Skip to main content

Kingdom of Heaven

Captain's Log, Supplemental

I just saw Kingdom of Heaven (2005). I TiVo’d it because ... well, it has Orlando in it. ’Nuff said. :)

It also has other favorite actors of mine—Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis (I just adore him in the Harry Potter movies), and Edward Norton as King Baldwin (LOVED him in this role. I was mesmerized).

Christianity is mostly portrayed as hypocritical (no surprise there, when is it ever portrayed as the good guys? I mean, I know Christians aren’t perfect and there are lots of times Christians or those who call themselves Christians act hypocritically, but why can’t Hollywood ever show someone as both a strong Christian and a good guy? Both good and bad Muslims are represented on the silver screen—why not a good Christian for a change? Sorry, rant is over).

I had a hard time keeping people straight sometimes—maybe it was the chain mail and helmets on everyone??? And I didn’t like the adultery part. And Captain Caffeine would have loudly protested that some parts were downright cheesy while other parts were gorier than a horror flick.

But the movie left me with that Aaahh feeling at the end of it, so that’s good enough for me. I liked seeing a historic event I’ve only read about in history books.

I also got a great quote from the movie that I added to my Favorite Quotes list.
Labels:

Comments

Just Nancy said…
Haven't seen this one, and I'm not completely sure I've heard much about it, but I do agree with your "rant" about Christianity. I remember hearing Michael Medved say once that it used to be that if you had a priest in a movie, it was Bing Crosby or some other well-loved and warm, cozy man. Now they cast guys who look like serial killers or crazies. Christians are the only minority these days who can be "demonized" and no one complains. It makes me insane!

www.nancysbrandt.com
Mon Dec 03, 07:11:00 AM 2007
Kaye Dacus said…
I went to see this one with a girlfriend when it came out in the theater . . . and I haven't felt the need to watch it again since. She was writing a story set during the crusades, so was able to see where they'd diverged from historical accuracy--but not so much that it bothered either of us.

What did give us an "ewwww!" moment was the thought that we might be subjected to seeing Legolas nekkid in a s*x scene. Fortunately we were spared that visual. Unfortunately, they did have the affair, which bothered me, too.

I also found myself losing track of who was who, especially in the final battle scene. But I blame that on the filmmaker, because if you look at other movies with mass battle scenes, such as Return of the King or Gladiator, you never lose track of where/who the good guys are. But, it did give a really good feel of just how chaotic those kinds of battles could be and how easy it would be to mistake an ally for an enemy.
Mon Dec 03, 10:21:00 AM 2007
Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...
64 comments
Read more

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...
39 comments
Read more

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...
2 comments
Read more

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...
Post a Comment
Read more

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...
32 comments
Read more