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the Crusades (Original)

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Ceneca
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« Reply #165 on: December 31, 2007, 04:02:53 am »

 
Sarah

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   posted 05-29-2006 03:54 AM                       
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What Scott Got Really Wrong

Scott may not have intended it, but there is a pervasive anti-Catholic viewpoint running through the entire film. From the priest who stole a cross from a corpse he was burying, to the angelic monk shouting "To murder an infidel is not a sin -- it is the will of God!" to the sniveling bishop ready to surrender with "Convert to Islam now; repent later," not a single official of the Catholic Church was portrayed with any sympathy. I will freely admit that there were indeed bad priests, lunatic monks and self-serving bishops associated with the Crusades. But there were also priests of conscience, peace-loving monks and competent bishops. You'd never know it from Kingdom of Heaven.

Perhaps it was because there are no Templars left around to offend that Scott chose to cast them as bloodthirsty warmongers bent on violence at all costs. I hope it had nothing to do with the fact that Templars bore a great red cross on their surcoats. But whatever his motives, the depiction is extreme.

Other reviews I've read mention how the film contains both "good Christians" and "bad Christians." That's true -- as far as it goes. But the only "good" Christians are those that espouse philosophies inconsistent with medieval thought.


I don't expect Scott (or any other film director) to understand the complexity of theology as perceived by the lay medieval Christian. I'm certainly no expert in the subject myself. But the Church was an integral part of medieval man's life, and none of the "good" Christians are depicted as having a realistic relationship with it. Attitudes toward such subjects as suicide, guilt, atonement, and "religion" itself are completely misrepresented in sympathetic Christians like Tiberias (Jeremy Irons), The Hospitaller (David Thewliss), Godfrey (Liam Neeson) and, most especially, Balian.
It is entirely conceivable that a man whose child has died and whose wife killed herself from grief should suffer a crisis of faith. But Balian never came across as a Catholic undergoing such a crisis. Rather, he seemed to be an agnostic from the outset -- never having had any faith, never understanding anything about the Church in which every single Christian soul in Christendom was raised from infancy. This is not how a medieval Christian would have been likely to behave. A medieval Christian might think his god had abandoned him, or he might reject what he had once believed out of anger, sorrow, despair, grief, or any combination of these.


As Balian, Orlando Bloom never displayed any of these emotions with any conviction. I would lay the blame at the actor's feet, but for an interview with Ridley Scott I saw the night after I viewed the film. In it, he stated frankly that Balian "was an agnostic" who was searching for answers.
"Agnostic" is simply not a philosophy one is likely to find in medieval Christian Europe. It is a modern concept that sprang up after the "Age of Enlightenment," when the idea of religious freedom was made a reality in some western societies. And there are other unlikely modern viewpoints expressed.

Godfrey's description of Jerusalem as less of a "holy land" than a place of opportunity deflects the all-encompassing motive that drove historical Crusaders to make their pilgrimages. The independent views espoused by the Hospitaller would be completely alien to any medieval Christian, and would have been especially out of character for a man in that order of Knighthood. The understanding reached by Tiberias that what he thought was a war for God was actually for greed is simply not a point of view a medieval crusader would comprehend, let alone agree with (and there are several modern scholars of the Crusades who wouldn’t agree with it, either).


I can't blame Scott for shying away from casting any Muslims as villains. But by making nearly every Muslim sympathetic, he only throws the Christian villains into sharper relief. By avoiding any direct mention of the Church and its role, he allows the numerous misconceptions about its culpability to stand, and be compounded by offhand remarks, unsympathetic portrayals, and the general course of events depicted in the film.

Lest you think I am crying "Foul!" out of loyalty to my own religion, let me remind you that I am an agnostic, and when it comes to gods and religion, I question everything. So why am I defending a faith I don't personally share? Because the facts are what interest me, and anytime someone twists them in order to sell a sentiment or message, even if I agree with that sentiment or message, it tends to tick me off.

And unfortunately, though not surprisingly, twisting the facts to make his point is exactly what Ridley Scott has done here. I don't disagree with his message: tolerance is good, fanaticism is bad, war in the name of religion is absurd. It's just a shame that he has chosen such a complex and already much-misunderstood historical period to muddle up in order to do so.

http://historymedren.about.com/od/crusades/fr/kingdomofheaven_2.htm

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