The Portal of the Knights Templars in the Sword and Sandal movies.

Every time I watch a movie about the Crusades or the Dark Ages, they always show that the Templars but blood thirst murders. From what of read on the history of the Templars, they had no personal properties and help guide Pilgrims to the Holy Land and they help innovate the first banking systems and the first use of a check writing system. Yes they did fight the Islam Armies, and did kill people, but everyone did so. They seem to always be pictured as ecil in main stream movie. The only movie I have seen that they weren't was the Da Vinci Code.

Does anyone know any movies where they are not depicted as a blood thirsty horde.

Considering the Knights Templar were involved in a lot of the major battles, i presume it is only fair to depict them as killers...probably not bloodthirsty murderers, but killers nonetheless. Everyone was killing each other though...but i guess that is religion for you, lol.

As for knights Templar being poor, having to relinquish their possessions. Only volunteers and knights of low rank remained without wealth. The upper echelons of the brotherhood held control of people's finances and lands, and as such, helped in establishing the Knights Templar as the strongest fighting force of the time. As Wikipedia (i know, not always reliable) states:

The Templars' political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities led the Order to a position of significant power, both in Europe and the Holy Land. They owned large tracts of land both in Europe and the Middle East, built churches and castles, bought farms and vineyards, were involved in manufacturing and import/export, had their own fleet of ships, and for a time even "owned" the entire island of Cyprus.

en.wikipedia.org...

Now with that out of the road, i may be able to point you towards some Templar movies. Beware though, that some movies are heavily fictionalised.

Kingdom of Heaven:

en.wikipedia.org...

Arn – The Knight Templar/Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End

Completely fictional

- en.wikipedia.org...
- en.wikipedia.org...

Ironclad

en.wikipedia.org...

Hope this helps.

Season of the Witch (2011) with Nicolas Cage, and Tempelriddaren Arn: The Knight Templar (2007), a Swedish film.