Saladin

I love films about the crusades.

When I saw this film some decades ago it was on German TV. Some days ago I saw the arab version with English subtitles. Thw whole thing gets interesting when its compared with the crusader film Kingdom of Heaven. - Both films declare that they are extremely outnumbered by the other side (Saladin: 120.000 christians against 40.000 arabs / Kingdom of Heaven: 250.000 arabs against 50.000 christians). Both is wrong. There were 35.000 christians fighting 50.000 arabs. - In the Kingdom of Heavon it was shown correctly that Rainard was executed by Saladin (and not killed in an horoable duel). So one fault to the Saladin film. - In the Kingdom of Heavon film on the other side it was shown that Saladin was forced by the excellent Christian defense to ask the city of jerusalem to surrender. In history Jerusalem didn't make such a heroic defense and was taken easily by Saladin. He was so generous to offer the christians to leave the city and avoid slavery - that was shown correctly in the Saladin Film and very bad in the Kingdom of Heaven film.

Considering the fact that the Saladin-film was made in the 60ties, I can only come to conclusion that its an excellent film and I have great respect for the directors and actors of this film.

It was a pleasure to see this film again.

Overall it is a nice and interesting film, the costumes looks quiet cheap sometimes but it's forgivable. Too bad the film has some non-historic anti-french propaganda (probably because of the influence of the British Walter Scott's works on the subject done in the 19th century), having caricatural vilains like that gives the film a bad taste.

The movie accurately demonstrates the true story behind the crusades and their attacks on the middle east. Salah El-Din leads the Egyptian armies to face the 3rd Crusade and recapture Palestine for the Arabs.

The good thing about this movie is its decent fighting sequences and special effects bearing in mind that it was produced in 1963. It also gives a good insight about Salah El Din who is known to the west as one of history's most noble kings. In the movie, the plot shows that Salah El Din too had a great deal of respect for Richard Lionheart of England.

One more interesting point is that the movie shows that Arab Christians were in fact suffering from the crusades and some of them fought side-by-side with the Muslims to defeat the crusaders; this is actually historically documented.

Unfortunately the times when these great historic movies where done in Egypt are long gone. Elnaser Salah el-Dine is one of those rare movies that were made with these production values in the Arab world and in the hands of Youssef Chahine has became sort of a legendary film at least in where it came from. Despite the fact that it relatively flopped in theaters partly because of how huge the production is and how little the theaters these days in the Arab world can cause profit it became one of the most loved and respected movies and watched by everyone when aired on television. Historically it didn't bring everything about the hero, that's not why it was made.... it depicted a certain section in the history of the crusades without looking at the roots of the characters because there's only so much you can show in a limited time motion picture. Anyways, the movie showed the nobility of the leader, the power of his faith, his distinguished skill in warship, and most of all his human side. There's a real reason for why he is seen as one of history's legendary warriors in the east and such a respected figure in the west as well..The movie did him justice there, and didn't drift away from being very entertaining. Frankly not many movies or series in the middle east can make you feel the period that it's supposed to be in, but this one doesn't distract you in thinking about that manner because it seemed so real, the way it should be. And on the other hand Chahine being a Christian himself diminishes the idea of the movie being biased against Christianity. An amazing movie I enthusiastically recommend to anyone...

In response to the number of epic films produced in the 1950s and 1960s, Youssef Chahine took the genre and spun it at 180 degrees. He is attacking the imperialism ambitions of Europe and modifying our perception of the crusades.

Saladin even with a much smaller budget than American films has great production values. The battles are great, the music played by an orchestra conducted by Carlo Savina, an Italian composer and conductor who has worked with world-renowned directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Federico Fellini, and Roman Polanski, is rich. Furthermore, Saladin does more than ripping-off the aesthetical codes of American films. It experiments with cinematography and editing.

I would say that Chahine proves once again the richness of each nationality, their customs, and their talents.