Oh, my. Sometimes I just have to wonder what people are thinking when they make a film and Ridley Scott’s latest is one of those times. Scott’s next film, Kingdom of Heaven, is a Crusades-era epic about a Muslim led assault on a Christian held Jerusalem. Think The Passion got people all worked up into a religious froth? I guarantee that this will be far, far worse. What exactly goes through a studio-exec’s mind when green lighting a film like this in the freshly post-9/11 world?
The thing is in the right environment and with the right combination of script and director – Scott’s involvement honestly doesn’t give me much hope on that front as he’s a fabulous technician who too often doesn’t seem to have much interest in depth of character – this could be a fantastic film on all levels: a solid critique of the co-opting of religion by politics and the relationship between the Christian and Muslim world, and if historically accurate should actually portray the Muslim characters in a very positive light as they were far more advanced in terms of culture, education and social structure than the Christian world was at the time. But, assuming Scott manages to pull all of that off, will anybody even be able to see it for what it is given the current global climate? To far too many people this is going to be simply a story about Muslims killing Christians – yes, I just gave away the ending, so sue me – and is that really what the world needs right now? So: brave and visionary, or cynically capitalistic and divisive? I’m really torn on this one.
Read the New York Times’ in-depth story about the film here.
