In medieval France, Balian, a blacksmith who is haunted by his wife's recent suicide after the death of their unborn child, meets a group of Crusaders who visit his village. 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 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 alliance between the Crusader states and SultanSaladin with help from the brutal anti-Muslim Templar Knights. A night before the departure, Godfrey knights Balian and orders him to protect the helpless before succumbing to his arrow wound.
Balian sails for the Holy Land, but his ship runs aground in a storm, leaving him the lone survivor. As he makes his way to Jerusalem on foot, Balian fights a Muslim cavalier over a horse he found. 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 him the Saracens respect. Balian quickly becomes acquainted with Jerusalem's political arena: the leper KingBaldwin 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 then travels to his inherited estate at Ibelin, and, using his knowledge in engineering, he helps the struggling residents irrigate the land. Sibylla visits him, and they become lovers.
Meanwhile, Guy and his ally, the cruel Raynald of Châtillon, attack many Saracen caravans, provoking Saladin to march on Raynald's castle in retaliation. 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 eventually dies and is succeeded by Sibylla's son. As regent, Sibylla continues to maintain peace with Saladin. Not long after, Sibylla learns that her son is developing leprosy like his late uncle, to her horror, so she tearfully poisons him while he sleeps in her arms. Sibylla then hands the crown to Guy.
As king, Guy declares war on the Saracens, attempts to assassinate Balian, who barely survives, and releases Raynald, who murders Saladin's sister. Guy marches to war despite Balian's advice to remain near Jerusalem's water sources. As a result, the Saracens overwhelm the exhausted Crusaders in the ensuing desert battle. In the aftermath, Saladin takes Guy captive, executes Raynald, and marches on Jerusalem. Tiberias leaves for Cyprus while Balian stays to protect the people. After a devastating three-day siege, a frustrated Saladin parleys with Balian and then Saladin offers Balian a deal of which if Balian surrenders, Saladin promised not to harm anyone, if not, then many will be killed. Saladin then agrees to Balian's exceptions which were to allow the Christians to leave safely, and then he and Balian ponder if it would be better if the city were destroyed, leaving nothing to fight over. The Christians leave Jerusalem while Balian encounters a humiliated Guy, whom he defeats in a sword fight and spares him. Balian later finds Sibylla, who has renounced her claim as queen, and they return to France.
A few years later, English knights en route to the Holy Land, visit Balian, now the famed defender of Jerusalem, in his village. 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".
Cast
Many of the characters in the film are fictionalised versions of historical figures:
Orlando Bloom reportedly gained 10 Kilogrammes for the part of Balian of Ibelin.[8]
Visual effects
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.
Reception
Box office
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]
Critical response
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 aggregatorMetacritic 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]
Wesley Sewell, Victoria Alonso, Tom Wood, and Gary Brozenich
Won
Academic critique and historical accuracy
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]
MedievalistPaul 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]
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]
Extended director's cut
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] "This is the one that should have gone out" reflected Scott.[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]
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Latin Kingdom, was a Crusader state that was established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the fall of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after the Third Crusade in 1192.
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (1161–1185), known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem, from 1174 until his death in 1185. He was admired by his contemporaries and later historians for his willpower and dedication to the Latin Kingdom in the face of debilitating leprosy. Choosing competent advisers, Baldwin ruled a thriving crusader state and succeeded in protecting it from the Muslim ruler Saladin.
Baldwin V was the king of Jerusalem who reigned together with his uncle Baldwin IV from 1183 to 1185 and, after his uncle's death, as the sole king from 1185 to his death. Baldwin IV's leprosy meant that he could not have children, and so he spent his reign grooming various relatives to succeed him. Finally his nephew was chosen, and Baldwin IV had him crowned as co-king in order to sideline the child's unpopular stepfather, Guy of Lusignan. When Baldwin IV died, Count Raymond III of Tripoli assumed government on behalf of the child king. Baldwin V died of unknown causes and was succeeded by his mother, Sibylla, who then made Guy Fulk V, king.
Guy of Lusignan was a French Poitevin knight who reigned as the king of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla, and King of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194.
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of that name.
Raymond III was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Nizari Assassins murdered his father, Raymond II of Tripoli. Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying in Tripoli, made Raymond's mother, Hodierna of Jerusalem, regent. Raymond spent the following years at the royal court in Jerusalem. He reached the age of majority in 1155, after which he participated in a series of military campaigns against Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Damascus. In 1161 he hired pirates to pillage the Byzantine coastline and islands to take vengeance on Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos, who had refused to marry his sister Melisende. He was captured in the Battle of Harim by Nur ad-Din's troops on 10 August 1164, and imprisoned in Aleppo for almost ten years. During his captivity, Amalric I of Jerusalem administered the county of Tripoli on his behalf.
Sibylla was the queen of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1190. She reigned alongside her husband Guy of Lusignan, to whom she was unwaveringly attached despite his unpopularity among the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Isabella I was reigning Queen of Jerusalem from 1190 to her death in 1205. She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife Maria Comnena, a Byzantine princess. Her half-brother, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, engaged her to Humphrey IV of Toron. Her mother's second husband, Balian of Ibelin, and his stepfather, Raynald of Châtillon, were influential members of the two baronial parties. The marriage of Isabella and Humphrey was celebrated in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress during the wedding, but Baldwin IV forced him to lift the siege.
Humphrey IV of Toron was a leading baron in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He inherited the Lordship of Toron from his grandfather, Humphrey II, in 1179. He was also heir to the Lordship of Oultrejourdan through his mother, Stephanie of Milly. In 1180, he renounced Toron on his engagement to Isabella, the half-sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. The king, who had suffered from leprosy, allegedly wanted to prevent Humphrey from uniting two large fiefs. Humphrey married Isabella in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubbid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to Kerak during the wedding, but Baldwin IV and Raymond III of Tripoli relieved the fortress.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the Crusader states that was created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller seigneuries. According to the 13th-century jurist John of Ibelin, the four highest crown vassals in the kingdom proper were the count of Jaffa and Ascalon, the prince of Galilee, the lord of Sidon, and the lord of Oultrejordain.
Heraclius or Eraclius, was archbishop of Caesarea and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Agnes of Courtenay was a Frankish noblewoman who held considerable influence in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the reign of her son, King Baldwin IV. Though she was never queen, she has been described as the most powerful woman in the kingdom's history after Queen Melisende.
The king or queen of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was conquered in 1099. Most of them were men, but there were also five queens regnant of Jerusalem, either reigning alone suo jure, or as co-rulers of husbands who reigned as kings of Jerusalem jure uxoris.
Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin II of Ramla, was an important noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and was lord of Ramla from 1169-1186. He was the second son of Barisan of Ibelin, and was the younger brother of Hugh of Ibelin and older brother of Balian of Ibelin. He first appears in the historical record as a witness to charters in 1148.
Balian of Ibelin, also known as Barisan the Younger, was a crusader noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. He was lord of Ibelin from 1170 to 1193. As the leader of the defense of the city during the siege of Jerusalem in 1187, he surrendered Jerusalem to Saladin on 2 October 1187.
The double County of Jaffa and Ascalon was one of the four major seigneuries comprising the major Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin.
Reginald Grenier was lord of Sidon and an important noble in the late-12th century Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Maria Komnene, Latinized Comnena, was the queen of Jerusalem from 1167 until 1174 as the second wife of King Amalric. She occupied a central position in the Kingdom of Jerusalem for twenty years, earning a reputation for intrigue and ruthlessness.
Joscius was Archbishop of Tyre in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the late 12th century.
Kingdom of Heaven is the soundtrack to 2005 Ridley Scott motion picture of the same name. The soundtrack was composed, co-orchestrated and conducted by Harry Gregson-Williams, and performed in large part by Gavyn Wright and the London Session Orchestra, and released by Sony Classical on April 26, 2005. It is a medley of choral hymns featuring Catherine Bott and Iestyn Davies, instrumentals and percussions, and full orchestral performances.
1 2 3 4 5 Zacharek, Stephanie (6 May 2005). "Kingdom of Heaven". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2023. Cinematographer John Mathieson gives us lots of great, sweeping landscapes.
1 2 Ebert, Roger (5 May 2005). "Kingdom of Heaven (review)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022. What's more interesting is Ridley Scott's visual style, assisted by John Mathieson's cinematography and the production design of Arthur Max. A vast set of ancient Jerusalem was constructed to provide realistic foregrounds and locations, which were then enhanced by CGI backgrounds, additional horses and troops, and so on.
↑ Schlimm, Matthew Richard (20 August 2010). "The Necessity of Permanent Criticism: A Postcolonial Critique of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven". Journal of Media and Religion. 9 (3): 129–145. doi:10.1080/15348423.2010.500967. S2CID143124492.
1 2 Smith, J. Lewis (2005). Landau, Diana (ed.). Kingdom of Heaven: The Ridley Scott Film and the History Behind the Story. Newmarket Press. p.51. ISBN1557047081.
Neufeld, Christine (2009). "Unmasking the Leper King: The Spectral Jew in Kingdom of Heaven". The Year's Work in Medievalism, 2008. By Toswell, M.J. Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp.89–90. ISBN978-1725244504.
1 2 Francaviglia, Richard V. (2007). Rodnitzky, Jerry (ed.). Lights, Camera, History: Portraying the Past in Film. Texas A&M University Press. p.79. ISBN978-1585445806.
Runciman, Steven (1987) [1952]. A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.403–469. ISBN978-0-521-34771-6.
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