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You are a Christian blacksmith living in 12th century France, 100 years after the Crusade of Pope Urban II that took the city of Jerusalem. Your wife has just killed herself after losing her child giving birth. A Lord loyal to the King of Jerusalem comes riding through your village claiming to be your father, offering to take you with him to Jerusalem. What do you do?
After killing a priest for stealing his wife’s crucifix, the choice for Balian was to follow his father to Jerusalem, to seek redemption from God at the place where Christ was crucified.
When his father, Lord Godfrey (Liam Neeson), dies before reaching the Holy City, Balian is knighted and receives his father’s heritage. Balian then follows his father’s dying wish to be a perfect knight—perfect in integrity, honesty and battle—and to faithfully serve King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (Edward Norton).
But when King Baldwin dies of leprosy, his legacy is passed to the glory-seeking, ego-centric husband of his sister, Sibylla (Eva Green). Her husband, Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas), seeks only to start a war with the Muslim leader Saladin.
Kingdom of Heaven has obvious parallels to Gladiator, also directed by Ridley Scott, in that it is a time-period epic about a hero who loses his family and goes through various lows and highs of life.
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But what Kingdom of Heaven does best is really get to the root of tensions between Muslims and Christians. The character of Balian has been expertly crafted as a man who feels forsaken by God, yet still manages to have persistent faith in God and understanding that His will is for all people, Christian, Muslim and Jew—although there is little, if any, Jewish viewpoint represented in this film.
As an extension of this, Balian is truly able to see that God is not just in the symbols various cultures take to represent Him. In his speech preparing for the final stand, he announces that they will not be fighting to defend the city or the mosques or temples or churches, but to defend the people of the city.
Screenwriter William Monohan did extensive research in writing this film often using translations of first-hand accounts written by people who lived during this period. According to the film’s official website, Monohan’s research found that King Baldwin IV’s rule of Jerusalem was significant as a time when all three major monotheistic religions were freely practiced, thanks to a truce Baldwin had reached with Saladin. So far, Monohan has written three other films, two of which are in pre-production, including Jurassic Park IV.
Director Ridley Scott (Alien, Legend, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator) used filming locations throughout Spain and Morocco to bring his latest epic to life. He also constructed one of the largest sets ever built for a movie—that of the city of Jerusalem. The walls measure 56-feet tall and enclose an area of about 144-thousand square feet. Computer Generated Imaging (CGI) was then used to fill in the background and enhance the set.
Overall Scott has done an excellent job at telling his story while trying to really maintain a sense of historical accuracy. But as he notes on the film’s official website, he is creating a film based on history, and not a documentary. My main complaints about the film pertain to the length of, graphical nature of, and constant switching between fast and slow motion in many of the battle scenes.
Orlando Bloom, who was propelled to stardom by The Lord of the Rings trilogy, does a fine job of portraying Balian. He comes off as a character you can really relate to and feel for.
Islamic actor and filmmaker Ghassan Massoud did a pretty good job of taking on the role of the infamous Muslim leader, Saladin. It would have been nice, however, to see something that really illustrated the respect Saladin apparently had for King Baldwin.
While quite graphical in its portrayals of violent battles, Kingdom of Heaven ultimately provides audiences with a perspective on Jerusalem over the last millennium and seeks to illustrate that there can be unity between Christians, Muslims and Jews.
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