I watched Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" last Friday. I have to say that it turned out to be more "Fair and Balanced" than I expected. When I saw it's trailer three or four weeks before the movie release, I thought it was going to be just another cheap attempt by a Hollywood director to profit from the present American paranoia. A sort of fuel for the US war machine so to speak.
As a matter of fact, the movie was more like a documentary than a piece of entertainment. Come to think of it, after watching the movie I felt as if it missed something significant. A true hero! Yes that's right, a hero with substance. I've read the crusade history and I could just not recall any character by the name 'Balian' from it. I mean who was that guy? I would have seen Balian (Bloom) as a hero only if his intentions to go to Jerusalem were noble to begin with and the enemy was truly evil. I think the movie should have been told from Saladin's perspective. Because he was the conquering hero. He was the one who didn't not avenge the massacre of Muslims in the same barbaric way as the Christian crusaders. But, Ridley Scott's primary audience are right-wing nut-jobs, so they didn't
I was really glad to know that the filmmakers didn't portray Saladin as a hot-headed blood-thirsty Arab. Anyway, how could they? Saladin is the only person recognized in history by almost all historians as the most merciful and civilized Muslim ruler. No one tops prophet Muhammad (P. B. U. H), but there is too much dissent to his historical achievements.
Orlando Bloom was such a stiff in this movie. It's like the director knew how much of a stiff Orland is and that is why he had Orlando Bloom's character to have so few lines.
The movie is good and I would recommend watching it. Overall I would give it a 3.0/5.0 rating.
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