5/11/05

“Kingdom of Heaven” Review By Irfan Rydhan

Ridley Scott’s new film about the third Crusade, “Kingdom of Heaven” was a complete shock. I read most of the reviews, which stated that it’s depiction of Arabs and Muslims were fair and balanced. After viewing the film, I was pleasantly surprised by the depiction of the Muslims as honorable and noble warriors who attacked the Crusaders only after being provoked several times, but I was truly shocked by the portrayal of the Christian priests and leaders, most of whom were of very little faith, and had a great sense of cynicism in the purpose of the crusades (to bring back the Holy Land under the rightful rule of the Christian Empire).

The movie starts off with a Priest burying the wife of the main protagonist, Balian of Ibelin (played by Orlando Bloom). The priest, spots a gold crucifix pendant on the body of the dead women, and quickly snatches it for himself. So right off the bat, one get’s the sense that the majority of the Crusader’s are in this for the same reason: riches and wealth.

Later on in the film, we do see that many crusaders are in awe by all the riches, comforts, and culture in the Holy Land, which is nourished through the lively trade and commerce between the Muslims, Jews and Christians in Jerusalem.

There was the depiction of the stereotypical Arab, who fanatically wields his sword and yells incorrigibly in Arabic as he battles Balian for his horse, but to Scott’s credit, he shows the majority of the Arabs and Muslims in the film as level-headed, intelligent, faithful and peaceful people who are just trying to survive and take care of their family like everyone else.

The great Muslim hero, Saladin (played by Ghassan Massoud) was shown as a noble and considerate adversary to the Crusaders. Saladin and his Muslim armies never attacked Jerusalem unless they were first provoked or attacked by the Christian army. Saladin was depicted as a very patient and great military mind, who did not really want to rush into war with his Christian adversaries.

The majority of the Christian characters, on the other hand were shown as blood-thirsty war-mongers who could not wait to murder, rape, maim and kill as many Arabs and Muslims as they could find (perhaps the ancestors of today’s Neo-Cons in power today)!

Even the Christian priests and religious leaders were depicted in a very negative light. One of my favorite lines of the movie was when the Muslims were about to take Jerusalem from the Crusaders, and a priest, who tries to consult Balian with how to negotiate the terms of the surrender, tells him to “convert to Islam and repent later”!

No wonder many Christian groups were not happy with this movie. One would think that a film about the Crusades would depict the Christians as the protagonists and heroes of the story, but in “Kingdom of Heaven”, the opposite occurred.

Of course not all the Christians in the film were shown in a negative light. King Baldwin (played by Edward Norton, but he wore a mask during the whole film, since his character was a disfigured leper) was a man of conscience and honored his treaty with Saladin. He protected the rights of the Arabs and Muslims he ruled over in Jerusalem.

Naturally, the main character of the story, Balian, who was not really a religious Christian, but was supposed to be the true “hero” of the film. He joins the Crusades only because it was the dying wish of his father to protect the people and fight for justice as a knight. Balian fights with honor, and does not kill the Arab he assumed was a slave, (played by Alexander Siddig – from Star Trek fame), who reciprocates the gesture by saving Bailan’s hide in a future battle. Thus, the film was over all very fair and balanced in its treatment of Arabs and Muslims, compared to most movies out of Hollywood.

The one annoyance I really had with “Kingdom of Heaven” is actually a recurring trend from most Hollywood films, which is that they almost never show Muslims praying correctly! I don’t know who the “Islamic” consultants for the film were, but for some reason Muslims are shown scattered all over the landscape praying on their own (i.e. not together in Ja’math). Now it may be true that Muslims pray on their own, but you can’t really expect that there were no sign of any Muslims gathered together to conduct congregational prayers anywhere on the beaches of the Holy Land can you?

Another “catch” was when Saladin was reciting Sura Al-Fatiha for the dead, and he combines the first few and last few verses of the Sura, while completely omitting the middle section. But I’m sure it was actually the fault of the Non-Muslim editor, who probably didn’t think anyone would notice (and for the majority of viewers he would be right)!

Some people I know have said that the acting was sub-par and the film was filled with a lot of corny lines and dialogue, etc. After watching the film, a friend commented that she immediately thought of “Lord of the Rings” (which Orlando Bloom also starred in) after Balian gives his long speech before they go into battle. I must admit, when I was watching the attack on the walls of Jerusalem, it did remind me of the second Rings film with wooden ramparts, arrows flying, hot oil spilling, axes and swords swinging and all. I made a comment to a friend while watching the film that first Orlando was an Elf fighting monsters in Middle Earth, and now he is a Crusader fighting Muslims in the Middle East!

Anyways, hokiness and over-acting aside, “Kingdom of Heaven” is definitely worth watching, and as Muslims we need to support those films, directors and actors (especially if they are considered “mainstream”) who at least make the effort to bring about a change and try to create a new understanding between Islam, Muslims and the West. As those of us who work in the Media-related fields know, Television and Film are some of the most powerful and influential forms of communication in the world. As they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and if this picture is showing Arabs and Muslims not only as regular human beings, but also as noble, intelligent and considerate people, then we should go out and support it…and also tell our family and friends to support it! By support it, I mean go out to the theatres, buy a ticket and watch it! If we don’t support films that have a “good” message which come out of Hollywood, then we shouldn’t be complaining about all the “bad” ones!

Irfan Rydhan
Jam-Productions.Com
irfan.rydhan@gmail.com