Kingdom of Heaven
March 9th, 2008 by Sonja

LightHusband loves gadgets. He especially loves electronic gadgets.

I may have mentioned that I lost the battle over the large screen television. Did I mention that? He got a lovely bonus this year. I lost the battle. When we got the television, we got a new gadget to go with it. It’s called Apple TV.

Apple TVApple TV is a network device designed to play digital content originating from the iTunes Store or another computer onto an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen television. Apple TV can store content on an internal hard drive or stream it across a network from another computer running iTunes on either Mac OS X or Windows.

LightHusband thinks this is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I am much more understated.

However, last night we were able to go to iTunes on our television screen. Did you see that?? On our television screen … which is as hugelynormous as a small wall. So, we’re at iTunes. We look for movies. We find movies. We search them for a few minutes and find one that looks interesting. We rent it. For $3.99. It downloads. In less than TWO minutes we are watching the movie. No driving. No boxes to lose. No movie to return (or not … ). No fines to pay … and trust me – we ALWAYS pay fines, because we are 12 and not that organized. We/I can watch that movie as many times as we/I want in 24 hours. For three dollars and ninety-nine cents. Amazing.

So, we rented Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Eva Green, and Jeremy Irons. It came out in 2005. It was an excellent movie … but beware. It is not for the faint of heart or queazy of stomach. It is a movie which does not hide the violence or filth of the times from the viewer. I wondered if Orlando Bloom washed his hands at any point during the making of this movie as I watched.

It was thoroughly enjoyable. However, without some knowledge of history and/or the religions involved I’d imagine a viewer would be thoroughly bored. But I loved the fact that for the first in history there was a movie made about the Crusades in which the thoroughly evil people were not the Saracens but the Knights Templar. Those radical fundamentalists who could not live except when they were killing innocents of another race. Hate and fear had twisted their faces.

If you love history, the history of Christianity and/or Islam this is well worth a watch. It is historical fiction and the writers have played with some of the history. However the main characters are all real people who were in and around Jerusalem. Who played a part in the fragile peace of Jerusalem in between the 2nd and 3rd Crusades. Who’s to say they didn’t believe they were bringing about a kingdom of heaven?


5 Responses  
  • Pistol Pete writes:
    March 9th, 20082:03 pmat

    My Dad lives in the equivalent of a double-wide trailer and has a large screen TV that takes up probably 2/3 of the house. He’s a big NASCAR buff and practically has to duck every time someone spins out.

           
  • Rich Kirkpatrick writes:
    March 9th, 20083:30 pmat

    gotta love these gadgets… now my contentment is squashed! must resist…must resist

           
  • Peggy writes:
    March 9th, 20084:54 pmat

    I am glad you saw it, Sonja…remember me talking about watching is over and over and then with my son, who was studying medieval weaponry and tactics?

    One of the great features on the DVD is being able to watch it with the Pilgrim’s Guide turned on — which gives you the real history of the people and places. It is very interesting, and shows you where Hollywood went off and did their “make things up” — like Balian’s life (He grew up noble and was happily married and had a number of children.)

    Anyway, it was a great follow-on movie to my reading of The Iron Lance by Stephen Lawhead, #2 in The Celtic Crusades. Very intense time in church history, indeed.

           
  • Lyn writes:
    March 10th, 20082:01 pmat

    LOL! Sounds like your husband and mine would get on just great! Sssshhhh! Don’t let Jonathan know that you’ve lost the big tv battle, so far I’m winning!

           
  • Julie Clawson writes:
    March 10th, 200810:56 pmat

    I loved Kingdom of Heaven. But I have to admit my viewing of it was tainted by the fact that I went to see it with a bunch of high schoolers who insisted on everyone choosing which male character they thought was sexiest. There was serious debate between Orlando Bloom, David Thewlis, and Liam Neeson. (I of course voted for Alexander Siddig because of the DS9 connection and they all thought I was weird…). But that totally clouds my memories of the movie…

           


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