Kingdom of Heaven Update

Courtesy of Ith, we have an extensive post by Justin at Calblog, which points to the Council on American Islamic Relations approval of Kingdom of Heaven. A few months ago, I posted a bit on this, agreeing with Jonathan over at Galley Slaves that there would probably be a CAIR backlash leading up to this film, but expressed my hope that the film would rise above it all. (Yeah, I goofed the original link, which you can find here. You people have to tell me when I do this.)

It's surprising that CAIR endorsed the film. To quote from Justin's post:

{...}The fact that a sue-happy, terror-apologist group like CAIR actually put its seal of approval on the film should be quite damning. (Do you suppose that the filmmakers bothered to show Christian/Catholic leaders an advance screening of the film to get their input and seal of approval? Not likely. That should speak volumes about the cynical nature of this film.){...}

Hmmmph.

I don't agree with that. Given the strong theme of the glories of Western Civilization in Ridley's other films, such as Black Hawk Down, I'm not going to be so quick to condemn the movie simply because CAIR endorsed it. Ridley's got a track record when it comes to defending Western Civilization. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he chooses to show what could be considered to be a low point for Western Civilization, which many people think the Crusades were, then score one for Ridley. Sometimes Western Civilization needs to be defended from itself. Whether this is one of those instances, I do not know. It could be utter crap. Again, I don't know. I haven't seen it. But, I'm certainly not going to take CAIR's word that it's great as proof that it's politcally correct crap, either.

I can judge these things for myself.

Posted by Kathy at April 29, 2005 03:08 PM