's
redeeming grace.

I saw an interesting spot about the flick on one of the Sunday morning
Sunday morning shows.  Turns out the actor who played Saladin is a Syrian
who stated that he has dreamed since childhood of playing Saladin on film.

Paul


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Walters" <dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "marxism-digest" <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 3:01 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Crusades


> One sees a Ridely Scott film of the battles, not the plot.
>
> I tend to agree with Paul: Christian raids on Arab caravans, provocative
> and opportunist behavior by the Christian Church in Jerusalem, great
> military war machines, and so on.
>
> Islam is portrayed as noble, strong and progressive, Christianity is
> portrayed as I've said above, however, with the 'liberal' character of
> Ballian saying lines that could of been written by anyone giving a sermon
> at the Unitarian church ... that is, liberal Hollywood.
>
> This film seeks to condemn the Crusades as such but resurrect "good
> Christian" behavior in it's stead through the character of Ballian and his
> father (played by Liam Neeson) and even the leper-scarred "King of
> Jerusalem" who seemingly wants to make up for the all past sins of
> Christian's assault on Islam via the Crusades.
>
> The plot is, in my view, is a  take off of the 1961 epic "El Cid", about
> the conquest of Moslem Spain by the forces of the Church. In this epic,
> Charleston Heston, playing El Cid, wins the famous battle of Granada
> (1492) and pledges, like Ballian in "Kingdom of Heaven", to stand for a
> kind of secular rejuvenation of Spain "where Moslems, Christians and Jews"
> can all just get along. The reality is that El Cid, et al, destroyed  that
> from happening by the Catholic armies of Ferdinand and Isabel essentially
> wiping out any Moslem and Jewish presence in the Iberian peninsula.
>
> This kind of historical revisionism permeate s"Kingdom of Heaven" while at
> least admitting the real reasons for the Crusades: land, money and power.
>
> David Walters
>
>
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