Review of Kingdom of Heaven (2005) by Jiana W — 20 Mar 2012

In my opinion, not one of Ridley Scott's best or most engaging films. I watched the Director's Cut, because typically those are better. It started off well but unfortunately I began to lose interest as the movie went on. It's nearly 3 hours long, truly an epic in terms of length, but that's about it. It's a long movie of... nothing.

Orlando Bloom is Balian, who manages to earn the respect of both his own men as well as the Muslims they're fighting. I can understand him being the way he is (not so much interested in spilling blood to regain land) but I did have a hard time believing that all these people fell into step with him and his modern-times philosophy of "live and let live". Perhaps the film would've been more impactful if Balian started as a hero in their eyes but then was ostracized for his views about who rightfully owned Jerusalem. One man standing up for what he believed was right, even though everyone else vilified him. In my opinion that would've fell in perfect sync with Balian's father's oath, "Tell the truth, even if it means your death." To me, this would be more plausible than all these angry Medieval people miraculously coming to terms with each other and peacefully accepting their religious differences and going home. If it were *that* simple, the Crusades wouldn't have gone on for so long.

In short, the movie's overarching message of religious tolerance is much too modern for a film set during a time when religious tolerance wasn't in the foreground at all. Fact is, everybody hated those whose views weren't like theirs and they were more than willing to slaughter them and say it was God's will. So the whole "kumbaya" ending was too hard for me to believe.

I'm not saying a movie about religious tolerance is bad. I'm just saying it doesn't click within the film's context.