Crusading Hollywood
The Kingdom of Heaven

Derek Thomas

CliffsNotes on “The Crusades”: “An attempt by the church to regain Jerusalem from Muslim occupation (1095-1291) in which Christians were evil, Muslims were innocent victims.” No, I don’t know what CliffsNotes would say, but it could well be something like that. For Hollywood, in its relentless vilification of “fundamentalist” Christianity, it is the stuff of a good movie, reinforcing stereotype and redressing prejudice against Islam. Particularly if historical accuracy isn’t uppermost on the agenda. To this day, The Crusades are an open sore that foments unease in the Middle East and abject apologies from the theologically sensitive.
And Hollywood has done it again, portraying Christianity in its meanest and ugliest and Islam as noble, tolerant and even chivalrous. Sir Ridley Scott’s latest epic portraying the twelfth century siege of Jerusalem by Saladin against the occupying “Christian” forces in Kingdom of Heaven is yet another re-writing of history for the historically illiterate masses. ‘R’ rated (for its violence and a momentary suggestion of adultery), the power of film to recreate events and reshape public opinion is well known and the movie industry has done it before with great success. We tend to believe what we see, especially if what we see is portrayed in digital realism, blood, gore and mayhem abounding.
    Some will recall Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s description of Saddam Hussein as Saladin redivivus on the eve of the first Gulf War (1991, see Margaret Thatcher: The Downing Street Years (1979-1990)). The Kingdom of Heaven’s soft-focus portrayal of Saladin (by script writer William Monahan) ensures a positive image of Islam, whilst Christian values focus on the Bishop of Jerusalem—a cowardly, mean-spited individual who when defeat is inevitable yells, “Convert to Islam and repent later!” only to receive the reply from Balian (played by the overly sensitive Orlando Bloom), “I have seen what your religion means.” Balian delivers a less than convincing St. Crispin-like speech on the eve of battle rallying his ragtag band of warriors to almost certain death. A very modern day hero, whose murder of a priest in the opening minutes is quickly “forgiven” (it is Orlando Bloom after all), Balian is Hollywood itself: moody, heroic and absolutely confident of its role as shaper of world opinion.
    The Crusades are a blot on Christian history and the entire enterprise is a fair victim of criticism from Hollywood or anyone else for its dubious compliance with the urging of Pope Urban II (1088-1099) to regain Jerusalem from its Muslim occupation by Holy War (a Christian jihad). Estimate of deaths in the three Crusades which occupied a span of two centuries vary (Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire estimates 677,000; Charles Mackay’s Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) put it at 2,000,000 Europeans killed apart from Muslims).
    This is, of course, sensitive stuff for many Christians today, particularly those whose eschatology contains an expectation of some significance for Jerusalem and Israel. Not insignificantly, Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchanan have both been critical of the movie (before seeing any of it!). To those of us who insist on the very opposite, the church involvement in Middle-Eastern politics is a matter of considerable regret. The Crusades serve as a reminder of the church’s folly in claiming certainty as to the “will of God,” the rallying cry of the Crusades, and a warning as we face Islam’s modern threat post 9/11.