Jones narration is not without an occasional sardonic airalmost of the roll your eyes type, which not only lends a skeptical perspective to a frequently misunderstood era in Western Europe, but also quite frequently editorializes the events that occurred between Pope Urban II’s call for liberation of Jerusalem from the “infidels” of Islam and the embarrassing moment when officers of the fourth Crusade are conned out of its divine calling by the Venetians. While Jones’s reconnaissance is sometimes oversimplified by casually not mentioning several Crusade sorties after the fourth (there were severalbut by the 13th century they had become redolent of ennui and misguided commercial adventure), The technical ingenuity of the production and Jones’ use of anecdote backed by academicians and preserved eyewitness accounts cinches a viewer’s interest. Medieval “siege machines” are re-created to test their mettle against legends of famous battlesJones dons real 11th and 12th century armor to demonstrate the outlandish appearance of Crusaders, mosaics come to life with body painted characters of medieval fable, and computer graphics are deployed to re-create the interior of the great cathedral at Cluny. All these elements are contrasted with intermezzos of contemporary European and Middle Eastern society and a moving original soundtrack to make The Crusades a thoroughly engaging documentary of the bloodletting of medieval Christian conquests and the ultimate result of Islamic fanaticism born from its crimson tide. In Jones’s own words at the end of Volume IV “It took 200 years for the Crusaders to create [this] Muslim fanaticism. It was the exact imitation of Christian intolerance.” To understand the effects of the Crusades is to understand much of today’s religious geography and Mr. Jones and company can fairly lay claim to having helped set the record straight.
