Kingdom Of Heaven

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KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Lucas Castelo Branco
HIST- 2023
10/18/2017

The Kingdom of Heaven is an epic film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, and written by William Monahan, filmed in Morocco. The story of the Kingdom of Heaven is set during the Crusades of the 12th century, basically about the life of Balian of Ibelin, a French blacksmith, who defends the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Muslims, who want to reclaim the city from the Christians. In this story I could travel back in time to experience life during the era of the Crusades.
To understand better about the Kingdom of Heaven is important to know what were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims which started primarily …show more content…

The researches and visual references were extensive, being indispensable for a recreation of scenarios, costumes and objects with absolute dominion. Scott gives a technique: the scene of Saladin's attack on Jerusalem is full of details, being shown from as many different angles as possible. Like what he did in Gladiator (including some plans are pretty much the same), the director uses tricks like a camera shake and quick cuts to re-create sequences of battles. A good point to note is that the original title of the movie, Kingdom of Heaven, is more suited to the medieval imagery of the twelfth century, since the texts of the period speak of "pilgrimage", "holy war", "expedition of the cross "and" passage ". The expression Crusade is only adopted from the thirteenth century, derived from the fact that its participants consider themselves "Soldiers of Christ marked with the sign of the cross and because of this they use an embroidered cross on clothing ". In a certain part of the film, during the siege of Saladin to Jerusalem, Balian asks: "We fight for an offense we do not do against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? ". This question, at once complex and revealing, can be used to discuss the multiple identities of the holy city. Holy for Christians, because it is the place of crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ; for the Jews, for having sheltered the first two great temples of Judaism, …show more content…

The members of the clergy are built as self-interested and opportunist men, while the protagonists would be models of an "enlightened" Christianity, more concerned with social order and correct posture about the divine justice than with precepts and fanaticisms religious. An example of this is the scene in which the priest steals the golden crucifix of Balian's dead wife. In another moment of the film, during the siege of Jerusalem by Saladin, a bishop recoils in the face of the attack and proposes that the city authorities run away, leaving the people there. The Church is represented as an institution without concern for the common good, but symbol of exploitation of the popular, the miserable and the oppressed, this is like a monolithic and oppressive entity. However, the medieval Church is full of contrasts, by numerous religious orders. Considering that the same institution which persecuted heretics and infidels, welcomed and helped miserable people. Balian contradicts some religious precepts in “Kingdom of Heaven”, when he allows the bodies of Christians to be burned to prevent proliferation of diseases during the siege of the walls of

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