We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
КРИТИКА СРЕДЊОВЕКОВНОГ ЗАПАДНОЕВРОПСКОГ ДРУШТВА У ФИЛМУ НЕБЕСКО КРАЉЕВСТВО РИДЛИЈА СКОТА
- Authors
Петровић, Горан Ј.
- Abstract
This paper shows how Kingdom of Heaven, a 2005 film by Ridley Scott that gives a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the outbreak of the Third Crusade, criticises the medieval society of Western (Catholic) Europe. The paper contrasts the film's positive characters with the negative ones and thus yields the conclusion that Kingdom of Heaven denounces the grave perversities of medieval European society - the sacral (the values advocated by the Pope and the Catholic clergy, such as religious hatred, manslaughter as a way to spiritual salvation, and hypocritical and egotistic materialism) as well as the secular ones (feudal hereditary aristocratism). The author of this paper points out that, in criticising the medieval society of Catholic Europe, Scott does not only aim to point to the improprieties of this social system, but with his film he also implicitly alludes to the contemporary political conflicts in the Middle East, expressing the hope that Baldwin IV's fictional „kingdom of conscience" as characterized by high morality, tolerance, open-mindedness and meritocracy will, one day, be truly realized not only in the Levant but also throughout the world, wherever there are conflicts between different religions and nations. The film Kingdom of Heaven, therefore, does not only have a medievalist but also a universal, timeless significance.
- Subjects
SOCIAL criticism; SCOTT, Ridley, 1937-; CRUSADES (Middle Ages); FEUDALISM; ISLAMOPHOBIA; MERITOCRACY; AGNOSTICISM
- Publication
Nasleđe, 2023, Issue 55, p147
- ISSN
1820-1768
- Publication type
Article