Salaam

I entered Blockbuster on Sunday to rent a film for later that night, I scanned around for a while without finding anything I was particularly interested in, although I was pleased to see the Russian box office hit 9th Company had been imported and subtitled properly, as that is too cool a film for it not to get the publicity it deserves.
Finally I laid eyes on Soldier of God, with the cover looking awfully inviting, and suspiciously close to the Assassin's Creed time period and location, of which I have been playing so much recently. I picked it up and flipped it over to read, "The Holy Land, 1187. When dedicated warrior-monk of the Knights Templar, Rene, is captured in battle, he escapes into the desert. He is saved from starvation by Hasan, a mysterious Muslim traveller..." Little more had to be said as I was sold, no doubts and no hesitation.
Unfortunately despite winning various awards -including two 'best picture of 2005'- it left a lot to be desired. The budget was evidently lacking, even though many famous films have been in the same situation and have seamlessly created masterpieces, this title however did not disguise it so well with poor direction uncomfortably highlighting these shortfalls.
Scripting was going to be its savior, a good story and be damned to everything else, yet again, things were not going to be so easy. It's not that the script was entirely bad, it's just that it laid it on so heavily it became hard to take it seriously. Yes it's a comment on religion and humanity, yes it's very relevant, yes you are not the first film to do this by any degree.
If it wasn't for the scripture, Muslims, and entire setting of the Third Crusade it would have been rather unwatchable. For instance, if it was set in America during the worst of the hostilities between the native Indians and the settlers -which would have been just as applicable a setting- I would have switched off completely before the end.