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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Kingdom of heaven

23:10 / 19.05.05

did anyone else think this was a bit 'home alone goes on a crusade'??

lonely as a cloud...

07:16 / 20.05.05

I'm not too keen on that kind of epic film, really. Gladiator I enjoyed, 'cos I thought Crowe had good presence in it, but I can't see Orlando Bloom doing half as well. So although I do like Jeremy Irons (and then there's the whole Liam Neeson as a mentor phenomenon, as mentioned in the Batman Begins thread), I don't think I'll be watching this.
My old flatmate, after a stint as a Saxon in King Arthur, was supposed to be signed up as an extra on Kingdom Of Heaven, but Scott, or whoever, decided to hire local extras, to cut down expenses.

All Acting Regiment

09:46 / 20.05.05

Again, you can't say it's not a very accomplished epic, if epic is what you want. But like a lot of people here I think that in these movies, it all tends to give way to spectacle. I've yet to see it so will report back afterwards.

Jack The Bodiless

10:32 / 20.05.05

It's good. Excellent and somewhat topical representation on western/middle-eastern relations back in the day, good script, Scott's usual fantastic framing - shot for shot, this is one of the prettiest epics I've ever seen. Doesn't have the melodramatic emotional wallop of Gladiator, largely because the pacing is off and because it's a little too intelligent to make that work - Gladiator was a big dumb shout-a-thon, beautifully put together, but a basically manipulative piece of Hollywood filmmaking, making epic spectacle out of common tragic-hero tropes in a similar way to Braveheart, El Cid, Ben Hur... Kingdom Of Heaven expects a little more from its audience, and so doesn't have that same kind of gut emotional payoff you get when you turn off your brain and just bask...

Everyone is fantastic in this, by the way - Neeson is the dad you always wanted (if you were a twelfth century blacksmith), Ed Norton is a lyrical and tragic masked Kng Baldwin, and Jeremy Irons growls like a bastard as the King's right hand, Tiberius. Supporting cast are uniformly wonderful... Michael Sheen is just amazingly, sneeringly scummy as the panto-bad guy in charge of the templars. And Bloom? He rocks, kind of. Physically imposing (Legolas got buff!), broodingly charismatic, glowering and mono-syllabic... all perfect, until he opens his mouth. As soon as he speaks, all you hear is some sixth-former declaiming bad poetry. But this is a minor quibble - he gets so few lines, and the rest of the film is so good, that you can forgive that.

It's not perfect, by any means - it's overlong, poorly paced, and a bit unfocused towards the beginning. But I really enjoyed it.

18:46 / 23.05.06

Speaking of overly long, I just bought the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven, a four disc hullabaloo that celebrates this under-rated film.

I thought it was great. When I began watching it, I was convinced that I'd be bored to tears. I was sure that the pacing would be off, that the battles would be choppy, that the acting would be atrocious and full of speeches.

Well, I was right. Except I wasn't bored to tears. For some uncanny and bizarre reason, I love this movie. I haven't quite figured out why. I know for sure that one reason why I love the movie is the gorgeous score.

It was critically maligned and disliked and the history was questioned, but otherwise I liked the film.

There's something very grand and sweeping about the film. Gladiator is still better, but what can you do?

18:08 / 14.04.09

Glad to discover this thread. I also bought the 4-disc Director's Cut a few months ago, and recently rewatched it. It really is a much better film than the original cut. I saw the theatrical cut when it was released, and was so underwhelmed that I couldn't remember a single thing about the movie. Part of the problem is Orlando Bloom -- this sort of movie requires an actor with a bit more charisma. Yet in the Directors Cut Bloom comes off much better; the newly-added scenes add more depth to his character. In fact I prefer the movie to Gladiator, despite my love for the Classical Age and my loathing of the stinking Medieval Age. Gladiator's cool in parts, but the faux-Shakespearian manner in which everyone speaks just kills it for me. And some of the dialog is just groan-inducing, ie "Sand and dust, Maximus!" Or "Let's whisper for a moment, you and I." To continue with the threadrot, the actual best Classical Age "epic" is the two seasons of HBO's Rome, which despite being a series comes off like a super-long movie.

Keith, like a scientist

18:26 / 14.04.09

I never saw the original cut, but I bought the director's cut on a whim last year and utterly adore this film. The performances and direction are remarkable. I really like the love that went into the film, especially with regards to making it a true epic, complete with black screen Overture and Intermissions. Lovely musical theme.

The message of the film is obviously relevant and makes me respect both sides of this conflict more. Saladin's answer to what Jerusalem is worth at the end, "Nothing... Everything" shows the futileness of trying to resolve Jerusalem with current thinking.

Also, Eva Green is shockingly gorgeous and sad. Those giant rectangular eyes convey so much at times, it breaks my heart.

18:41 / 14.04.09

I'm with you on Eva Green. One notable difference between the original cut and the director's cut -- the entire subplot of her having a son was removed from the original cut. Therefore her abrupt switch to a crying, chopped-off-haired, cringing shadow of her former self was totally unexplained and just plain bizarre. And if I recall correctly, in the original cut it was never mentioned that Bloom's character Balian was an engineer, which explains how he was able to devise all of his contraptions throughout the film.

It's releases like this that totally justify the "director's cut on DVD" phenomenon.