- Jun 21, 2009
- 10,783
- 414
Netflix® is free for a month as a trial but I don't dare continue the subscription (except maybe for the Summer months) because I'm a movie addict and binge watcher. I don't have television in my home either, for the same reason, but if a doctor wants to put me in hospital? I know what that means. It means lying in bed and watching FREE TV, right? 
I just got done watching a movie that I've seen before; when it first came out. With the 'fog of memory' that I have, where I need to see things a couple times before it feels like they've really been seen, it was like watching for the very first time. So before I start singing the Madonna song, "Like a Sturgeon-fish, touched for the very first time...," let me instead go on and give my thoughts about this underwhelming (but to me, very good) movie.
It deals with the worlds three (3) of the Abrahamic Religions: Muslim, Christian and Jew. Setting is middle ages (11th Century) and there are plagues going off left and right in the background. A Barber (replete scenes of leeches and other 'treatments' for humor imbalance, where patience suffer from too much or too little of certain fluids, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) disguises himself as a Jew (complete with circumcision) and goes to a Middle-Eastern (Persian) physician's 'college' where no 'Christian' is allowed.
View attachment 7313
I liked the premise and major plot of the movie. The World needs to be careful when it considers religious extremism. Many diseases could have been cured if such prejudice was squelched a bit more. It was also interesting to see how each of the three major religions dealt with concepts of bodies being temples, thus none should open and look in... they called it Necromancy.
But (and here comes the me being very picky part) the producers/directors took too much liberty. I can abide the insertion of the Rob Cole character into the Avicenna (Ibn Sina) story line, there's lots of room for that, but they should not have given him credit for the side sickness cure. People in the medical research field are still studying Ibn's work even today. It's not right to steal a person's work even if it is merely to give it to an imaginary character. Give credit where it's due.
Another criticism (even though I really, really enjoyed the flick) was that the movie tried to bite off more than was chewed. The main character stared off into the distance too often, the love story sub-plot left something to be desired and the supposed crescendo main scene, of the surgery to 'cut out the side sickness' was anti-climax. But that being said? There are much to recommend and I very much enjoyed. I'd say, "2 and 3/4ths Thumbs Up" even if that meant surgical removal of ¼ of my third thumb. It would be like that little boy in the show who celebrated [Woo-hoo!] "That was my first amputation!"
Here's the Film Trailer to stir the memory of those who've seen it.
I just got done watching a movie that I've seen before; when it first came out. With the 'fog of memory' that I have, where I need to see things a couple times before it feels like they've really been seen, it was like watching for the very first time. So before I start singing the Madonna song, "Like a Sturgeon-fish, touched for the very first time...," let me instead go on and give my thoughts about this underwhelming (but to me, very good) movie.
It deals with the worlds three (3) of the Abrahamic Religions: Muslim, Christian and Jew. Setting is middle ages (11th Century) and there are plagues going off left and right in the background. A Barber (replete scenes of leeches and other 'treatments' for humor imbalance, where patience suffer from too much or too little of certain fluids, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) disguises himself as a Jew (complete with circumcision) and goes to a Middle-Eastern (Persian) physician's 'college' where no 'Christian' is allowed.
View attachment 7313
I liked the premise and major plot of the movie. The World needs to be careful when it considers religious extremism. Many diseases could have been cured if such prejudice was squelched a bit more. It was also interesting to see how each of the three major religions dealt with concepts of bodies being temples, thus none should open and look in... they called it Necromancy.
But (and here comes the me being very picky part) the producers/directors took too much liberty. I can abide the insertion of the Rob Cole character into the Avicenna (Ibn Sina) story line, there's lots of room for that, but they should not have given him credit for the side sickness cure. People in the medical research field are still studying Ibn's work even today. It's not right to steal a person's work even if it is merely to give it to an imaginary character. Give credit where it's due.
Another criticism (even though I really, really enjoyed the flick) was that the movie tried to bite off more than was chewed. The main character stared off into the distance too often, the love story sub-plot left something to be desired and the supposed crescendo main scene, of the surgery to 'cut out the side sickness' was anti-climax. But that being said? There are much to recommend and I very much enjoyed. I'd say, "2 and 3/4ths Thumbs Up" even if that meant surgical removal of ¼ of my third thumb. It would be like that little boy in the show who celebrated [Woo-hoo!] "That was my first amputation!"
Here's the Film Trailer to stir the memory of those who've seen it.
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