Good movie, biased history

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2015)

Where should we begin? The movie itself is not bad: decent acting, lots of action, exciting battle scenes. However, one should just watch it just as an action/war flick, because from a historical point of view, this is nothing but a pathetic, biased, and intellectually dishonest attempt to distort the FACTS. The Turkish director and producers tripped over themselves to portray Sultan Mehemet II as an archetypal hero, ferocious in battle and magnanimous in victory. I will just limit myself to point out the following gross omissions and distortions: 1) In the movie we see the sinking of some Venetian ships that tried to force their way past the Turkish blockade. However, nothing is said about the fate of the captain of one of these ships, Antonio Rizzo (look it up, folks!), who along his captured crew was impaled for daring such a feat. 2) The Turkish admiral Balthogu (look it up, folks!) in the movie, was slapped by Mehemet for failing to sink the Venetian fleet, which sailed safely into Constantinople's harbor. In reality Balthogu was almost put to death, had not some of his soldiers defended him to the Sultan: he was beaten to a pulp, stripped of his titles and property and sent into exile. Magnanimous Mehemet, eh? 3) At some point we see the "evil" defenders of Constantinople hanging some brave Turkish prisoners on the walls of the city, in full view of the besieging Turkish army. No mention is made of the FACT that this was IN RESPONSE to the Turks first beheading 125 Christian prisoners before the city walls. One more: my favorite distortion: 4) Mehemet walks into the main church of Consatntinople Haghia Sophia, promising peace and protection to the terrified civilians who found refuge there. Ehem, small detail: Constantinople was sacked for THREE full days: rape, pillage, murder, robbery galore!!! Look it up folks! Conclusion: shame on the director and producers of this movie for their corrupted, stupid, insulting portrayal of history. This is ONE MORE reason for distancing ourselves from anything that has a "made in Islam" tag attached to it......