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Tonight's movie.
Nov. 12th, 2005 12:23 amKingdom of Heaven.
The coda about how, nearly a thousand years later, we still can't have peace in the Middle East, sits uncomfortably on my shoulders.
I don't know how it is for other people, but when you start talking about Israel and Jerusalem to a Jew, it's not a distant concept. You're not talking about centuries ago, you're talking about life and breath and the sand that runs in our veins-- even if we came from the shtetl or the steppes. So this, for me, is like looking at a movie someone made about the roots of my own family's discord.
It's funny. I've read books all my life that talk about the flying pennants of the army, held aloft above stamping horses. But until I saw this movie, I had no idea what that would actually look like. Of course the Saracens flew banners of bright cloth, covered in Arabic. Of course they rode Arabian stallions. But until it's in front of my eyes, I couldn't picture it.
One thing upon which I was a bit advanced, howe'er-- to my delight-- is the subtitling. At one point, in the midst of the pre-battle tenseness, I turned them on. As Jerusalem waits for its bombardment, the subtitles say, "(Indistinct)" as a man shouts. But I, who spent my summer beside the chess board, knew he shouted a warning: "Ballista!" And I knew, also, at the end, the approaching man in the red and gold could be none other than Richard Cour de Lion.
I may have to get this soundtrack.
The coda about how, nearly a thousand years later, we still can't have peace in the Middle East, sits uncomfortably on my shoulders.
I don't know how it is for other people, but when you start talking about Israel and Jerusalem to a Jew, it's not a distant concept. You're not talking about centuries ago, you're talking about life and breath and the sand that runs in our veins-- even if we came from the shtetl or the steppes. So this, for me, is like looking at a movie someone made about the roots of my own family's discord.
It's funny. I've read books all my life that talk about the flying pennants of the army, held aloft above stamping horses. But until I saw this movie, I had no idea what that would actually look like. Of course the Saracens flew banners of bright cloth, covered in Arabic. Of course they rode Arabian stallions. But until it's in front of my eyes, I couldn't picture it.
One thing upon which I was a bit advanced, howe'er-- to my delight-- is the subtitling. At one point, in the midst of the pre-battle tenseness, I turned them on. As Jerusalem waits for its bombardment, the subtitles say, "(Indistinct)" as a man shouts. But I, who spent my summer beside the chess board, knew he shouted a warning: "Ballista!" And I knew, also, at the end, the approaching man in the red and gold could be none other than Richard Cour de Lion.
I may have to get this soundtrack.