Kingdom of Heaven

I think we're going to be okay...

Year: 2005 (USA)
Genre: Action/Historical Epic
Directed: Ridley Scott
Stars: Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Liam Neeson, David Thewlis, Edward Norton, Jeremy Irons, Alexander Siddig, Marton Csokas, Ghassan Massoud, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Sheen
Production: 20th Century Fox


You have to give it up for a director like Ridley Scott. Since the late seventies, Scott has managed to make a handful of contemporary classics that have managed to enhance and elevate the medium of film. Yet for every Blade Runner (1982) there’s a mediocre A Good Year (2006); a Prometheus (2012) to every Alien (1979) if you will. So what of his 2005 effort Kingdom of Heaven? Failing to make a killing at the box office, not even reaching its $130 million dollar budget, the question must be asked; is it really that big of a misfire? The answer may surprise.

Not to mention a layover in Phoenix

The director’s cut of the film challenges its audience to accept a depiction of the crusades that is over three hours long and helmed by a milquetoast Orlando Bloom. Balain, a lowly blacksmith (Bloom) is given the chance to redeem his wife’s suicide (among other things) by joining his newly found noble father Godfrey de Ibelin (Liam Neeson) on an odyssey to the Holy Land. The Crusaders plan on making their way to a land where everyone speaks Italian. “Then keep going until they speak something else.” The journey and destination however is fraught with dangers, seductions and intrigue.

While Bloom's command of the movie slips under its lofty premise, the crux of the film remains a testament to Ridley Scott’s detailed depictions of history. The same eye he used to recreate the Roman Colosseum in Gladiator (2000) or the Santa Maria in 1492: Conquest of Paradise Scott recreates a stunningly exotic Jerusalem which alone is worth the rental price. While my medieval history is a little rusty, Kingdom of Heaven’s 1187 siege of the fabled city is likewise breathtaking and somewhat accurate. There was no mention of selling anyone into slavery after the films impressive climax and I doubt Sibylla Queen of Jeruselem (Eva Green) was that drop dead gorgeous but let’s not split hairs here.

 

Though I doubt the Knights Templar looked like this

There are some wildly off the mark portrayals of famous Crusaders yet I doubt Scott was going for imitation. No his, thankfully spiring ambitions go much further than simply putting a history textbook on the screen. Like Karen Armstrong’s book “Holy War”, Scott wants to juxtapose the geopolitical and religious conflicts of the 11^th century and those we’re faced with today. The movie exposes many conflicting worldviews from the religious tolerance of Messina, the moral torpor of Christian occupied Jerusalem, the absolutism of religious fanatics both Christian and Muslim and the ambitions of the power-hungry.

 

Thankfully we got out of that unscathed

Loyalties are forged for different reasons much like they are in today’s world. Yet many times moderation, prudence and compromise are sacrificed in the face of what is politically expedient. In 2005, during the film’s release the United States was dealing with sectarian violence in Iraq. Back then there were only hints of our tragic misstep in the region many of us too blinded by our zeal to see the bigger picture. Today Russia is forcing a stand-off in Ukraine upsetting the established peace of Europe. It’s politics but its also religious, also personal and also ancient history in repeat. As Balain shouts before the battle “We fight over and offense we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended.”

Presently do you feel Islamic terrorism is a symptom of a larger economic problem or the subterfuge of millions of years of aggression by outsiders? Do you think the west’s emphasis on the region is due to an unquenchable thrust for world domination and influence or misplaced idealistic fervor from centuries past? Your answers to these questions will ultimately inform your perspective on Kingdom of Heaven. Yet while the huddled masses might assume the film is serviceable if overlong and gain no insights from it, others who know their history and their current events will be rewarded by arguably Ridley Scott’s most underrated project to date.

Final Grade: C