Hollywood Blunder: Anti-Crusader Epic Bombs at Box Office
"The lucrative summer movie season suffered its worst start in years Sunday, as the costly Crusades epic `Kingdom of Heaven' crawled into the No. 1 slot at the North American weekend box office with meager ticket sales of just $20 million," reports Reuters.
British director Ridley Scott — still brimming with confidence from his earlier success with the sword-and-sandal extravaganza Gladiator — spent $150 million producing Kingdom of Heaven.
But when word leaked out that the film portrayed Christian crusaders as bad guys, Muslims as good guys — and religion itself as the fount of all evil — the movie-going public shrugged its collective shoulders, fired up its DVD players and popped in its well-worn but ever-reliable copies of Braveheart and The Return of the King.
As a life-long aficionado of screen epics, be they Biblical, historical or fantastical, I was one of those disappointed souls who would have crawled on my hands and knees over miles of broken glass to see Kingdom of Heaven had I read even a single review that offered some hope that the film presented an accurate and even-handed look at the Crusades. But never again will I waste my hard-earned money on the neurotic productions of self-loathing Western intellectuals of Sir Ridley Scott's ilk. Reuters reports:
"Industry hopes that `Kingdom' would pull the business out of a lengthy slump were dashed: the box office has now endured 11 `down' weekends when compared with the year-ago periods. According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, this ties the longest losing streak, which ran from July to October in 2000."(via FreeRepublic)Hollywood, when will you learn?
29 Comments:
Hollywood will get it when the shareholders revolt. The idea is to make money . These PC films do not sell,
Your post reminds me of Eddy Murphy going to the south and looking for racism.
People should really see this film before jumping to conclusions about its self loathing intentions; the film quite poetically exalts the idea of Crusade and is merely critical of certain among the crusaders.
It disappoints me that the same group that has elevated The Passion to the status of masterpiece has condemned this film without ever seeing it. This is decidedly not the kind of calm analysis I expect from conservatives. You do best when you do not mimic your knee jerk counterparts on the left …lest you decide to join the moonbat right.
Nice try, Z, but I don't think any of us have any incentive to go see yet another PC whitewash of history. Go troll elsewhere. Honestly, no-one is interested in Muslim-Christian equivalences here, especially when such are historically inaccurate, untrue, and empowering to those death-cult murderers.
It would be hard to study the crusades and not sound PC by you standards; since they seem to be to you above criticism.
But a critique of the crusades the film is not. Anyone who interprets it as such would have too look for it in the way that homosexual deconstructionists look for gay themes in all of literature.
You are adopting a stance which has been dictated for you. You may find after seeing this film that the stance does not suit you.
the film quite poetically exalts the idea of Crusade and is merely critical of certain among the crusaders.
We must not have seen the same film. How do you think it exalts them?
At any rate, I think the reason the movie isn't doing so well probably has less to do with its "PC" leanings (not all Christians in the movie were bad guys and not all of its Muslims were good guys - sorry) and more to do with its flaws as a movie. I enjoyed it, but my tastes are singular, and even I have to admit that it was nowhere near the epic power of Gladiator.
The DVD's supposed to add on 80 minutes to the running time. Unless they were pieces that deserved to be on the cutting room floor, I expect they'll recoup their losses with interest when it hits the stands.
J
The poetic exaltation for me was, among other places, in Liam Niesons characters interpretation of crusade:
“…A new world. A better world than has ever been seen. There you are not what you are born but what you have it in yourself to be. A kingdom of concious, peace instead of war, love instead of hate. That is what lies at the end of Crusade.”
For what it is worth this film is denounced by “Muslim Scholars” as anti-Islamic.
Scott’s filmography includes 1492, a film which celebrated Columbus and was boycotted by the knee-jerk left. Black Hawk Down focuses on the Elite American soldier as hero. Others like The Gathering Storm celebrate Churchill's rise to power and vindication. What makes you suddenly thing this director is obsessed with bashing the West?
Eh, I appreciate his viewpoint, but I got the message from the movie that the entire conflict was a pointless waste.
For what it is worth this film is denounced by “Muslim Scholars” as anti-Islamic.
Okay, which ones? Because I've read that, in spite of some early misgivings at an early version of the script, the predicted large outcry against the movie from Muslim quarters is just not materializing. I haven't seen any serious backlash here in Dubai, either.
What makes you suddenly thing this director is obsessed with bashing the West?
I don't.
J
"You are adopting a stance which has been dictated for you." Not really. I've seen the evidence from the filmmaker's own mouth, read the views of scholars on the work, and generally been less than impressed with the reviews I have read. If that's "adopting a stance" then I daresay that anyone who trusts a movie reviewer or believes script analysis is "adopting a role."
Getting back to your original post, the early word on the street about the Passion was that it was anti-Semetic. This was promulgated by the Christian-bashing left and the lamestream media (esp. the New York Times). I'm not convinced that rottentomatoes.tom, Richard Poe, and others are quite the same as those distrusted media organs, but you seem to think so.
Finally, Orlando Bloom as a leading man? The guy's out of his league. Another signifigant minus. But hey, I guess I'd have to see the film to have a real opinion. Riiight.
Z
I am familiar with enough of the history of the Crusades to know a white wash. The Crusades are far and away the most second most misunderstood topic in history.
The most misunderstood is the Muslim and Arab conquests.The bloodshed and mayhem is seldom taught.The brief discussion of the occupation of Spain and 500 plus year battle to take Constantinople is never taught. Nor was the invasion of the Balkans and the battle of Vienna spoken of.
Hold your breath for a movie called
"My life as a Dhimmi". You will not ever see that film
It might not be quite the Hollywood Blunder it appears when the movie plays Eurabia. There will probably be long lines of LLL waiting to see it in Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam. The people behind the movie might have even expected to make a good percentage of their money in Eurabia, knowing that the movie parrots the whitewash of Islam that is the party line over there.
The point about Orlando bloom is well-taken; he does better as an elf or a Paris.
But his character is that of "Defender of Jerusalem". Among his heroic deeds was wearing Saladin down to the point where surrender would not be unconditional.
I'm not so sure that the crusades are so misunderstood. Much has been written about their success and failures and much has been written about motives.
As far as the barbarism goes...remember that Christians had their own blemishes during (and after) that period.
It is also a fact that when the crusades began, the gap between the east and west was not as large as it is now (some suggest that the east was more advanced-In any case the East had preserved much from Macedonia and Greece, much of which the west had to relearn).
the islamofacists together with their leftist (international) allies want to convince us of a nefarious connection between "oil men of the US" and the funders of international jihad/wahabism/pan-islamism...? of course - no connection exists between leftist/hollywood and the mideast money/propaganda machine. hollywood is going the way of "MSM". Boycott hollywood!!! stop another islamists' propaganda vehicle
Z
Do not lecture me about the abuses
of the Crusaders. As a Jew I am familiar with them. Yet you insult
my intelligence and logic with this line.
How long were the Crusades 350 years ? Compare that to the occupation of Spain and the Balkans. 800 plus years of war against Constantinople. The fact that the Assyrians, Armenians , Copts , Jews and others were treated today as second class citizens in lands they and not the Arabs are indigenous in. The fact that Assyrians and other minorities are not free today speaks vollumes.
Any comparison between the Islamic
Conquests and the Crusades is an
insult to the Crusaders. Islam is still occuping land it is not indigenous in the Crusades ended long ago.
Thanks for the heads up Mr. Poe!--Your word is good enough for me!
I know to much about the real Crusades, to not waste my families sheckles on relativist CACA!
Perhaps with the Neo-Crusades taking place today, Christendom might just reclaim this
masterpiece. http://www.patriarchate.org/ecumenical_patriarchate/chapter_4/html/hagia_sophia.html
The first thing I would do is blow up the 4 minarets. That would satisfy my Christian sensitivities, and restore this church to the way Justinian envisioned it, prior to the demoniacs rapine.
beakerkin:
Sorry to hear you feel that both you intelligence and logical prowess are being insulted. Worry less about you intelligence and logical prowess and more about you hyper-sensitivity
The occupation that you refer to is something that is deplorable by today’s standards. But then again that’s what empires did…they occupied, often brutally. There is no shortage of these…anywhere in time or place.
You must also be aware that in certain areas of southern Spain, Jews and Arabs lived in relative peace.
At this point it is not worth it for you to see the movie, you have already made up your mind.
"Islam is still occupying land it is not indigenous in the Crusades ended long”
...now that point is well taken. The west has progressed while the east stood still and stagnated.
I haven't seen the film yet, but I do know Ridley Scott's stuff and he does not produce historically accurate movies. It is not his intent.
For Scott, the backdrop is just that, a backdrop. His intent is to generate a particular kind of mood and he is very good at that. "Blade Runner", "Alien" and "Gladiator" all have very specific feels to them. His characters may have historical names but there is no attempt to use actual events and characters unless they serve to create the mood that Scott wants.
In Gladiator, there are historical characters like Marcus Aurelius, Commodus and Maximus but the events in the film never took place. Bearing this in mind, you have to be prepared to ignore a lot of history to enjoy Scott's work.
It seems unlikely that Scott would produce a political whitewash of the crusades because his drama always comes from the struggle between individuals. Lt Ripley and the Alien, Commodus and Maximus, etc are the kinds of conflict that Scott does best.
But he has also done some real garbage like "Thelma and Louise" and "GI Jane" which makes it hard to know what to expect from a Scott film.
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Another review of the flick.
Z
The Golden age of Spain is a myth debunked by Bat Yeor. Take two Bat Ye'or books and Robert Spensers new book and read.
How long did European Colonialism
last 200 years ? The Islamic variety still exists today. You can
find the accounts of the Hindus, Budhist,Zoroastrians,Christians,
Yezidi and Jews on the Web.
The abuse of minorities occurs today under Islam. Kindly go to Freedom House. I reject the claim that Islam was more humane to minorities as absurd.
Any comparison between the legacy
of Christianity and Islam should first be discussed by reading Alvin Schmidtt.There is no comparison at all. This also comes from a non Christian.
The Golden Age of Spain under the Moors is a myth, but bear in mind that the patron saint of Spain, St James, is usually depicted on a horse, in full armor with his sword held high. At the feet of the horse are the decapitated heads of Moors.
Since few suicides are by decapitation it is reasonable to conclude that St James was responsible for the heads.
The "convert or pay the jizya" under the Moors became "convert or die" under that Christians. Jews who converted to Christianity (los Conversos) were never fully accepted and were continually accused of un-Christian acts like secretly celebrating Passover.
Most "Golden Ages" only seemed golden because what followed was worse. The Spanish Inquisition was terrifying enough to make even the horrors of Moorish rule seem like the "good ol' days".
Of course this doesn't make Moorish rule any better but it does explain how the Golden Age myth got traction.
Never, ever believe a word, Bob "Bugger" Meyer says. It is tantamount to believing that Paula Abdul got busy with Corey Clark.
During the high point of the Spanish Inquisition from 1478-1530 AD, scholars found that approximately 1,500-2,000 people were found guilty. From that point forward, there are exact records available of all "guilty" sentences which amounted to 775 executions. In the full 200 years of the Spanish Inquisition, less than 1% of the population had any contact with it, people outside of the major cities didn't even know about it. The Inquisition was not applied to Jews or Moslems, unless they were baptized as Christians.
Forty thousand Catholics were murdered in the English Inquisitions, but this is not common knowledge, since Catholic bigotry is one of the few sanctioned bigotries permitted and enjoyed by the booboisie.
You know Bugger, you should stick to reviewing idiotic movie directors, and leave matters of history to the more read, and schooled among us.
According to the murderer's own meticulous records only 775 people were executed? Well I am certainly embarrassed and properly chastized!
You, who cries "murder!" when a blastocyst is used to produce stem cells should go ballistic over 700 murders in the name of your god but since they were killed in a "good cause" it is alright.
rightminded: get serious!
In the Cathar Crusade over one million people were killed in the south of France. When the Crusaders asked a local abbot about how to tell the Christians from the Cathars he replied with the famous phrase "Kill them all, God will know his own". Life on earth was cheap because the Crusaders believed in an afterlife.
The Thirty Years war resulted in the death of a third of the population of Europe. Neither the Nazis nor the Communists ever reached that percentage of the population, though not for a lack of trying.
But the murderer said he killed only 775 innocent victims in Spain. Surely, an organization responsible for the deaths of millions of people wouldn't stoop to lying. After all, when its employees were found to be molesting children the Church immediately helped the prosecutors, didn't it?
The Catholic Church is the longest lasting criminal conspiracy in history and I would no more accept the word of the Church than I would accept the word of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, who, by the way, is a practicing Catholic.
OK, according to the official rule book, after Meyer's last comment, "play stops and everyone goes back to his last legal position."
Jeepers, what a non sequitur. Rightminded is absolutely correct in his description of the "body count" for the Spanish Inquisition, which anyone who isn't a bigot and reads the history can learn.
As for the body count in the Thirty Years War, it takes a particularly loony view of history to ascribe all casualties in that war to Catholicism. As I recall there were German and Swedish Lutherans who had some involvement.
As for the Albigensian Crusades, 1 million dead! Snort, snort. That figure is just hysterical in light of the total population of the region and the historical consensus that Cathars never amouned to more than 5 to 10% of the population.
But, hey, thanks for illustrating a point I made this morning on my blog.
The population of Europe was 23.5 million prior to the Thirty Years War. The population afterwards was about 16 million. Although combat casualties amounted to only around 350,000, the deaths from starvation and disease caused by the looting and pillaging by the various armies was clearly responsible for the rest of the deaths. No relatively war-free period in European history ever saw such a dramatic drop in population (excepting specific plagues) so attributing the deaths to the war is hardly fantasy.
As for the million dead in the south of France I never said that they were all Cathars, the battle cry "Kill them all, God will know his own" should make that obvious even to an idiot. The Catholic armies knowingly murdered devout Catholics in order to be sure that they killed all the Cathars. Like I said, life is cheap to those who think that something better awaits them after death.
When the Catholic Church defrocks Cardinal Law, admits that they murdered Giordano Bruno, acknowledges that Galileo was one of mankind's greatest benefactors and should have been celebrated instead of placed under house arrest then come back and talk about Catholicism as a moral force. Until then console yourself with the fantasy that the Spanish Inquisition was not all that terrible because "only" 775 innocent persons were put to death.
By the way, the torture chambers of the Inquisition are still on display in Spain. But I'm sure that they were really health spas so the prisoners could remain in good condition.
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acknowledges that Galileo was one of mankind's greatest benefactors and should have been celebrated instead of placed under house arrest
Um... guess you missed that one happening, then?
Hey Bugger Meyer!
You cannot put sense in a fool's head, even if you try--especially an amoral, follower of the religion of secular, scientific atheists!
Jewish historian Steven Katz remarked on the Medieval Inquisition that “in its entirety, the thirteenth and fourteenth century Inquisition put very few people to death and sent few people to prison; 90 percent of its sentences were canonical penances” (The Holocaust in Historical Context, 1994).
The entire Inquisition of 500 years (the Cathar and Spanish), caused about 6,000 deaths.--That's about 12 a year!
"Nevertheless, the Inquisition tortures and death were inexcusable. I echo the voice of John Paul II "Forgive us Lord, Never Again""
NOW!
LET US LOOK AT THE BOB MEYER'S RELIGION OF SECULAR SCIENTIFIC ATHEISTS!--They killed about 8 times that many in the first few years of their murderous rampage alone, and it continues in their "Culture of Death!"
French Revolution (1789-94)
Encarta, "French Revolution"
Reign of Terror
Executed with Trial: 17,000
Executed w/o Trial: 12,000
Died in jail: "thousands"
TOTAL: 40,000
MEYER, YOU ARE A TWISTING, LYING, RADICAL FRAUD! Your SSA religion has murdered well over 100 million, in the 20th century alone!
P.S. You know sqwat about Galileo, and his relationship with a certain POPE!--That is obvious!
Bob Meyer, a twisted mind, ergo a twisted logic, spews,
"Like I said, life is cheap to those who think that something better awaits them after death."
On the contrary, life is cheap for those who do not believe in a divine retribution, that will be exacted for murder!
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