MovieChat Forums > Red Riding Hood (2011) Discussion > A married Priest with Black Soldiers in ...

A married Priest with Black Soldiers in the 1300s????


This was the most strange/wrong thing in the movie..I don't pretend to have extrict historic accuracy since it is a tale, BUT...a married Priest?? I assumme "Father Salomon" is a Priest since he is named, has the authority and acts as one; but he clearly says "I was married" and they show his 2 daughters. On the other hand there is the possibility that once a widow he went into priesthood...mmmm...and the black guard?? also an asian soldier...In those days the only possibility to have in Europe, not 1..but 3 or 4 black soldiers,would have been that he was in Africa where he brought them back..but then 1 mixed race and other asian soldier..he also was in Asia, etc??? they give no explanation, nothing. It's funny, cause just 10 minutes before the arrival of these soldiers I was thinking "this is the kind of movie where blacks can't complain if they are not cast" Then the Black soldiers appear!! I think this was made only for quota issues.

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I have no problem with that because it is a fantasy movie, but I thought he was made priest because he have knowledge to deal with werewolves.

-- How about you STFU...I mean Search The F!king Utube

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Eastern Orthodox Priests have always been able to marry.
Catholic priests were originally able to marry.
A priest having kids back then was no big thing. Roderigo Borgia had 4 illegitimate kids while he was a cardinal and he had more after he became Pope in the late 1400s early 1500s.

Black soldiers and Asian soldiers would have been rare in Northern Europs, but not unheard of. The Moors still held substantial portions of Spain around 1300. Also, Saracens would have been common. Trade with Africa and Asia was in full swing by 1300.

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The moors was first thing I thought about with the two brothers. The Asian guy wasn't so sure about, but he seems some one more from like the Mongolian plans than say asia cost line or south. Which means they have been tradeing with the vikings and some more. Allso what times was the crusades going one? Some of them could of came back from that.

What I notice was, the one guy with the helmet allways on that used the crossbow. This to me would of hindred his sight with the cross bow a bit. I wondered if there was a part of the story they didn't show as to why he allways wore the helmet.

I seen alot of people complain about this movie on here before I saw it tonight and I actualy liked it better the the first of the two movies at the drive in Thor. Which was way to cheesie.

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Number 1: He was Roman Catholic not Eastern Orthodox. The village priest specifically makes reference to the Holy See.

Number 2: These were not illegitimate kids. He was a widow.

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Maybe Solomon became a priest after his wife died. RC priest have to be celibate; they don't have to be virgins.

The soldiers could have been mercenaries.

P. A. T. (Needy's Boy)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy#Clerical_continence_in_Christianity

Originally the priests were allowed to marry but for some reason that changed. The link above goes into more detail.

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And werewolves don't exist in this reality either. So the movies wasn't even set on this Earth.

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@ dacherx,

Right you are.

All movies are fantasies.

P. A. T. (Needy's Boy)

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Clearly this movie makes absolutely no attempt to portray Medieval Catholicism in any believable way (in much the same way that Japanese manga seems to fudge it as well). Townsfolk appear to worship the moon and the clergy (both from the village and from abroad) are depicted to be creepy fanatics. Still, as other people in this thread have already stated, this is a fantasy film. And let's face it, Red Riding Hood pretty much throws anything believable out the window anyway.

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[deleted]

The Priest reminded me of Reverend Trask from Dark Shadows.

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He seemed that way initially. I thought that his wife turned out to be the first werewolf and he had to kill her. He just told his children that a werewolf did it. It's been a while, but I thought that's what it was.

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Yes, that was pretty silly. He had like two black guys, one asian guy and one middle eastern looking guy, and they all got more screen time than his white soldiers. I though it was silly, and I'm not white. It would be one thing if there was a reason, but they so obviously did it just to pander to the audience and modern sensibilities and threw in a couple of token non whites.

"Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down. Makes her home."

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First of all moors were not blacks, they were arab looking and many just were european converts.
So having two blacks, one oriental and the other guy was just politically correct to sell this film to american audiences. That spoiled the fun for me more than anything. You can have a fantasy film with werewolwes but putting blacks in the middle of europe is just pure crap.

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"You can have a fantasy film with werewolwes but putting blacks in the middle of europe is just pure crap."

One name comes to mind, Pushkin (the Russian poet).

His great-grandfather was a black man.


"I think it's time to see Amanda sticking guns in people's faces."

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That's true, but Europeans used the term 'Moor' to refer to any African. Sub-Saharan Africans were very rare, but they did come to central Europe, and 'Moor' was used even if they weren't remotely Arabic.

-
You're about as on the ball today as a dead seal

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The priest being married previously is not so far fetched. That type of thing did happen. I can even go so far as to cede that the two Africans could have been part of Solomon‘s entourage, but they would have sparked curiosity among the villagers as this would have been the first time any of them had seen a black man.

As to the ninjas- that is nothing less than absurd.

What struck me right off the bat, however, was the presence of a Hispanic kid in what is portrayed as a remote village which looked to be the Bavarian Alps. Pedro, or “Peter”, was obviously a different ethnicity than the rest of the village, despite the directors endeavor to “white him up” in an attempt to blend him in and fool the audience.

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