Extras:
Pilgrims Guide Commentary, HBO First Look, Orlando Bloom Visit Reel,
Trailers and TV Spots, Interactive Production Grid, 6 Featurettes
Director:
Ridley Scott
Producers:
Ridley Scott
Screenplay:
William Monahan
Music:
Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Balian: Orlando Bloom
Godfrey: Liam Neeson
Tiberias: Jeremy Irons
King Baldwin: Edward Norton
Sibylla: Eva Green
Hospitaler: David Thewlis
Ridley Scott single-handedly resurrected the "swords 'n sandals" epics, which dominated Hollywood's Golden Age, with
Gladiator (2000).
So expectation was justly high for Scott's return to the genre with
Kingdom Of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom (Lord Of The
Rings) as Balian, a 12th-Century French blacksmith who has recently lost his
wife and faith. That is until his estranged father Godfrey (Liam Neeson,
in another mentor role) talks him into joining a band of knights on a
crusade to the Holy Land.
Kingdom Of Heaven is an extremely well filmed movie that tries desperately to
be enthralling and meaningful, but ultimately fails because of a script that
doesn't excite and glosses over the atrocities of this period in history.
Ridley Scott remains a master craftsman of beautiful imagery, although his
sensibilities are occasionally too glossy and render the film as pretty as a
car commercial, but tellingly false. There are some great shots throughout
the movie and some expertly staged battle sequences, but they're all an oasis
in the desert of a humdrum story.
The Crusades is an extremely interesting and bloodthirsty period in history
where armies from Europe waged war on Jeruslam to recapture the Holy city from
the Muslims, but Kingdom Of Heaven doesn't really get the nub of the matter.
William Monahan's script is careful not to offend Muslims, so goes to great
lengths to make both sides sympathetic.
I can understand the politically correct reasoning behind this, and there are
thankfully no clichéd Arab villains in the film as a result, but from a
storytelling perspective, this stance robs the movie of a true antagonist for
Balian. And, as the saying goes, a hero is only ever as good as the villain.
The film is also far too interested in Balian's personal journey, which you
never really feel particularly interested in - primarily because his wife's
death occurs off-screen, you never understand just how much his lost faith
meant to him, and his eventual rise as the protector of Jerusalem from
Saladin (the terrific Ghassan Massoud) just seems unlikely.
Orlando Bloom does his best with the material, but he's simply too young and
lacks the charisma to be wholly believable - a problem he also faced in Troy!
Balian is a young man who is taught how to correctly sword-fight by his
father on the same day he quits his blacksmith job, only to be leading a huge
army of experienced fighters against a Muslim horde a few months later? I
can suspend my disbelief when called to, but Balian just didn't ring true for
me. Bloom is more at home playing the youthful sidekick in films like Pirates
Of The Caribbean, and should leave the Alpha Male roles until he's in
his late-thirties.
Liam Neeson lends his usual charm to his role as father/mentor, but it's a
character he's been playing in his sleep since
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
led to Batman Begins. Eva Green (The Dreamers, and soon to be
Casino Royale's Bond Girl) is an undoubted beauty, but also
inconsequential to the plot and shoe-horned in to provide a love-interest.
David Thewlis, and a host of other British thesps appear throughout
the movie, to no ill-effect, but there's no real standout performer in Kingdom
Of Heaven; success all rests on the visuals, it would seem.
Ah, the visuals. As I said, Scott is undeniably gifted at filming foreign
landscapes and making them look suitably exotic and beguiling, but there's
nothing here that hasn't been seen before. The battle sequences are quite
impressive at times, but they evoke memories of Peter Jackson's
The Return Of The King
too strongly -- both in execution and design.
The production is handsomely mounted, as befits a multi-million dollar summer
movie, but no matter how sumptuous the scenery is it can't erase the growing
feeling of boredom that creeps into the movie about an hour in.
On the plus side, Harry Gregson-Williams' musical score is exceptionally good
and manages to elevate quite a few scenes with its rousing orchestral power.
However, Kingdom Of Heaven is hamstrung by its lacklustre screenplay and lack
of courage to show the rawness of the situation and shed some light on the
Crusades beyond a few interesting scenes.
It's a pretty movie without the courage to provoke a reaction from its
inherently controversial subject matter. Kingdom Of Heaven is an empty-hearted
epic without any inventive streak, so relies on cinematography and
CGI-assisted battle scenes to keep boredom at bay.
A generally good transfer in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen, although the
colour palette is quite dark at times and difficult to see detail. The image
is crisp and defined, although there is some image noise occasionally.
There are DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks to choose from, with both giving
intense and involving experiences, particularly in the battle sequences.
Surround sound effects are used well to ground you in the presented reality,
such as the numerous ancient villages and town (dog barks, chatter, the
clink of metal, etc.) All the dialogue is rich, and there is a healthy level
of bass that really assaults the senses during fight scenes. The DTS track
is undoubtedly better than DD5.1, being crisper and richer throughout.
The extras are as follows:
In-Movie Text Feature:
On the first disc this feature displays "information on the real people and
true events depicted in the film".
Interactive Production Grid:
On the second disc this feature has two options – "How it Works" (which
explains how to use this feature) and "Enter The Grid" (which allows you to
interactively watch scenes from the directing, crew or cast point-of-view).
The feature can look at scenes from before, during and after Kingdom Of
Heaven was being filmed. A "Play All" function is available for those of you
who just want to sit back and watch.
History Vs Hollywood:
This is a 45-minute documentary covering the historical aspects of the
Crusades compared to the movie.
A & E Movie Real:
Another documentary, this time with interviews of the cast/crew, about making
the film historically accurate.
Internet Featurettes:
A small selection of featurettes on the movie's production.
Theatrical Trailer:
To condense the movie experience into a manageable few minutes, just watch
the trailer!
Not a bad transfer in terms of visuals and audio, and the extra features
are fairly engaging, but this isn't deserving of its 2-Disc Special Edition tag.
A 4-disc 194-minute Director's Cut edition will be released in September 2006
(see Amazon link above).
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
