KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: PASS

(2005)

THE PIPPI LONGSTOCKING COLLECTION: PICK

(1969-73)

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING: PICK

(1997)

Ridley Scott's ambitious Crusade-era epic KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, new this week on DVD, idealizes the 12th-century Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem as a nexus of uneasy but briefly successful coexistence of Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land.

The kingdom is ruled in its final years by Baldwin IV, the Leper King, a moderate who wishes to maintain peace with Saladin. The peace is threatened, however, by “fanatics of every denomination [sic],” i.e., Christian and Muslim. (What about Jews? They're irrelevant here.)

Despite mention of “fanatics” on both sides, Scott devotes far less time to developing the Muslim side of things. There are no Muslim clerics, good or bad, and certainly no Muslim equivalent to the mustache-twirling villainy of the Templars or the hypocrisy of the patriarch of Jerusalem. Apparently Saladin is more successful at restraining fanatical Muslim elements than Baldwin is fanatical Christian elements.

In fact, the story could largely be described as the failure of moderate Christians to restrain fanatical Christians from oppressing innocent Muslims, thereby provoking justifiable Muslim retaliation against the Christians, both fanatics and otherwise.

Kingdom of Heaven makes an uneven effort at even-handedness in its religious portrayals, but its perspective is ultimately anti-religious, if not anti-God or anti-faith, elevating ethics above theology and commending a sort of religious indifferentism as the antidote to religious strife.

Inger Nilsson is Astrid Lindgren's irrepressible heroine Pippi Longstocking in the four-disc boxed edition THE PIPPI LONGSTOCKING COLLECTION, just released on DVD. Originally in Swedish, these four films are most familiar to American audiences in poorly dubbed English versions — and that's the version presented here (distributor Hen's Tooth was apparently unable to get U.S. rights for the Swedish-language soundtrack).

Unquestionably, the lack of the Swedish track (or a decent English dub) is a major drawback, but the standard English dub, as clumsy as it is, has a strange nostalgic charm of its own — not entirely unlike the appeal of the films themselves, which a have a sweet naïveté in spite of being somewhat crudely made and not really capturing the witty, whimsical spirit of the books.

The first film, Pippi Longstocking, opens with Pippi's arrival at Villa Villekula, her first meeting with Tommy (Pär Sundberg) and Annika (Maria Persson), and her various run-ins with local busybodies, a pair of bumbling crooks, and another pair of bumbling policemen.

The story continues in Pippi Goes on Board, which is actually mostly about Pippi not going on board, but carrying on much as she did in the first film. In Pippi in the South Seas, Pippi sets off with Tommy and Annika to rescue her long-absent father from pirates. And finally in Pippi on the Run Pippi accompanies Tommy and Annika as they run away from home.

For even more Pippi-ness, check out the 1997 animated PIPPI LONGSTOCKING, which does a better job than the live-action films at evoking the whimsy and absurdism of Lindgren's stories. The animation, while not Disney quality, is more than serviceable, and the music is better than average for this sort of thing.

Like Peter Pan, Pippi is a magical child, free from every sort of constraint (she's super-strong, rich, has no parents, no manners, etc.), and young viewers get a kick out of her topsy-turvy world.

CONTENT ADVISORY: Kingdom of Heaven contains strong graphic combat and battlefield, religious complications, and an adulterous encounter (nothing explicit), and is not recommended. The Pippi Longstocking Collection contains some scenes of mild menace from pirates and other assorted dangers, and some dubious frivolity involving guns and other dangers. The 1997 Pippi Longstocking contains nothing objectionable.