catapult magazine

The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a great army, by Ridley Scott. Is it out in North American cinemas yet?

I wondered if anyone in Cinoland has seen this epic and what they think of it. ekklesia.co.uk have reported it as follows:

Christian conservatives in America are marshalling their forces against Sir Ridley Scott?s forthcoming crusader epic, The Kingdom of Heaven, claiming the film is insulting and unfair.

Geoff

I saw the 7th seal years ago in college & even have a black& white copy of the script along with some pictures from the film somewhere in my books.

was astriking film. [/b:c2df6bc11a] I think Bergman was a swede—-something I took note of as i am part swedish in descent—-one grandma coming over in the hold of a Titantic style ship in about 1910.

Poor ingmar Bergman. No ultimate hope. Even the young nice couple will eventually get captured by Death. I also love the black & white mode and hope filmmakers will continue to sometimes go to black & white.

I also thought of the film as representing much of Sweden’s attitude towards Christianity. From what I can tell, a number have left their faith (or their parents’ grandparent’s faith) FAR far behind. Who can tell them that Death is not the end in a powerful form that they will understand & believe?
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Also recently saw The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Sort of a quasi hippie style mellow comic version of sci fi [b:c2df6bc11a]that has the same ultimate end as The Seventh Seal.
The main character does say that he has found the ultimate meaning of life(whick was the object of his rather comic space encounters)—-in the love of a woman, which he knows is the only thing he can cling to in a world where he is just a blip on the totally godless evolutionary flow. [/b:c2df6bc11a]

(The movie is light & fluffy. The philosophical comments are laid on light—-lots of crazy, silly images & scenes.. Said & done in a comic sci fi way which I thot a bit long, but that apparently appeals to many junior high kids—-is doing pretty well in the US.)

In this counttry, the Crusades are routinely held up by some as “Christians all wrong…”.

Yeah, we also get a lot of that in England. Poor Moslems, ghastly Christians! But then you try and point out that that Islam also had armies and conquest. Take Spain for example. So really you have to go along with the fact that at that time in history, there was a whole lot of this stuff going on!

You then run across the old religion and blood-letting. Ban religion and we’ll all live in peace. However, I remember someone saying that he’d tallied up the losses to religion since the so called Enlightenment, set against the losses of secular humanism and hey presto, we are the good guys, as Fascism and Communism outnumber their religious counterparts!

Perhaps we are prone to too much historical guilt!

Geoff

Just wanted to say that I have enjoyed reading this series of entries.

Nothing to add myself except to say that my take on the film was tainted by my own lack of ability or unwillingness to suspend my disbelief in areas where "hollywood" created unrealistic battle scenes.

Thanks for the interesting input everyone. Cleary muslim – christian topics are pressingly relevant these days and knowing the history is invaluable.