Produced by Ridley Scott Cast: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Eva Green, Marton Csokas, Ghassan Massoud. Ridley Scott’s epic movies are synonymous with great stories, high action, terrific special effects and sound characterisation, with one hero rising from the ranks of ordinary to extraordinary – consider Ripley in Alien, Deckert in Blade Runner, and Maximus in Gladiator. Kingdom of Heaven is no exception. It adheres to his general theme of the individual being significant in the overall scheme of things. What people do and the reasons for them, are important. Scott favours the personal and the human in the motivation of his heroes. This element, although the film is about the Crusades in the 12th Century, and has consequently attracted both Christian and Muslim attention as to its veracity, is of far more significance here than historical accuracy. Portrayals of some venal Templars among the high-idealed, and Saracens who are noble and peace-loving, as well as war-mongering, are true of human nature at all times and everywhere. Both sides are shown as bloodthirsty killing machines when necessary. Both are also shown as valuing human life, with some noted exceptions. As such the Crusades function more as a background to the struggle of one man to find his ‘right action’ in the eyes of God, upholding his notion of chivalric honour and the story of his personal redemption, when most around him are driven by greed, avarice, envy, fear and the love of power. Or fanaticism. Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a village blacksmith whose wife has just killed herself after the death of their first child. Working in his smithy though grieving and lost, he is approached by a Knight Crusader, Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), to join him in the Holy Land. Godfrey reveals that he is Balian’s father. Though at first rejecting him, an unforeseen violent event needing expiation soon causes Balian to join his father on his journey to Jerusalem. Here, Balian hopes to find absolution for his own sins and the soul of his suicide-damned wife. More violence ensues on the journey before Godfrey can teach his son much about the code of chivalry to which each Knight swears oath. Making Balian a Knight is an initiation, a direction into hope which the young man sincerely adopts. The promised reward is a purely noble and intangible, peaceful ‘kingdom of conscience’, the Kingdom of Heaven within. His quest takes him to the Holy Land where he not only falls in love with the beautiful Princess Sibylla (Eva Green, The Dreamers), sister of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, but becomes a leader of men and defender of the Holy City of Jerusalem against fierce Saracen warriors led by the legendary Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). On the way he earns the respect of his enemies. A Syrian warrior (Alexander Siddig), spared an expected death and given a horse by Balian, tells him, “Your quality will be known among your enemies.” Pre-empting Saladin’s later comment to him, “We reap what we sow,” Balian’s honourable actions are powerful determinants of the course of the war. Like all good war films the violence and bloodshed, which is sufficient, gives rather an anti-war message. Likewise each side crying out “God wills it!” as they charge, and the strong conviction each has that they are fighting with God on their side. An insane-looking fanatic tells Christian pilgrims on the road to Messina early in the film that killing an infidel is not murder. Contrasting with this is the enlightened truce of some years in Jerusalem, between Saladin and King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), allowing the free passage of pilgrims of all faiths, since, as Balian tells Saladin after a crucial siege “your holy places are our holy places”. Orlando Bloom embodies well the sincerity and innocence, even a kind of purity, of the village blacksmith who by adhering to his oath of knighthood reaches within himself to become a great military leader, strategist, and resourceful engineer of machines for peace as well as war. His oath costs him personally and Jerusalem dearly, yet he will not deviate. There’s a point near the end of the film when the war-mongering army of Knights Templar leave Jerusalem undefended to chase a wily Saladin in the desert. Left to defend families of women and children, old men and young servants, Balian bestows knighthood on all the fit males left in the Holy City. The pusillanimous Bishop of Jerusalem asks scornfully if men fight better after they’ve been knighted. Glancing at the shining eyes and newly erect bearing of the just-minted Knights, he says simply, “Yes!” Bloom carries off this moment rather well, if with a contained, understated energy. Marton Csokas as the Princess Sibylla’s sulky, arrogant and rapacious husband, Guy de Lusignan, is a convincing, unworthy opponent of Balian. A red-bearded Brendan Gleeson plays Reynald, a veins-in-the-teeth berserker who wages war because it is what he is good at, with tremendous, bloodthirsty gusto. Eva Green’s Sibylla has a face and a sultry presence to launch a thousand ships somewhat better than the beautiful but disappointingly lightweight Diane Kruger did in Troy, while to the degree that Kruger’s on-screen chemistry with Bloom fizzled when he was the wimpy Paris in that movie, Bloom and Green sizzle convincingly here. Other brilliant performances are by Liam Neeson as the Knight come to claim the son who never knew him, and teach him the meaning of Knighthood; and David Thewlis as the Knight Hospitaller. It is he who first teaches Balian the difference between 'religion' on the one hand – mere words and empty tradition, and on the other hand, holiness – ‘right action’, which depends on the need to make constant decisions and choices in one’s life. Ghassan Massoud’s Saladin has the economy and precision of a predator hawk and is as finely wrought as the magnificently meshed chain mail armour he wears so elegantly. Finally, Edward Norton as the silver-masked leper King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem is a tragic, noble figure of great heart. While the battle and siege scenes have fiery and bloody impact, there is a nicely judged balance between the vast vistas of desert horsemen, swords outstretched, thudding sickeningly into each other, and mid-range and close shots of characters whose actions all have consequences affecting tens of thousands of innocent people. CGI, where it is used, is unnoticeable. Beautiful cinematography contrasts the snowy bleakness of the film’s beginning and the blood-soaked desert aridity of the main action with the springtime promise of the film’s end. The music scored by Harry Gregson-Williams is potent as is the entire sword-singing soundtrack while Natacha Atlas gives a lovely, heart-soaring, open-throated final song. It's a war epic of grand proportions which nevertheless differs from the usual slick Hollywood genre movies of High Historical Romance, Quests and Heroes. This is because it carries the director’s conviction of the importance of personal heroism based on the values of truth and nurturing human life. Kingdom of Heaven is uplifting, enjoyable and impressive. © Avril Carruthers 4th May 2005
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