Kingdom of Heaven (film)

In medieval France, Crusaders visit the village of Balian, a blacksmith haunted by his wife's recent suicide after a miscarriage. Their leader introduces himself as Balian's father, Baron Godfrey, and asks him to return with him to the Holy Land, but Balian declines. Later that night, Balian kills his half-brother, the greedy and immoral town priest, after discovering that he ordered Balian's wife's body beheaded before burial. The next day, Balian joins his father's group, hoping to gain salvation for himself and his wife in Jerusalem. They are soon confronted by soldiers sent to arrest Balian, during which many are killed, and an arrow strikes Godfrey. Reaching Messina, they have a contentious encounter with Guy de Lusignan, a prospective future king of Jerusalem who intends to break the fragile treaty between the Crusader states and Sultan Saladin with help from the brutal anti-Muslim Templar Knights. A night before the departure, Godfrey knights Balian, anoints him the new Baron of Ibelin and orders him to protect the helpless before dying of his arrow wound.

Balian sails for the Holy Land, but his ship runs aground in a storm, leaving him the lone survivor. Balian walks toward Jerusalem, finds a horse, and fights a Muslim cavalier over the horse. Balian slays the cavalier but spares his servant, who guides him to Jerusalem. Arriving in the city, Balian frees the servant, who tells him his mercy will earn the Saracens' respect. Balian meets Jerusalem's leaders: the leper King Baldwin IV, Tiberias the Marshal of Jerusalem, and the King's sister Princess Sibylla, Guy's wife and mother to a boy from an earlier marriage. Balian travels to his inherited estate at Ibelin and uses his knowledge in engineering to help the struggling residents irrigate the land. Sibylla visits him, and they become lovers.

Guy and his ally, the cruel Raynald of Châtillon, attack many Saracen caravans, provoking Saladin to march on Raynald's castle. Balian defends the castle and the nearby villagers at the king's request despite being outnumbered. After a fierce battle that ends with the Crusaders defeated, Balian encounters the servant he freed, learning that he is actually Saladin's chancellor Imad ad-Din. Imad ad-Din releases Balian in repayment of his earlier mercy. Saladin and Baldwin later arrive with their armies and negotiate a truce. After punishing Raynald and Guy, a weakened Baldwin asks Balian to marry Sibylla and take control of the army, but Balian refuses. Baldwin dies and is succeeded by Sibylla's son. As regent, Sibylla continues the peace with Saladin. Sibylla learns to her horror that her son is developing leprosy like his late uncle, tearfully poisons him while he sleeps in her arms, and hands the crown to Guy.

Guy declares war on the Saracens, attempts to assassinate Balian, who barely survives, and releases Raynald, who kills Saladin's sister. Despite Balian's advice to remain near Jerusalem's water sources, Guy marches to war, and the Saracens overwhelm the exhausted Crusaders in the ensuing desert battle. Saladin captures Guy, kills Raynald, and marches on Jerusalem. Tiberias leaves for Cyprus while Balian stays to protect the people. After a devastating three-day siege, Saladin parleys with Balian, who reaffirms he will destroy Jerusalem before Saladin can take it. Saladin offers safe conduct to everyone within Jerusalem in exchange for the city. Under these terms, Balian surrenders Jerusalem to Saladin. The Christians leave Jerusalem. Balian defeats a humiliated Guy in a sword fight and spares his life. Sibylla renounces her claim as queen and returns with Balian to France.

A few years later, English knights en route to the Holy Land visit the village of Balian, now the famed defender of Jerusalem. Balian refuses the English king's offer to join his army, stating that he is merely a blacksmith. Later, Balian passes by his wife's grave as he rides with Sibylla towards the unknown. An epilogue notes that "nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven still remains elusive".

Many of the characters in the film are fictionalised versions of historical figures:

 

Filming took place in Ouarzazate, Morocco, where Scott had previously filmed Gladiator (2000) and Black Hawk Down (2001), and in Spain, at the Loarre Castle (Huesca), Segovia, Ávila, Palma del Río, and Seville's Casa de Pilatos and Alcázar.^[7] Cinematographer John Mathieson created many large, sweeping landscapes,^[8] and a large set of ancient Jerusalem was constructed based on the production design of Arthur Max.^[9]

Orlando Bloom reportedly gained 10 kilograms for the part of Balian of Ibelin.^[8]

British visual effects firm Moving Picture Company completed 440 effects shots for the film.^[10] Additionally, Double Negative also contributed to complete the CGI work on the film.^[11]

The music differs in style and content from the soundtrack of Scott's earlier 2000 film Gladiator^[12] and many other subsequent films depicting historical events.^[13] A combination of medieval, Middle Eastern, contemporary classical, and popular influences,^[12][13] the soundtrack is predominantly the work of British film-score composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Jerry Goldsmith's "Valhalla" theme from The 13th Warrior and "Vide Cor Meum" (originally used by Scott in Hannibal and composed by Patrick Cassidy and Hans Zimmer), sung by Danielle de Niese and Bruno Lazzaretti, were used as replacements for original music by Gregson-Williams.

The film was a box office disappointment in the US and Canada, earning $47.4 million against a budget of around $130 million, but did better in Europe and the rest of the world, earning $164.3 million, with the worldwide box office earnings totalling $211,643,158.^[14] It was also a success in Arabic-speaking countries, especially Egypt. Scott insinuated that the US failure of the film resulted from poor advertising, which presented the film as an adventure with a love story rather than an examination of religious conflict.^{[citation needed][15]} It has also been noted that the film was altered from its original version to be shorter and follow a simpler plot line. This "less sophisticated" version is what hit theatres, although Scott and some of his crew felt it was watered down, explaining that by editing, "You've gone in there and taken little bits from everything".^[16]

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 40% based on reviews from 189 critics, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Although it's an objective and handsomely presented take on the Crusades, Kingdom of Heaven lacks depth."^[17] Review aggregator Metacritic gives the film a 63/100 rating based on 40 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews" according to the website's weighted average system.^[18]

Roger Ebert called the film "spectacular" and found its message to be deeper than that of Scott's Gladiator.^[9] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com praised the cinematography but found the storytelling "muddled and oppressive", the battles "one long gray smudge of action with some talking in between."^[8] James Berardinelli wrote, "You may not leave the theater feeling better educated about history or enlightened about the Crusades, but you will leave satisfied that the filmmakers have delivered 145 minutes of exciting, visceral cinema."^[19] Geoffrey O'Brien describes, "The film's underlying antiheroic pessimism fits oddly with a style that aspires to the heroic."^[20] John Aberth said, "Kingdom of Heaven wants it far too simple to accommodate its unnecessarily convoluted plot innovations."^[21]

Most of the cast was praised. Jack Moore described Edward Norton's performance as the leper-King Baldwin as "phenomenal", and "so far removed from anything that he has ever done that we see the true complexities of his talent".^[22] The Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud was praised for his portrayal of Saladin, described in The New York Times as "cool as a tall glass of water".^[23] Zacharek thought Eva Green's Princess Sibylla had "a measure of cool that defies her surroundings", and commended David Thewlis and Jeremy Irons.^[8]

Lead actor Bloom's performance generally elicited a lukewarm reception from American critics, with the Boston Globe stating Bloom was "not actively bad as Balian of Ibelin" but "seems like a man holding the fort for a genuine star who never arrives".^[24] Other critics conceded that Balian was more of a "brave and principled thinker-warrior" than a strong commander,^[8] and that he used brains rather than brawn to gain an advantage in battle.^[25]

In the time since the film's release, scholars have offered analysis and criticisms through a lens situating Kingdom of Heaven within the context of contemporary international events and religious conflict, including: broad post-9/11 politics, neocolonialism, Orientalism, the Western perspective of the film, and the detrimental handling of differences between Christianity and Islam.^[26]

Academic criticism has focused both on the directors' stylistic and artistic choices and on the depiction of a supposedly peaceful relationship between Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem and other cities.

The historical Sibylla was devoted to Guy, but the filmmakers wanted the character to be "stronger and wiser".^[27] Some have said that the character of Sibylla was reimagined to fit the trope of exotic Middle Eastern woman. In contrast, historically, Sibylla and Baldwin belonged to a distinct Western class that sought to set themselves apart from Middle Eastern culture.^[28][29] Moreover, while described in contemporary accounts as a young man vigorous despite his leprosy, King Baldwin is portrayed in the film as passive, androgynous, and bound to his chamber, and there are no accounts of him wearing a mask to conceal his illness.^[28]

Jonathan Riley-Smith, quoted by The Daily Telegraph, described the film as "dangerous to Arab relations", calling the film "Osama bin Laden's version of history", which would "fuel the Islamic fundamentalists". Riley-Smith further commented against the historical accuracy, stating that "the fanaticism of most of the Christians in the film and their hatred of Islam is what the Islamists want to believe. At a time of inter-faith tension, nonsense like this will only reinforce existing myths", arguing that the film relied on the romanticized view of the Crusades propagated by Sir Walter Scott in his book The Talisman, published in 1825 and now discredited by academics, "which depicts the Muslims as sophisticated and civilized, and the Crusaders are all brutes and barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality".^[30][31][32]

Medievalist Paul Halsall defended Ridley Scott, claiming that "historians can't criticize filmmakers for having to make the decisions they have to make ... [Scott is] not writing a history textbook".^[25]

Thomas F. Madden, Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, criticised the film's presentation of the Crusades:

Given events in the modern world it is lamentable that there is so large a gulf between what professional historians know about the Crusades and what the general population believes. This movie only widens that gulf. The shame of it is that dozens of distinguished historians across the globe would have been only too happy to help Scott and Monahan get it right.^[33]

John Harlow of The Times wrote that Christianity is portrayed in an unfavourable light and the value of Christian belief is diminished, especially in the portrayal of Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem.^[34]

Scott said: "Story books are what we base our movies on, and what we base our characters on."^[29] The story of Balian of Ibelin was heavily fictionalised; the historical Balian was not a French artisan but a prominent lord in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The characters of Godfrey of Ibelin and the Hospitaller were wholly invented, while the stories of others were "tweaked"; for example, Raynald of Châtillon's responsibility for the Christian defeat is downplayed to make Guy "more of an autonomous villain".^[27] Scott defended the depiction of the Muslim - Christian relationship in footage on the DVD version of the movie's extra features - Scott sees this portrayal as being a contemporary look at the history. He argued that peace and brutality are concepts relative to one's experience. Since contemporary society is so far removed from the brutal times in which the movie takes place, he told the story in a way that he felt was faithful to the source material yet was more accessible to a modern audience. In other words, the "peace" that existed was exaggerated to fit modern ideas of what such a peace would be. At the time, it was merely a lull in Muslim - Christian violence compared to the standards of the period. The recurring use of "Assalamu Alaikum", the traditional Arabic greeting meaning "Peace be with you", is spoken both in Arabic and English several times.

The "Director's Cut" of the film is a four-disc set, two of which are dedicated to a feature-length documentary called The Path to Redemption. This feature contains an additional featurette on historical accuracy called "Creative Accuracy: The Scholars Speak", where several academics support the film's contemporary relevance and historical accuracy.

Among these historians is Dr. Nancy Caciola, who said that despite the various inaccuracies and fictionalised/dramatized details, she considered the film a "responsible depiction of the period." Caciola agreed with the fictionalisation of characters because "crafting a character who is someone the audience can identify with" is necessary for a film. She said, "I, as a professional, have spent much time with medieval people, so to speak, in the texts that I read; and quite honestly there are very few of them that if I met in the flesh I feel that I would be very fond of."^[35]

Screenwriter William Monahan, who is a long-term enthusiast of the period, has said, "If it isn't in, it doesn't mean we didn't know it ... What you use, in drama, is what plays. Shakespeare did the same."^[36]

Professor Dawn Marie Hayes states, "Many students felt that 'Kingdom of Heaven' was enjoyable on a cinematic level, but cautioned against being deceived by its historical values, highlighting the perception of deliberate misleading in historical representation."^[37]

Murray Dahm says, "Kingdom of Heaven was an examination of the politics and issues of a contemporary, post-September 11, Middle East dressed up in medieval garb."^[38]

Unhappy with the theatrical version of Kingdom of Heaven (which he blamed on paying too much attention to the opinions of preview audiences, and acceding to Fox's request to shorten the film by 45 minutes), Ridley Scott supervised a director's cut of the film, which was released on 23 December 2005 at the Laemmle Fairfax Theatre in Los Angeles, California.^[39] Unlike the mixed critical reception of the film's theatrical version, the Director's Cut received overwhelmingly positive reviews from film critics, including a four-star review in the British magazine Total Film and a ten out of ten from IGN DVD.^[40][41][42] Empire magazine called the reedited film an "epic", adding, "The added 45 minutes in the director's cut are like pieces missing from a beautiful but incomplete puzzle."^[5] One reviewer suggested it is the most substantial director's cut of all time^[6] and James Berardinelli wrote that it offers a much greater insight into the story and the motivations of individual characters.^[43] In 2005, Scott said, "This is the one that should have gone out".^[5]

The DVD of the extended director's cut was released on 23 May 2006. It comprises a four-disc box set with a runtime of 194 minutes. It is shown as a roadshow presentation with an overture and intermission in the vein of traditional Hollywood epic films.^[39] The first Blu-ray release omitted the roadshow elements, running at 189 minutes, but they were restored for the 2014 'Ultimate Edition' release.^[44]

Scott gave an interview to STV on the occasion of the extended edition's UK release, when he discussed the motives and thinking behind the new version.^[45] Asked if he was against previewing in general in 2006, Scott stated: "It depends who's in the driving seat. If you've got a lunatic doing my job, then you need to preview. But a good director should be experienced enough to judge what he thinks is the correct version to go out into the cinema."^[46]

• List of Islam-related films
• Lists of historical films
• Battle of Hattin
• Siege of Jerusalem (1187)

 

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