Kingdom of Heaven: Movie, DVD & Blu-ray disc Review (2005)

(Originally published 2005)

Ridley Scott’s new middle-of-the-road, anti-war movie about the Crusades, “Kingdom of Heaven,” puts an affectionate, understanding arm around Christians and Muslims--treating each equally in an attempt to offend as few people as possible--before it allows them to enter into one ugly, bloody holy war for Jerusalem.

And then it does something else that’s peculiar. Its story builds around a blacksmith, Balian (Orlando Bloom), who comes to lead the Crusades even though he isn’t exactly beating his chest in favor of God.

As the movie opens, we’re in France, it’s the year 1184, and Balian’s wife has just committed suicide, with her head being severed after death as a result.

It’s the sort of event that tends to make some question their faith, and Balian is no exception. If God is just, then how could He have allowed this to happen? After all, if Balian is to believe his religion, his wife’s soul is now burning in hell, not exactly the most comforting of thoughts.

With this weighing on his mind, slight, unassuming Balian is put on several paths--religious awakening, self-actualization, love, war--with all leading to one locale, Jerusalem.

There, Balian hopes to find redemption for his wife’s soul, but as the film’s arc lifts high above Scott’s lavish sets and masterful battle scenes, it soon becomes clear that this reluctant hero will be saddled with a wealth of other responsibilities.

As written by William Monahan, “Kingdom of Heaven” differs from Scott’s other period epic, the Academy Award-winning “Gladiator,” in that its central character isn’t initially engaged in the fight thrust upon him.

Instead, Balian is prodded along first by the likes of Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), who admits to fathering his share of bastards, Balian being one of them, and then by Tiberias (Jeremy Irons), who convinces Balian to join the leprous King of Jerusalem (Edward Norton) in protecting Jerusalem from Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), the Muslim leader determined to wrest Jerusalem under Muslim control.

Complicating matters further is that Balian finds a love interest in the moody princess Sybilla (Eva Green) and an immediate enemy in her husband, Guy de Lusignan (Marton Czokas), the zealot Frenchman whose rush for power might just spoil everything for everyone.

With the film set in the Middle East, timeliness is obviously one of its strong suits. Its length isn’t. The film begins well, but its ultimately too long, losing its way in a soft middle before ending with a technical flourish.

As Mel Gibson proved with “The Passion of the Christ,” a point-of-view is still possible in Hollywood when it comes to religion, even if it promises to cause a firestorm of controversy. Scott isn’t up for that sort of press--he’d rather get to the battle field, where his skills flourish, than to stir a pot already overboiling between Christianity and Islam--and so he crafts a good-looking movie that’s politically safe first, entertaining second.

That decision leaches some of the film’s power. You wish Scott had been more daring, offered more of a comment on the times, but really, in the end, nothing he does thematically competes with his rhythmic swordplay or with the many catapults that ultimately show up at the walls of Jerusalem. As their huge, fiery globes sail across the sky and hit their mark with devastating force, the audience at my screening was finally moved as Scott meant to move them—forward in their seats.

Grade: B-