Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writer (WGA):

William Monahan (written by)

Release Date:

6 May 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | History

Tagline:

Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong

Plot:

Balian of Ibelin travels to Jerusalem during the crusades of the 12th century, and there he finds himself as the defender of the city and its people.

Plot Keywords:

Knight | Jerusalem | King | Sword | Honor

Awards:

3 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Martin Hancock	...	Gravedigger
Michael Sheen	...	Priest
Nathalie Cox	...	Balian's Wife
Eriq Ebouaney	...	Firuz
Jouko Ahola	...	Odo
David Thewlis	...	Hospitaler
Liam Neeson	...	Godfrey de Ibelin
Philip Glenister	...	Squire
Orlando Bloom	...	Balian de Ibelin
Bronson Webb	...	Apprentice
Kevin McKidd	...	English Sergeant
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	...	Village Sheriff
Steven Robertson	...	Angelic Priest
Marton Csokas	...	Guy de Lusignan
Alexander Siddig	...	Imad

Also Known As:

El reino de los cielos (Spain)
Königreich der Himmel (Germany)
The Crusades (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and epic warfare.

Runtime:

144 min | 190 min (director's cut) (Blu-Ray Disc) | 192 min (director's cut)

Country:

UK | Spain | USA | Germany

Language:

English | Arabic | German

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Taiwan:R-12 | Canada:14A | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:16 | Malaysia:U | Iceland:16 | Germany:16 (director's cut) | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15A | Italy:T | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Indonesia:Dewasa

Filming Locations:

Atlas Corporation Studios, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

7500 weapons (including 250 crossbows and 20,000 arrows) and 3000 shields were made for the film.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: During the sea voyage and at other times, Balian is costumed in a top cinched with a row of buttons, almost a century before functional buttons appeared in his part of the world. Nonfunctional decorative buttons go back far in history, but functional buttons first appeared in the 1200's in Germany, spreading to other parts of Europe in the later 1200's through mid-1300's. Using tie strings or some manner cinching laces (or better, just a loose pullover top) would have been more period-appropriate.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Gravedigger: Crusaders.
Squire: Clear the road, if you will.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Unholy War: Mounting the Siege (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

CITY OF ANGELS

excellent, fair to islam, sweeping, narrative could have used tightening...

I really enjoyed this movie. The way the movie started in Europe and how dark it was there... and the journey to Jerusalem... just wonderful stuff up to that point.

Liam Neeson, as usual, is just SO GOOD, you wish he had more screen time.

- Orlando Bloom, actually surprisingly, was able to carry the movie as a lead. I was surprised he had the heft to do it, but I agree with the critic who said that the beard helped. He was a man, not a boy.

- Battle scenes... incredible. I was really surprised that they could wow me, since we've been numbed by the quality of battle scenes in so many previous movies, but they did a great job.

- Portrayal of the Muslims. EXTREMELY fair. In being "even-handed" to Christians and Muslims there, if anything, they emphasized the Christian fanatics (in the form of the Templars in particular, to simplify things) as being the "badguys" more than anyone else... (which is historically accurate to some degree, in my understanding). I was surprised and pleased that they tried to be accurate, and didn't try to emphasize some "BAD MUSLIMS" to make it "even".

- Movie is very secular in it's moralizing.

And it portrays Christianity particularly religious men, VERY badly (the Priest who steals the cross from Bloom's wife's corpse... the Bishop in Jerusalem who's ready to convert to Islam at the first sign of defeat... and who also wants to abandon the civilians... the knights templar...) I thought this got a tad gratuitous. There were really NO GOOD Christian FIGURES IN THE MOVIE. The only good purported Christians were basically acting Agnostic (Bloom, Neeson, etc.) The actual religious Christians were made out to be hypocrites.

Meanwhile Saladhudin was a man of honor.. but also somewhat moderate.

- Movie could definitely have a little more narrative focus and maybe have a little more of an emotional circle for Orlando Bloom character. The emotional arc is ALREADY complete fairly early in the movie (Bloom becomes a man of conscience)... and it's kind of boring since the character doesn't really move after that.

But the movie tackled a HUGE topic and tackled it fairly well. I just wish there was a better script to handle the compelling personal journey for Orlando Bloom (from widower, murderer seeking redemption, lost bastard son) that was PROMISED at the beginning.

It seems that as soon as he brings water to his father's old land, he's just about done his journey, and it turns into a simple historical battle movie. (but a darn good one)