Kingdom of Heaven

Clearly, director Ridley Scott did not want to offend anyone in this middle-of-the road piece.

This movie is not as much about the Crusades, as it is about delivering the message that religious groups can, and should, peacefully coexist in the Holy Land. I'm not sure if religious tensions can be broken down to simple acceptance and tolerance, but it is a nice message nevertheless. More importantly, this movie is careful not offend anyone, as it chooses isolated fanatical villains rather than Christians or Muslims as a whole.

The story takes place around 1184, between the second and third crusades. From what I can gather, the film is relatively accurate from a historical standpoint, although it does of course receive the Hollywood treatment. Balian is the hero of the story, played surprisingly well by Orlando Bloom. He travels to Jerusalem for some vague reason that was not really made clear, along with his newly discovered father Sir Godfrey (Liam Neeson), who happens to be a crusading knight. Sir Godfrey dies along the way, but passes his knighthood and title to Balian. Off Balian scoots to Jerusalem, where he lives on his father's land and instantly gains everyone's respect (Christian & Muslim alike) for being such a gosh-darned nice guy.

I spent a good portion of the movie trying to determine the plot of the story, as it is never really made clear what Balian's purpose in traveling to Jerusalem is, nor is it made clear what he's doing when he arrives. He just wanders around encoutering the main characters, all of whom adore him with the exception of Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas). What reasons Guy de Lusignan has for detesting Balian with such an extreme passion remain an exercise left to the viewer.

As I said before, this movie is not about the crusades. It takes place just prior to the third crusade, so we see a portion of history that deals with the reclaiming of Jerusalem by the Muslims, lead by Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Again, Saladin is not the bad guy in this movie, but a moral and just man, who attacks the city only after repeated provocation on the part of Guy de Lusignan and his co-antagonist, Reynald (Brandan Gleeson). Everyone else in this story, including the leprosy-afflicted monarch, King Baldwin (Edward Norton), does everything in his power to prevent confrontation by encouraging peaceful coexistence. Despite these efforts, the fanatics take over and war ensues. Balian is drawn in as an unwilling participant, his only goal to protect the innocent people within the city.

The battle scenes are typical, but not too drawn-out for a change--there's only so much of the same repetition one can take after all. The scenery is breathtaking at times, and while the story itself comes dangerously close to dragging along, it usually plows through just in time.

I enjoyed the film for its basic message, which is that religious strife is often caused by a few severely misguided fanatics, and that peace in the Holy Land is possible only through mutual respect. It is certainly a worthy message, but like its Hollywood depiction, seems somewhat unrealistic.