Kingdom of Heaven

[Anonymous]

The trailer is up:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/featu...mofheaven.html,

Doesn't seem as though Orlando's acting ability has improved any....

[Anonymous]

I am not going to see this movie until it is out on dvd. Orlando's acting is not as sickening as the thought that this movie is going to make the muslims seem like good people that do nothing wrong.

Galadriel

[devilchicken]

Well for a movie about a series of wars of religious hatred - I'm sure that argument is true of the christians also. Noone smelled of roses during the crusades

[Blackbeard]

I have been waiting for a serious film about the Crusades to be made for many years. I think, with Kingdom of Heaven, I will still be waiting.

There are many events that would have lead to great dramatic tension and dynamic fight scenes. The siege of Antioch, during 1098, would have been my favourite choice, as it sumed up the whole period of the first crusade. You had Bohemond and his minions laying siege to Antioch, capturing it and then being sieged themselves. You had the knights starving and dying of disease in Antioch, low on morale, until Peter Bartholomew discovers the Holy Lance hidden under the floor of a chapel (obviously planted of course). Then you had the disease ridden knights riding out to conquer an army superior in numbers, with reports of the ghost of their dead comrades coming riding down from the hills in their aid. Write a nice personal interest story around those events and you've got a good film in the making.

Alternatively, from another point of view, a film about the events leading up to the battle at the Horns of Hattin and it's aftermath.

Or, follow the exploits of Reynold de Chatillon who, typically for a Crusader at the time, mixed the brutal and pious without a second thought. This is incredibly hard for a modern mindset to fathom.

For a more populist movie, bring in Richard the Lionheart breaking the siege of Acre in the 3rd Crusade. I believe that "Kingdom of Heaven" is based in this period.

As for the comment about making the muslims seem like they did nothing wrong. Well, compared to the primitive brutality of the Crusaders, they were just and educated people. The Crusades brought a lot to the West at the time, with the mixing of cultures. The whole culture of Chivalry grew out of the mixing with Saracen society and education. It was when Islam hardened and started fostering the likes of Baybars, inspired by the brutality they had witnessed by the Franks, that the tide started to turn in the other direction.