Kingdom of Heaven Movie
“Kingdom of Heaven” is an epic film about an ordinary man who experiences a life that is characterized by long moments of war. As a stranger in a land he knows very little about, he finds himself as a servant of an undeserving king. He also falls into an illegal relationship with the queen of the land making him arise to a higher position in the kingdom. His main agenda remains to fight for the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Muslims. This fight leads to the Battle of Hattin.
Watching the “Kingdom of Heaven” movie, one can clearly depict that it offers a clear picture of the ancient world by the fact that it lacks nudity, outright blasphemy, or even the use of profane language. Scott gets this right in his work since such characteristics in films have been acquired in the recent days. There was much respect and morality during the Middle Age as well as the Ancient World. Scott also gets it right in the fact that his film takes a longer time. It is evident that time was seemingly slower in the Ancient times and the Middle Age (Friedman 77). The speeches in the film are not as interesting as the ones given in the present times. The priests in the films are simply poor men who are filled with theological knowledge and their main assignment is to offer guidance spiritually. Scott does right in offering an insightful look into the three greatest religions of the world during the Ancient and middle ages.
Watching the film keenly, one is likely to realize that Scott does not just concentrate on talking too much about religion. The Crusades by Christians were not taken as a Holy War to take over Jerusalem. Scott makes this movie right by clearly bringing out the fact that radicalization and extremism is the cause for enmity between Christians and Muslims. He suggests that Christians and Muslims have the ability to coexist peacefully.
The “Kingdom of Heaven” movie gets wrong about some historical figures, events and ideas of the Ancient days. First, the movie contains some biasness and incompleteness in its historical assumptions. For instance, there is an error in the fact that it is not mentioned that Muslims had already taken up Spain before the crusades (Friedman 112). This was done four hundred years earlier. The Muslims occupied Spain for more than seven hundred years until 1942 when there was the fall of Granada hence answering the question as to why Spanish people remain sympathetic to the Muslim community.
Scott’s movie misses out on the facts about the Battle of Tours that happened in 733. The Muslim armies had moved into France, and thereafter got defeated by Charles Martel. The movie “Kingdom of Heaven” fails to give the Battle of Tours and other battles against the lands belonging to Christians as the main reason for their crankiness in 1184. It is also evident that Scott does more research on Christianity than on Islam. This makes the movie appear distinctly Christian or biased to some extent. Some people view it as an anti-Christian movie, while others view it as a movie that portrays the nobility of Muslims. It is quite difficult to determine the right and main theme in the movie. In addition, the movie takes a longer than expected time hence making it unattractive to the present generation.
Work Cited
Friedman, Nancy. Kingdom of Heaven: the Ridley Scott film and the history behind the story. London: New Market Press, 2005. Print.