KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Following Black Hawk Down and the inexplicably successful Gladiator, Ridley Scott has received as much attention for his dubious rewriting of history than for his cinematic style. His latest epic Kingdom of Heaven (released on DVD in the UK in October) follows the story of Balian, a French knight, as he joins the Christian crusaders to capture Jerusalem. It will undoubtedly surprise Arab and Muslim audiences with its sympathetic depiction of Salaheddin and his army, but even political sympathy and historical accuracy aren’t enough to save the film’s disastrous script and two-dimensional acting.

Balian, Orlando Bloom’s insipid hero, seems to offer very little to his own army, yet he shows considerable respect for the army of his Muslim enemies. His miraculous transformation from blacksmith to knight to military genius is utterly unconvincing, and his compulsion to find redemption for the death of his wife is mysteriously lost somewhere in his seduction of the Sibylla, the wife of a fellow Crusader. Kingdom of Heaven seems interested only in ticking market research boxes (Action..! Violence..! Sex..!) than in advancing any real story, and as a result the entire film seems to be stitched together from episodes of a larger story rather than a complete narrative- something of an extended trailer.

But for those of us who have come to expect nothing more from the once-great director of Alien and Baderunner, it is the film’s politics that are of real interest. Ever since President Bush’s moronically insensitive reference to a new “crusade” in September of 2001, the thought of dramatising the real crusades has seemed a risky proposition. Scott, however, thankfully resists the expected xenophobic, patriotic whitewash by bringing to the screen an even-tempered,  reasonable and merciful Salaheddin. In Kingdom of Heaven it is an extremist faction of Christian soldiers who are labelled fanatics, seen screaming for blood and fomenting a war as the “will of God.” With this, Scott turns the contemporary film paradigm on its head, seemingly compelled to remind his audience that there was a time when the Christian world was itself responsible for fanning the flames of religious hatred and holy war against the Muslims.

For once, this is a film that avoids the most obvious, and most embarrassing Arab stereotypes (while still obstinately preserving the more benign), and that won’t have the folks at the Anti-Defamation Committee and Arab Media Watch scrambling to pen letters of disgust. In perhaps the film’s most poignant moment, Salaheddin offers Balian and his army free passage from Jerusalem if they surrender. “When the Christian armies took control of Jerusalem,” Balian points out in disbelief, “they slaughtered every man, woman and child in the city.” Salaheddin’s reply is telling: “I am not those men. I am Salaheddin.” It is certainly a highly contrived way of making a point, but it is none the less a point worth making. In this respect, the character of Salaheddin seems designed to echo the voice of Scott himself, desperately trying (at times too hard) to declare his uniqueness with this project.

© Saeed Taji Farouky 2006

Return to writing & journalism