Religion: The Kingdom of Heaven
WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST
I personally find this movie very good and unique especially how Bailian the protagonist ‘won’. He actually won by surrendering, this is rather unique in Hollywood movies.
The whole movie was centered on Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified and the ‘spiritual center of the word’. As this movie ‘happened’ during the Middle Ages, there is a very solid sense of class. There are the Lords, Priests, Soldiers and Peasants. In the movie, a solider gave way to a lord, even though the lord has someone with him who was under arrest, citing the reason of his birthright. A peasant can become a better fighter if he is knighted; the person effectively is the same, his social status merely changes and in the movie, this social change can also manifest itself into better fighting skills.
In the movie, the presence of religious forces permeates throughout, and the 3 main axis of which influences the movie greatly are flexible with these religious forces; the leper king, Saladin and Bailian. I personally feel that if they were all actually following the advices of their respective spiritual leaders, it would have resulted in a very boring movie. However, it is interesting to note that all of their respective spiritual leaders seem to ‘know’ what God is thinking. Another point it seems, that there are effectively two
Different Gods in the movie; one is the personal God, he who ‘keeps’ his follower within his gaze, protecting him, guiding him and can actually ‘leave’ the follower if the follower were to commit acts inciting His anger. I call this the Protective Best Friend God (who will still punch you and leave you if you were to have an affair with his wife). The other God I would like to call the General or Commander God. This God gives the Christian people solidarity, someone to fear, to lean on, to follow and acts as a source of strength. “No army fighting under the name of Jesus Christ can be defeated” said a priest in the movie.
The first part of the movie was driven by the PBF God, the reason Bailian wanted to go to Jerusalem was he wanted to cleanse himself and his dead wife’s sins (killing a priest and committing suicide respectively) citing that PDF God has left him because of them. As if he was seeking forgiveness through another ‘governing body’. In Jerusalem, the Muslims, Jews and Christians live together harmoniously thanks to a pact signed by their respective kings.
For example, provided the minorities pay their taxes to the ruling Christians, they are allowed to pray. Religious practice has become an incentive for paying taxes. The ruling instrument of taxation has long pierced religion in that region. The Muslims and Jews had to ‘buy’ the tolerance of the Christians. This is very interesting to note because one can see that economic gains (read “better quality of life) have a higher priority then religion. A fair number characters in the movie seems to quote from the will of God constantly, but the main influential characters seem to have more of an ‘accommodating’ attitude towards ‘Him’ during the later part of the movie.
The second part saw Commander God’s presence domination the flow of the storyline, the armies march under His banner to destroy His enemies with faith as their shield and His anger as their lance, they fear his wrath if they do not follow His orders (of course the priest spoke in His stead). When one of the barons commented that they might lose due to lack of water, a priest accused him of blasphemy. This level of fervor combined with hypernationalism creates a potent mix for the dynamite of war.
The flavor of religion is indeed very strong in this movie. It drives the characters to seek forgiveness, armies to war and the dying to death. However, this movie also hints that religion is open to interpretations, (refer to the scene where Bailian burns the bodies of dead soldiers before the ritual three days was up). The movie also hints that tolerance has to come at a price, and nothing truly comes for free, there is nothing effectively given for free in the whole movie (Bailian’s father had to die for him to become a hero, taxes for the right to pray, great death in exchange for the city, sex in exchange for a stay in the villa etc).
Vernon
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