Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

• Year: 2005
• Released: 06 May 2005
• Country: United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Morocco, United States, Italy, France
• Adwords: 5 wins & 15 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Kingdom_of_Heaven
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kingdom-of-heaven
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: German, English, Arabic, Latin, Italian
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
• Runtime: 144 min
• Writer: William Monahan
• Director: Ridley Scott
• Cast: Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Liam Neeson
• Keywords: religion, epic, knight, 12th century, swordsman,

	7.2/10
	63/100
	39% – Critics
	72% – Audience

Kingdom of Heaven Storyline

It is the time of the Crusades during the Middle Ages — the world-shaping 200-year collision between Europe and the East. A blacksmith named Balian has lost his family and nearly his faith. The religious wars raging in the far-off Holy Land seem remote to him, yet he is pulled into that immense drama. Amid the pageantry and intrigues of medieval Jerusalem, he falls in love, grows into a leader, and ultimately uses all his courage and skill to defend the city against staggering odds. Destiny comes seeking Balian in the form of a great knight, Godfrey of Ibelin, a Crusader briefly home to France from fighting in the East. Revealing himself as Balian’s father, Godfrey shows him the true meaning of knighthood and takes him on a journey across continents to the fabled Holy City. In Jerusalem at that moment–between the Second and Third Crusades–a fragile peace prevails, through the efforts of its enlightened Christian king, Baldwin IV, aided by his advisor Tiberias, and the military restraint of the legendary Muslim leader Saladin Ayubi. But Baldwin’s days are numbered, and strains of fanaticism, greed, and jealousy among the Crusaders threaten to shatter the truce. King Baldwin’s vision of peace–a kingdom of heaven–is shared by a handful of knights, including Godfrey of Ibelin, who swear to uphold it with their lives and honor. As Godfrey passes his sword to his son, he also passes on that sacred oath: to protect the helpless, safeguard the peace, and work toward harmony between religions and cultures, so that a kingdom of heaven can flourish on earth. Balian takes the sword and steps into history.

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Kingdom of Heaven Movie Reviews

Watch the 3+ Hour Director’s Cut, not the Studio’s 2+ Hour Butchered Cut

There are two versions of this movie that are strikingly different in their impact and emotional meaning. The theatrical release is a 2-plus hour-long studio edit. The director’s cut is 3-plus hour-long edit that was released later. I watched both versions back-to-back, and without question, the director’s cut is the superior. It’s not just a matter of additional footage putting more meat on the bone–more heart is added to the film as well.

The movie is a violent and gritty portrayal of the Crusades era in medieval times, but wrestles artfully with complex issues of faith, morality, justice and diversity and what it means to live a godly life. Apparently, the studio decided such thematic depth was a drawback and that audiences are mostly superficial morons, so they insisted on an edit that presented it as an action movie, leaving in just enough character development to feebly sew the action scenes together. In the process, not only character motivation was lost, but important plot developments in the story.

After watching the shorter edit first–which seemed disjointed and filled with holes in the way of crappy edits–I had to go look up the movie’s synopsis online to understand what the hell I had watched. In the director’s cut, it was much clearer. But the biggest difference is the thought-provoking character development and dialogue scenes throughout that bring an intelligence to the primitive times being depicted.

At the end of the studio edit, I felt uninspired and filled with a sense that the movie had many missed opportunities.

At the end of the director’s cut, I felt I had seen a real movie with real ideas. And I was left thinking about it.

Ridley Scott has had some bad luck with studio interference in his edits, most memorably with the two versions of “Blade Runner.” You would think they’d trust his instincts after all this time.

Not quite heavenly, though far from hellish

‘Kingdom of Heaven’ had an immensely talented cast going for it, despite being unsure about seeing Orlando Bloom in an especially substantial lead role. It also looked great from the trailer, and have liked a good deal of Harry Gregson-Williams’ work which can be one of the better components of films. Ridley Scott is not the most consistent of directors, his best films like ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’ are brilliant but lesser films such as ‘Robin Hood’ are really not good (personal opinion of course).

There are also films of his that are much better in the director’s cut version. ‘Legend’ is one such example, but the biggest one for me is ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. Found it a very mixed bag as the theatrical/ non-director’s cut version and found a lot of issues with it (and this is actually forgetting the historical inaccuracies), such as choppy storytelling, erratic pacing and underwritten characters on top of Orlando Bloom and the dialogue. While it is still not a perfect film still in the director’s cut version, it is a big improvement and some of what were major problems in the theatrical version are corrected.

Not all though. Do still find Orlando Bloom charisma-void and out of his depth, have nothing against him but this role was a meaty one, even more so in the director’s cut where he is more complex, and needed a lot of authority and a wide range of emotions and to me Bloom didn’t have enough of either.

Some of the middle of the film stalls a bit in the pace, the storytelling not always going very far. Although the characters are much more interesting in the director’s cut edition, a few of them could still have gotten into more depth such as those with not much screen time still and the same goes with the themes, also did that the messaging at times could have been more subtle.

Improvements are many though. The characters generally are far more interesting and better developed, Eva Green’s went from one that one questioned the presence of and was hugely underwritten to a well fleshed out character. They interacted more convincingly and not in as stilted a fashion. Despite some aimlessness in the middle, the pace is less erratic and doesn’t jump around as much. The story is uneven still, but there is generally more cohesion and less choppiness, more of a sense of resolution with the vast amount going on and for me the contemporary relevance was a good thing.

Dialogue flows better and is less awkward, quite intelligent here too.

Both editions cannot be faulted visually. It is gorgeously shot with lots of atmosphere and the costumes and sets are stunningly evocative, with the siege especially being quite breath-taking. In fact, the action was very tense and powerful in both versions as well but especially in the director’s cut. Harry Gregson Williams’ score rouses and also has emotional impact, the director’s cut does it more justice and a better job is done complementing everything whereas in the theatrical version it was the case of a great score deserving a much better film. Scott directs everything skillfully which is remarkable considering there was a lot to balance. The messaging and everything regarding tolerance and the historical inaccuracies were much criticised and still are, they weren’t as big an issue for me.

With the exception of Bloom, the cast are very good. The standouts being an against type Edward Norton who gives a lot of complexity and intensity to his character and Gasshan Massoud showing how to do cool and menacing wonderfully. Eva Green’s performance is deeply felt and Jeremy Irons shows a lot of dignity and restraint here.

Overall, didn’t care for the theatrical version, but this review is namely for the director’s cut which is an infinitely better, if imperfect, version and is a fairer way to judge the film on. My thoughts though. 7/10

Too much moralising and too little action

Ridley Scott’s latest historical epic is a real disappointment for those of us who considered GLADIATOR to be a modern classic. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is everything that film wasn’t; it’s over-long, poorly acted, and often sloppy when it comes to the editing and scripting. A two and a half hour adventure film that barely contains any decent action is truly disgraceful, and this slow-paced effort often takes the biscuit. The trailers cram in just about every battle the film contains, making it look exciting throughout, but after the first half hour the interest wanes and the viewers are left squirming in their seats, facing one irrelevant sequence after another.

The highlight of the film for me is a stunning siege sequence in which the Arabs lay waste to Jerusalem, utilising Greek fire and siege engines to storm and breach the walls. The pyrotechnic effects are wonderful and the sheer spectacle of this moment equals that of RETURN OF THE KING. However, this occupies only fifteen minutes of the movie, and, like ROTK, there are multiple layered endings which really test the patience. The film incorporates a useless love interest with no acting talent whatsoever, and for some reason keeps cutting back to her face during the battle, really ruining the excitement. Scott seems like an amateur here with little real talent.

As for the hero, Bloom is adequate in the role but a little too mock-serious, a little boring. His speech sequences are the worst in the movie and should have been cut. However, he has a stellar supporting cast, including heavyweight support from Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons; Brendan Gleeson pops up again, and this time goes way over the top. Edward Norton is unrecognisable as the sympathetic leper king whilst Marton Csokas is a slimy templar bad guy who just disappears towards the end of the movie.

The action sequences are like those in most modern Hollywood offerings, sharply edited so you can’t make out much what’s going on, and aside from a couple of sequences the violence is limited to blood spraying in the air. The sound effects are actually decent though, complemented by an effective score, so expect lots of sweeping music and clashing steel as the film plays out. The visuals are also spectacular with fabulous, huge sets and beautiful scenery. However, the problem is that Scott goes out of his way to make this film seem ‘epic’, and it’s clearly not, just a tiresome moralising story about religion with some half-hearted action added in.