Hollywood Is Brilliant!

Have you seen what Ridley "I used to be the shit before GI Jane" Scott is planning on foisting on us?

Pleaseoplease! I want to see a movie in which Western culture goes out to kill some 'Rabs in the name of Jesus. Where can I get me some of that? Outside of Fox News, wiseass.

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, just how wise is this movie right now? Because, let's face it, Hollywood is not known for accuracy or cultural/historical correctness. I hear that the script does make concessions that maybe one or two Christians got involved in the Crusades for the wrong reasons, but the bulk of them went because they truly believed in the cause.

Fucking revisionism. Look you had a few types during the crusades: 1)The poor and gullible, who were forced to go, but gulled into believing in the "Higher Purpose" of the crusades; 2)Royalty, who wanted to claim the land for various reasons (not wanting to make Arabs richer, for one thing...also they were starting to be able to defend themselves and their land, and that just won't do. Oh, and yeah, poppies and hashish); and 3)wealthy commerce types who wanted to make some quid quickly off of the sweat of the locals.

I'd rant and rave at the predictable injustice of it all, if I didn't know one thing: This is exactly what the American public wants from its historical epics. Not the truth.

I should say that the American public doesn't want the truth in any kind of entertainment, informational or otherwise. Witness the recent PBS censorship brouhaha over cuss words in a Frontline documentary about an Army Troop's experience in Baghdad.

Even more damning is a comment I overheard following a screening of Hotel Rwanda, which I'm sure was commonplace throughout the country:

"Jesus, that was depressing, why did they keep blaming us? We had nothing to do with any of that!"