Saladin, ruler of the kingdoms surrounding the Latin state of Jerusalem, is brought to attack the Christians in the Holy Land by the sacking of a convoy of Muslim pilgrims, a group which included his sister. In a short campaign against odds, Jerusalem is taken and almost the entire Middle East is in Muslim hands. Crusade is called again in Europe, and the combined forces of the French king, German emperor, and English king form the 3rd Crusade, under the leadership of Richard the Lionheart of England. Although Accre is taken by the Crusaders, Saladin succeeds in preventing the recapture of Jerusalem, and in the end negotiations between himself and Richard (who Saladin admires as the only honorable leader) leave the Holy Land in Moslem hands. I love films about the crusades. <br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>It was a pleasure to see this film again. One of the greatest Egyptian and Arab movies of all time.<br/><br/>Excellent performance by Ahmed Mazhar (Saladdin) and Hamdi Geiss (Richard Lion Heart) and very good directing by Yussef Chahine.
Oceagari replied
363 weeks ago