And in a virtuoso performance of swashbuckling drama and entertainment, who doesn't get tingles down their spine thinking of the mighty Gladiator bringing his fellow slaves together in a protective circle of shields to thwart their Goliath enemy.
So it was with great expectations that I lined up at Marble Arch, London to see his new film, Kingdom of Heaven, not least because of the subject matter. Anyone who has spoken with someone from the Muslim world will know the esteem in which Sultan Saladin, hero of Islam, is held. And the Crusades are host to some of the most captivating storylines in human history.
The purpose of this review is not to analyze the plot or quality of the film (you can find that here, here, here, or here). The Muslim community warmly received the release of the film. According to Professor Jack Shaheen in his book Reel Bad Arabs, only Native Americans outdistance Arabs and Muslims in being vilified by Hollywood. But Muslim viewers were pleased with the balance in the film.
But a debate has raged over the film and the history it portrays. Some Christians welcome the questions raised by the film but others react with angry rants, call it propaganda, or Osama Bin Laden's version of history.
"Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith, a Cambridge academic and expert on the Crusades, has labeled it 'Osama bin Laden's version of history'. He questioned its historical accuracy, saying its basis lies in the romantic thrillers of Walter Scott, though screenwriter William Monahan has the support of academic experts in pointing to real-life figures and events as the basis for the major characters and events in the film." (Observer)
Of particular interest to me was the historical context of the film, squeezed between Crusades and just prior to the story of the 3rd Crusade, perhaps the most dramatic of them all, when Richard the Lionheart marched on Jerusalem. This is alluded to at the end of the film and several of the stories described are recounted by James Reston Jr. in Warriors of God, a book recommended to George Bush in the wake of Sept. 11. It's not clear if he read it or not but it is encouraging to see how easily people are making connections between events in the 12th century and those currently unraveling.
What is clear by watching the film is how relevant the issues causing the strain in relations between people of different faiths remain today. It doesn't take very much imagination to see how Muslim people may view activities in the Gulf as nothing more than continuity of history, another Crusade. Nor is it difficult to imagine how Christians can loop together Bin Laden and Saladin as faces of Islam, though very different men.
This contrast is embodied by Saladin's remarks in the film, when explaining to Ballion, defender of Jerusalem (of all the historical characters in the film Ballion seems the most invented), why he is willing to allow the people sheltered within the walls safe passage in exchange for the city instead of murdering them all as was done in a previous Christian crusade: "I am not like those men."
And in Reston's captivating text we find reference to Richard the Lionheart allowing safe passage for the Muslims inside the walls as Christians took the city. This is the kind of precedence that can inspire reconciliation. For surely the easiest thing to imagine of all is the idea that all humans on earth are linked in a shared humanity. We must respect each other to respect ourselves.
Kingdom of Heaven may be open to many criticisms from many perspectives but it deserves applause for making an effort, in a historical epic movie kind of way, to promote reconciliation between people and faiths. By reducing the contrast between the two sides of the conflict it effectively shows the similarities. And instead we find the distinctions in the characters of the men involved, not the skin or religion.
Other recent Media Project reviews:
Theatre of the New Ear - Coen Brothers and Charlie Kaufmann one-night-only sound play
Dispatches - Michael Herr on Vietnam
Labels: film
