Courageous

Rating: 8/10 (6 October 2012)

Although the film was in theaters months ago, i watched it yesterday. I read nearly all the reviews about it and saw some comments that the words of Hz Muhammed were evaluated as "prophecy" by a lot of users in fact the words "what a good commander who conquers Istanbul" are told to Ebu-Eyyub El Ensari who sieges the city in 668 A.D. when they met at Ebu-Eyyub El Ensari's house. That is not a prophecy that may be a praise or a wish.
Here are some historical notes
The siege took 52 days. The Ottoman side was over 50.000 soldiers, the Byzantine was near 30.000 ( The number of Ottoman soldiers varies from 50.000 to even 300.000 according to historians but for the Byzantine army the interval is narrow 10.000 to 30.000 ) The milestone of the siege was to roll the ships on the planks from the Bosporus to Golden Horn (but it was dealt less in the film than it must have been.) Ulubatlı Hasan is a heroic character, no one knows if it was him who raised the flag on the walls. The name was first spelled on a historical literature of Melissinos. The cannon named Sahi can be seen in Fort Nelson Museum, Portsmouth, England.
And the film, to me it is a precursor to high budget epic Turkish movies. High income in Turkey and some other theaters across the world (esp the cities has Turkish population) must encourage all Turkish producers because the film sector and sub-sectors are not well developed in Turkey, they do not have a choice to fail in a film with a high budget like that.
The director and the scenarists must be influenced by the film Troy; a hero and his private life, a girl and war but we all have high expectations and so a little bit disillusion if we consider it with Hollywood movies. The acting and the scenario; one may save the other but both of them are average. Scenario sometimes hesitates about what to focus on, an epic hero, a love story, Soultan Faith Mehmet himself, the war? If it is not a documentary movie, there must be a focus, like the life of Achillies in Troy. Visual effects can sometimes bother you. Ottoman war chant "Mehter March" is missing. Language is disappointing, Ottoman language must be used instead of some modern Turkish language (Ottoman language is the Turkish language that is inspired of Arabian and Persian language in the time of Ottoman's)
On the other hand, costumes are perfect, fight scenes are perfect I gave 8 to not acting or the scenario but to have the courage to try a high budget film, to show the historical meaning of the city i live in.
I think it is not a propaganda of Islam. In fact Ottoman Empire was the one and the only empire that was a combination of such different cultures, races and religions, is there any chance to rule on 3 different continents for about 800 years?
To me 6th of October, the liberation day of Istanbul has at least the meaning of 29th of May, now that is called propaganda.
There are a lot of wars in our history and we are looking forward to watching the films about them.