Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005) focuses on the Middle East and how Crusaders and Saracens, Christians and Muslims alternated between periods of peace (truces, more accurately) and war in the 12th century.
Given the world today and when the film came out, any light shed on history and culture is helpful, if only to show the complexities of how people relate. Very little is as simple as good/bad, we/they, right/wrong.
Besides showing some of the nuances of class structure and enjoyment of fighting among the warrior class, Kingdom of Heaven delves somewhat into religious ideas, and also into the techniques of besieging a city (Jerusalem under siege, 1187 A.D.)
Though Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb / Saladin (1138-1193) -- played by Ghassan Massoud -- appears somewhat later in the movie, he comes off as the wisest of all the characters. In 2009 or 2010, what would Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn do?
Today's Rune: Strength.
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