Rink
04-29-2005, 03:17 AM
28/04/2005 BBC News - By Neil Smith
Kingdom of Heaven, a $130m (£69m) epic directed by British film-maker Sir Ridley Scott, has its US premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday.
But it has already attracted criticism for its recreation of the 12th Century battle for Jerusalem between Christian crusaders and the Muslim leader Saladin.
With films like Blade Runner, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, Sir Ridley has taken audiences on epic journeys into space, the past and the future.
But his latest project has uncomfortable resonances in the present, probing as it does the roots of the Middle East conflict and evoking parallels with the US-led campaign to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"Battles raging in wind-whipped deserts, ancient cities under siege and civilians cowering... Doesn’t it sound like recent news from Iraq?" wrote Alan Riding in the New York Times this week.
Given that topicality, he continues, "is this really a good time to show warring Christians and Muslims as entertainment?"
’Showdown’
Other Crusades experts go further. Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl, professor of Islamic law at the University of California, believes the film promotes the idea of "a civilisational showdown between Islamic and Christian culture".
"In my view, it is inevitable that there will be hate crimes committed directly because of it," he told the Herald newspaper.
Ask the director himself, however, and he defends his work to the hilt.
"I showed the film to one very important Muslim in New York, a lecturer from Columbia, and he said it was the best portrayal of Saladin he’s ever seen," says the 67-year-old veteran.
"The characters portrayed in the film are so important in Muslim culture that I knew we had to do it absolutely properly and correctly.
"Saladin is second only to Mohammed in the Arab world. He was a great man and leader - a general, a politician and a religious icon."
Scott’s words are supported by Ghassan Massoud, the Syrian actor chosen to play the role.
"Saladin fights battles, but he also enters into dialogue," he said. "We want to show that dialogue can be much better than war."
However, some critics believe the film goes too far in its attempts to portray the Muslim side sympathetically.
In the film, the "Kingdom of Heaven" in Jerusalem ultimately collapses under a fiery assault from Saladin’s vastly superior forces.
More on this Story (http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6741)
==============================================
Is it me or is it that every movie that comes out of hollywood treats Muslims as faultless wonders of merciful paragons of virtue? and Christians as greedy money-hungry power grubbing individuals causing the troubles?
Hidalgo is one such idiot epic I saw it on purpose and it shows the muslims in a glowing light, and any non-Christian also in a glowing light and the Christians always in a bad evil light.
(BTW Hidalgo was so completely screwed up and falsified from start to finish from the true story it was disgusting, the desert race, the characters, and even how things went, was completely falsely cooked up)
I digress... carry on :soap:
Kingdom of Heaven, a $130m (£69m) epic directed by British film-maker Sir Ridley Scott, has its US premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday.
But it has already attracted criticism for its recreation of the 12th Century battle for Jerusalem between Christian crusaders and the Muslim leader Saladin.
With films like Blade Runner, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, Sir Ridley has taken audiences on epic journeys into space, the past and the future.
But his latest project has uncomfortable resonances in the present, probing as it does the roots of the Middle East conflict and evoking parallels with the US-led campaign to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"Battles raging in wind-whipped deserts, ancient cities under siege and civilians cowering... Doesn’t it sound like recent news from Iraq?" wrote Alan Riding in the New York Times this week.
Given that topicality, he continues, "is this really a good time to show warring Christians and Muslims as entertainment?"
’Showdown’
Other Crusades experts go further. Dr Khaled Abou El Fadl, professor of Islamic law at the University of California, believes the film promotes the idea of "a civilisational showdown between Islamic and Christian culture".
"In my view, it is inevitable that there will be hate crimes committed directly because of it," he told the Herald newspaper.
Ask the director himself, however, and he defends his work to the hilt.
"I showed the film to one very important Muslim in New York, a lecturer from Columbia, and he said it was the best portrayal of Saladin he’s ever seen," says the 67-year-old veteran.
"The characters portrayed in the film are so important in Muslim culture that I knew we had to do it absolutely properly and correctly.
"Saladin is second only to Mohammed in the Arab world. He was a great man and leader - a general, a politician and a religious icon."
Scott’s words are supported by Ghassan Massoud, the Syrian actor chosen to play the role.
"Saladin fights battles, but he also enters into dialogue," he said. "We want to show that dialogue can be much better than war."
However, some critics believe the film goes too far in its attempts to portray the Muslim side sympathetically.
In the film, the "Kingdom of Heaven" in Jerusalem ultimately collapses under a fiery assault from Saladin’s vastly superior forces.
More on this Story (http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6741)
==============================================
Is it me or is it that every movie that comes out of hollywood treats Muslims as faultless wonders of merciful paragons of virtue? and Christians as greedy money-hungry power grubbing individuals causing the troubles?
Hidalgo is one such idiot epic I saw it on purpose and it shows the muslims in a glowing light, and any non-Christian also in a glowing light and the Christians always in a bad evil light.
(BTW Hidalgo was so completely screwed up and falsified from start to finish from the true story it was disgusting, the desert race, the characters, and even how things went, was completely falsely cooked up)
I digress... carry on :soap: