CAIRO -- When the mere mention of America seems to spark riots in Muslim cities, a Hollywood epic about the Crusades could easily ignite real rage. Yet director Ridley Scott's film "Kingdom of Heaven" has inspired mostly favorable reviews -- and even some introspection -- from theater audiences here and from a largely anti-U.S. Arab press. The film, set in the Second Crusade of the 12th century, focuses on two characters: a Christian knight, Balian of Ibelin, who defends Jerusalem against Kurdish leader Salaheddin (frequently spelled "Saladin" in Western literature). A heroic figure to Muslims and Arabs, Salaheddin unified much of the Islamic world and -- at the risk of giving away the movie -- conquered Jerusalem in 1187. The 9/11 attacks gave newly explosive meaning to the words "crusade" and "jihad." Both figure prominently in "Kingdom's" portrayal of the ancient Christian-Muslim clash. But with the film now showing on Cairo screens, most viewers say it is well balanced. Amina Elbendary of Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly, praises Scott for taking risks with a film that echoes "the contemporary Arab-Israeli conflict and ... Bush's 'war on terror.' " Matein Khalid, writing in the Khaleej Times of the United Arab Emirates, is pleased that the film "did not treat Sultan Salaheddin as the stereotypical Hollywood-Arab arch-villain." Instead, he found himself "fascinated by the sheer gut-wrenching relevance of ... the East-West battles of 900 years ago, to the Arab-Islamic world" of 2005. Modern Arab tyrants often wrap themselves in Salaheddin's mantel. The late Hafez Al-Asad erected statues of him all over Syria's capital, Damascus. Iraq's Saddam Hussein -- born in Tikrit, like Salaheddin -- "shamelessly linked his Baathist dictatorship" to the fabled warrior, Khalid reminds readers. In the 1960s, at the height of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's power, Egyptian director Yousef Chahine produced "Al-Nasir Salaheddin" ("The Victory of Salaheddin"), filled with Arab-nationalist overtones. Tariq Al-Shinawi, of the Egyptian weekly Rose Al-Yousef, says "Kingdom" does not offer Arab viewers the "pride and comfort" of Chahine's film, "because you sympathize with the good side of the Crusaders who refuse to shed blood." He says the new film portrays Jerusalem as a city where "all religions and ethnicities ... may listen carefully to the voice of God." Some commentators do try to link the film to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. In the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds, Ibrahim Darwish compares the Bush administration's "neo-cons" to the film's Knight Templar Guy de Lusignan, whose bloody rampage aims to break a truce between the Latin Christian kingdom and Salaheddin's Muslim army. Darwish says the "neo-cons" are "no different than the followers of Guy who say that the killing of infidels is not ... a crime, but a way to heaven." Other reviewers, such as Adel Salim, editor of the literary monthly Diwan Al-Arab, believe a portrayal of "the great lies of the Crusaders" has greater impact coming from a Western director. He contends the film's most meaningful detail is a scene where Salaheddin places a toppled cross back onto a church altar, because it shows "Muslims are not against Christians ... and there is freedom of worship in our land." In the popular Egyptian weekly Sout Al-Umma, Hanan Shuman criticizes both sides in an article titled "The Kingdom of Heaven: How many crimes are committed in the name of God?" She also rejects comparisons of the film's story line to today's struggle between Osama bin Laden and George Bush. "It is a film," she writes, "that tells the tale of a victory for us in the time of our defeat ... that attacks religious leaders but not religion" and sees "the evil among themselves and ... the good among us." The most hopeful note comes from the Khaleej Times' Khalid, who says the battle enriched both sides. "We taught them to play chess and the Greek mathematics, philosophy and medicine we preserved in the libraries of the Baghdad caliphate as the Dark Ages descended on Europe," he writes. "The 'Kingdom of Heaven' was not all war, blood and slaughter. (It) also proved that nobility, reason, and the human spirit transcend all ideological clashes ... that the line between good and evil cuts across all religions and tribes."

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---