Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven
• Gossip
Whether he meant Kingdom of Heaven as a covert fable of Christianity versus Islam in the post 9/11 world or just a medieval sword and sandal movie Ridley Scott will somehow offend at least a few religious fanatics.
Trying to draw parallels between the Second Crusade and the Second Bush Administration just doesn't work very well -- even if George W. did, in the days immediately following 9 -11, refer to America's battle against al Qaeda as a "crusade" before his handlers shushed him.
In Ridley Scott's latest epic, it's good for one really stunning siege
"It's one of the better representations of Muslims we've seen out of Hollywood," said Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the [American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee].
"We thought that he did a good job tackling a potentially volatile subject and avoided doing a simplified, stereotyped story of Muslim vs. Christian."
Muslims relieved by Kingdom of Heaven screening
Cambridge University professor Jonathan Riley-Smith, Britain's leading authority on the Crusades, slammed the movie for pandering to Islamic fundamentalists by depicting Muslims as sophisticated and civilised and the Christian crusader army as brutes and barbarians.
"It's Osama bin Laden's version of history," Riley-Smith told Britain's Daily Telegraph.
Asked about historians' squabbles over the film, many aired before it had even been made, [Scott] added:
"Every historian is an expert."
Film shows Crusades still battleground 800 years on
Its only a few extremists on either side - intent on stirring up a Holy War - that threaten the tenuous truce. Indeed, the film is so calculated not to offend either side that the only people liable to be upset are those expecting another juiced-up Gladiator-style spectacle.
Scott's original idea wasn't to make a controversial Crusades film. He just wanted to make a movie about a knight.