I was not impressed.

Rene is a Knight Templar (a warrior monk) who is wandering in the desert after surviving the battle of Hattin in which most of the Crusaders were killed. He meets a Muslim named Hassan, they end up saving each other's lives, they become buddies to the point where they at least wont kill each other. Rene is a humorless, religious fellow, prone to mumbled, barely intelligible voiceovers about God and stuff. Supposedly Hassan is an Assassin, who were a group of brainwashed violent fanatics, yet in the movie he just seems like a totally reasonable regular guy, much smarter than the humorless, oxlike Frenchman. They meet a Muslim widow who is kinda hot and has a not-very-good imitation of an Arab accent. What is the woman doing permanently out in the desert? She keeps no animals, doesn't grow anything, what does she do for a living? They spend most of the movie hanging out around her tent and demonstrating trite lessons about how religious fanaticism and hatred are bad. The woman tries to tempt Rene away from his crazy religious vows, so to remove the temptation he offs her at the end in a way that seems abrupt and not believable. His character never really develops into anything more than a cardboard dumb dirty guy who's nuts. The whole thing seems like a pointless exercise in verbose pretentiousness.

And another thing- there's a scene where Hassan hands Rene some soap, and he tries to eat it. I'm sorry, Europeans of that time period may have been a bit sketchy about personal hygiene, but they did have soap, and they used it.

This movie is very watchable for a low budget flick. The historical references were close to perfect. I'm surprised judging from all the reviews, nobody has any accurate knowledge about Islam here. Islam has many divisions when it comes to religious beliefs other than the Quran. The two largest are Shia's, or Ismaili's and Sunni's who usually in a political sense don't quite get along with each other. There are many others, including Bori's, Agha Khanis, etc. Hassan from the movie is a Shia and Sallahudin's army etc consists of Sunni's. The division started during politics in Mecca and Madina after the death of the Prophet(PBUH) between most of the companions of the Prophet(PBUH) and his cousin Hazrat Ali (use the internet its pretty interesting. The woman who looked like an American was a Christian forced to convert to Islam after her city was sacked and she was enslaved and then her master fell in love with her and bla bla bla. Slavery was a common practice back then. A Muslim woman bathing in public was actually quite common in those times, so was taking a dump in a bush, even if people were watching. Public Toilet Cabins were not that common :P. As for people who didn't understand how she was providing food for her guests, she states in the movie that her husband supplies her with enough food. She's away from civilization since her mother in law from her first husband didn't like her. It is a custom in most middle eastern areas, that Son's usually stay with there parents even after their married, as it is there rightful obligation to care for them in old age. Women in Islam are not oppressed as I get the vibe from some of the reviews here, as it is not Islam but the culture that is to blame nowadays. There are only two countries where I feel the women are oppressed, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Overall this movie was great but the ending sucked bad.....oh and btw for those of you that don't know soap wasn't introduced to the general public of Europe till the late 13th Century, before that soap was only used by high ranking Nobles and Royalties as a luxury.

I watched this incredible HD feature at the Dallas Deep Ellum Film Festival (where it walked away with a big award) and was amazed that the filmmaker had pulled off such a huge film for a small budget. Filmed in California, Mir Bahmanyar somehow managed to transform a California desert to the middle east, but that transformation was second to the incredible transformation by Bill Mendieta into a Muslim fighter who harbors a deadly secret. At the completion of the movie, at first I was surprised by the ending, but realized the subtext of the story must be met (congrats to Bahmanyar and Kuhlen). Tim Abel's Knight Templar and Mendieta's characters dominate the story with an ease of slipping into the skin of such three dimensional characters. Mapi Galan, whom they discovered in Spain, helped develop the story into a rich depth with her beautiful and exotic Sohelia who mesmerizes the men who visit her tent and seem to alter their attitudes towards war. Neil Lisk's cinematography was exceptional and if you look at the crew you'll note that Mir Bahmanyar's name is all over the place, and this was due to his dedication of getting the story made and offered to the viewing public.