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.
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!
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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.
ReplyDeleteWhat 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.