“Kingdom of Heaven” (2005)
I love historical movies. I’ve always loved history. Kingdom of Heaven had all the makings of a great one too. Ridley Scott directing and clearly the Budget of the Gods for special effects.
But …
I don’t know. I won’t go into the historical accuracy, or the political correctness. The Arab and Persian tribes of the day were a lot more brutal than the film depicted. Hell, as recently as WW1 they were pretty savage when it came to making war. And the politcal machinations of the Euro’s makes them look dumb in comparison – which is probably partly right, but I’ll leave that argument to people with more books on the walls than I have. As a movie, though, Kingdom of Heaven ended up falling short on several fronts.
The casting was decent, though Orlando Bloom seemed somewhat too “pretty” for the lead. But the performances were stilted and lacked passion. The dialog was likewise rigid. It felt more like a knights movie made in the 1950′s in terms of the way the language flowed. Compare this movie to King Arthur, or even A Knights Tale and see the difference. It’s not easy to make a period piece come alive to a contemporary audience, but it can and has been done. It has to start with the writing and the casting. It was just tough to give much of a damn about anyone in this movie.
That said, the special effects and battle scenes were incredible. Especially the siege of Jerusalem with the siege towers and Trebuchets in full regail. It was huge. It was impressive. It was impersonal. Again I go back to King Arthur for comparison. The battles were not as vast but they focused on the fighting around the main characters as much as on the grand scale.
Ridley Scott can do better – Gladiator and Alien show that he does (or did) know how to mix grippinng action with strong characters and produce landmark films. Kingdom of Heaven could have been such a film. The subject matter was certainly timely and his mastery of the technical details of the movie are without question. But it had no traction. He spent too much time on the spectacle and ignored the fact that the lead character was distant and, well, boring.
If you love historic films this is a good watch regardless. There’s so much eye candy for the devotee. Just don’t set your expectations too high.
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