King Richard barely fought Salahuddin. Salahuddin took care of him before he even reached Jerusalem.
Not only that but When King Richard fell ill, Salahuddin sent a caravan of fruits and physicians to cure him. But Allah does as he wills.
King phillip, who wanted to go to Jerusalem from the Sea, was drowned in it.
Salahuddin had a massive army, and no matter how hard The crusaders tried to come in huge numbers, they were deterioted before even reaching Jerusalem.
When the last crusade took place, the general of the crusaders, (can’t recall his name) came to Salahuddin’s grave and said “The crusades end now.”
Dear “CHE”
I was giving the reference to Ebert and Roeper because they are well known Film critics. You made a stupid assumption yourself that I am confirming them as historians. Just shows what kind “bachkana” opinion you have! You yourself gave a thumbs down to the movie in your earlier post, and I made a reference to Ebert and Roeper giving it thumbs up!
So what movie do you like in the theatres these days? Let me guess… You probably liked " House of Wax"? See now I am making an assumption about you!
It is a great movie. All the people are even giving it a thumbs up even on here. Perhaps you are the one who has a bad taste in movies?!
^^ This movie would slip into the ignominious flop category, simply because its a badly made movie...with too many mushy, formulaic feel good dialogues that makes a serious movie watch squirm. Not to mention its less then accurate portrayal of history and deliberately unaesthetic depiction of Muslims, makes it a truly atrocious movie.....
From the books that I read on Salahudin, one problem that he seemed to have is that the amirs of Syria and Iraq would repeatedly not provide him with the forces he needed - they feared making him too powerful. Particularly around the time of the Third Crusade, he had to send emissaries around the Muslim world with the call for Jihad, and his forces comprised of contingents of soldiers from everywhere from Africa to India, as well as large numbers of Turks and Arabs.
Saw it yesterday. It is a pretty good movie ... or as a friend of mine called it "the feel-good movie of the year for muslims".
The theatre was pretty much packed with your average American moviegoers, and at one point in the movie, when christians under seige in Jerusalem were able to hold back muslim forces for a while, there was some sporadic clapping. This actually seemed funny, because either the audience did not know the history as to what is about to unfold, or else there was very little they could cheer about the movie other than brief snippets of leadership and bravery.
Once the movie is over and you stop to think about it there is pretty much nothing in the movie to cheer an average christian viewer (which is a primary audience for any big budget movie in US/UK etc). Scott Ridley really played a big gamble. If you are making a movie about any particular time period in history, as a christian filmmaker, one will be hard-pressed to justify making a movie about the fall of Jerusalem to Salahuddin.
Anyway, its a big screen movie. So if you are undecided whether to see it in the theatre or on DVD, opt for the theatre. Its rated R, due to war scenes, blood and one sensual scene. The war shots are not gory as such, with intelligent use of wide lens for troop movement and close lense for sword fights.
Orlando Bloom fans will find much to like in the movie. Orlando's character shows intelligence, bravery and that deep sense of retrospect and caged emotion which attracts to a lot of fans. Liam Neeson has a small part in the beginning. Ghassam Masoud. played the role of Salahuddin, but the role did not involve much. There were some crisp dialogues and generally an impassive face, except at the end when he broadly smiled after getting Jerusalem. Though Salahuddin is the conquering hero in this timeline in history, this is not a movie about Salahuddin, but its about Balian of Ibelin.
Overall... pretty much must-see for all fans of epic and historical movies.
Saladin normally had more troops at his command than the Crusaders did. Atthe Crusader defeat at the Battle of Hatting, for instance, there were 22,000 Crusaders lined up again 30-35,000 Mujahideen.
Europe was not densely populated in the middle ages, plus Muslim population centres were always much closer to Palestine than the Crusader population centres were.
The difference was that the majority of crusader troops were professional soldiers, so though they were smaller in number they were better trained. Saladin’s forces consisted of predominantly Muslim citizenry who volunteered to do their duty of jihad - they were less well trained, but extremely motivated.
Crusader troops also tended to be more heavily armoured than Muslim troops did, but in the hot middle-east conditions this was more of a burden than an advantage. Muslim forces were lighter, faster and more mobile, and used this to great effect to wear down Crusading armies. Saladin used this fact to great effect, to grind down the Crusaders during the Third Crusade, such that by the time they got within sight of Jerusalem, King Richard felt that he was defeated already and turned back - that was without even being engaged in a major battle.
King Richard never set foot in Palestine until several years AFTER Jerusalem fell. He led the Third Crusade, which happened after the film.
Interestingly both Balian and Salahuddin's character were shown as not too too concerned about their respective religions.
Balian is clearly struggling with the whole concept of God and only faught for Jerusalem to defend the people there, and not because of any religious or christian spirit. Infact, at one point when he makes a small speech that people are more important than buildings of religious significance, the priest of Jerusalem was clearly shocked and said "this is blasphamy"
Salahuddin, on the other hand is clearly dismissive of the usual muslim chants that say "just attack and Allah will make us victorious". He is all for preparation and strategize to get victory, even if it means not fight a particular battle. At one point, said mockingly to a Saracen Messenger "so how many wars had you won before me?" to show that just motivation is not that is required to win battles, but you also need a sane head to make strategies for victories.
There are a couple of comic moments in the movie that I can recall now. When the chrisitans in Jerusalem saw a huge muslim army at their door-steps and Balian wonders loudly what terms can be offered to get out of the jam, the high priest says "convert to Islam, repent later!". At another point, the priest in Jerusalem advises Balian to run away leaving the innocent civilians to be killed by the invading army, Balian dryly responds "you have taught me a lot about religion!"
^ My favourite bit was the conversation between Saladin and his lieutenants..about why did the guy spare his life...and the other time between Balian and Saladin..what is jerusalem worth?
I was surprised that Ridley Scott took such a BIG gamble and showed Muslims in a positive light!! At one point, one of said, I think we are the only ones who find this moving amusing :D
It was a bit too long for me as I am not used to sitting in one seat for over 2 hours without a break but well worth the time of an epic movie buff.
Great movie. Ghassan Massoud portrayed Salahuddin as well as Alec Guinness portrayed King Faysal in 'Lawrence of Arabia.' If I was Ridley Scott
or another one of Hollywood directors daring
to make a pro-muslim movie in the future,
coming on this message board, reading some of the absolutely
stupid posts here would highly discourage me from doing so. Who the
hell cares if Salahuddin was a Kurd or an Arab. Wasn't his being Muslim
good enough? I would love to see how many of you Indian/Pakistani/
Pushtoon/Punjabi retards would be courageous enough to take control
and hold that control without becoming corrupt.
Who cares if he looked more Sudanese/Syrian/Egyptian
as compared to looking like a blond, blue-eyed Palestinian or Lebanese.
One step at a time is still considered progress. Those of you bickering
over the color of Salahuddin's skin or race really need to go back to
elementary and restart your moral, emotional, and self esteem education
all over. What kind of buffoons get offended by being portrayed as dark
skin as opposed to light skin? Being a dark skinned
Muslim as compared to being a light skin muslim doesn't become a crime
until you let it be so.
I will go next week to watch it … not for history, but for Orlando Bloom. 
Cut and Paste master, atleast say that you did a Xerox from somehwere.