The Consequences of History and Film making

The film Kindgom of Heaven came at a timely or un-timely period of modern times with the tension of the middle east and a certain american president uttering the word a "crusade" sparking lots of controversy. Was the film a pro-christian view of those events hundreds of years ago? No. A great film and one that clearly promoted an idea that not all things are ever one sided in history. If people were to read historical literature from both sides of the fence then things may seen a more realistic. Take for example some of the famous English conquests of the old world and if you can find equivilant literature for all of those who were conquered, the eyes of those who documented those accounts are clearly tainted with hate, anger, passion, glory, patronism etc. It is perhaps to us to formulate a more sensible conclusion to those events as we are detached from those sorrows and glories of that time. What an interesting thought it is to wonder what historians might make of the conflicts of the 20th century.

Imperialism

The thing with cable TV is that if you watch one channel all day long as I more or less have, you find that the daytime programming repeats itself again in the evening. I like my car shows and so I was treated to more repeats to Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld....again. Most of the time I enjoy the repeats. Motorworld this afternoon was about vehicles in India....again but this time around I paid particular attention to Clarkson's interview with an ex-pat who was asked about his driving experience in India. The gentleman in question was well spoken and clearly with the attitude from a by gone era. I was a little suprised how while he commented on the general attitude of the drivers in India that he found it very difficult to say something derogatory about the native population. Now for a man who has lived most of his life there, why on earth does he still manage to differentiate himself from the people of India? Very strange. I'd think that after fifty odd years of living in one country that one would find themselves intergral with the very fabric of that society. I think he prefers to administrate some alienation with the people of India as he probably still thinks that Queen Vicky is still in power and that Mount Batten is still in his nappy's. I will point out however that the programme was made some time ago and the old git has probably died. Was he hoping for a state funeral? To think that there are some of the old crew that stubbornly hold onto that so-called romantic view of what life was like back in 1927.