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[GenrXr]

This movie is about the Holy Crusades and since it’s from H-Wood my cultural warning radar went off. I must preface this by saying Ridley Scott has made some of the best movies of American cinema and among my favorite movies are Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator with Blade Runner being in my opinion the greatest movie ever made. The movie was made in the late 70's, yet there has never been anything which shows the technological sophistication of a world tomorrow that can begin to compare with the scene of the chess match from flying mid air in view of the golden pyramid to the ride up the elevator ending with the drawing of the shades. But, this is precisely my worry. My concern is that Ridley Scott actually thinks he is an erudite and thus abuse this delusion. Although, he is a creative genius there is not one bit of proof he is a thinking man beyond his creative skill. We are not talking about an Orson Welles, rather a slightly more ambitious film maker. See Orson was flat out brilliant, but didn't make a whole lot of great films save Citizen Kane, whereas Scott pumps out great films save GI Jane, because he is a better film maker albeit not as brilliant.

Is Ridley Scott trying to give us a good film or to shape our opinion on something few of us know much about?

Well it is my goal to study in earnest the crusades by starting with 'A Concise History Of The Crusades' by Thomas Madden and reading St. Augustine’s 'City of God' for the meaning of Just War Theory and understand fully the transition between nationalistic/ideological war to a religious war.

Hopefully, my studies will be done in time to not only give you a review of the book by Madden, but also a review of the movie by Scott.

Book Report!
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"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy