Robert Fisk: "Long live Ridley Scott."

[reprehensor]

Kingdom of Heaven

Why Ridley Scott's Story Of The Crusades Struck Such A Chord In A Lebanese Cinema

June 20, 2005

Long live Ridley Scott. I never thought I'd say this. Gladiator had a screenplay that might have come from the Boy's Own Paper. Black Hawk Down showed the Arabs of Somalia as generically violent animals. But when I left the cinema after seeing Scott's extraordinary sand-and-sandals epic on the Crusades, Kingdom of Heaven, I was deeply moved - not so much by the film, but by the Muslim audience among whom I watched it in Beirut.

I know what the critics have said. The screenplay isn't up for much and Orlando Bloom, playing the loss-of- faith crusader Balian of Ibelin, does indeed look - as The Independent cruelly observed - like a backpacker touring the Middle East in a gap year.

But there is an integrity about its portrayal of the Crusades which, while fitting neatly into our contemporary view of the Middle East - the moderate crusaders are overtaken by crazed neo-conservative barons while Saladin is taunted by a dangerously al- Qa'ida-like warrior - treats the Muslims as men of honour who can show generosity as well as ruthlessness to their enemies.

It was certainly a revelation to sit through Kingdom of Heaven not in London or New York but in Beirut, in the Middle East itself, among Muslims - most of them in their 20s - who were watching historical events that took place only a couple of hundred miles from us. How would the audience react when the Knights Templars went on their orgy of rape and head-chopping among the innocent Muslim villagers of the Holy Land, when they advanced, covered in gore, to murder Saladin's beautiful, chadored sister? I must admit, I held my breath a few times.

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[neweurope]

1. I haven't seen the movie because I thought it's just

the usual US Hollywood stuff. Not worth the money. But I read the article with great interest. Fisk is one of my heroes. This should be read by everybody since it shows something about Muslims that is usually never shown in Western countries.

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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[bpilgrim]

2. ditto

i'm definitely gonna see it now because Mr. Fisk recommended it.

:hi:

peace

[reprehensor]

4. Ditto on that.

Bladerunner is my favorite Scott film.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Saladin was capable of showing generosity

He was actually admired by the Crusaders.

Incidently, he was born in Tikrit; also, he was not an Arab, but a Kurd.