Kingdom of Heaven

(Ridley Scott, USA, 2005)

Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a rarity is modern movies – a completely good, noble and selfless hero.

As a humble blacksmith who is compelled to take a leading role in the Crusades, Balian is even able to resist the world-weary entreaty of the sexy Princess Sibylla (Eva Green), who advises him (post-coitus) that it is sometimes necessary to commit "a little evil for the sake of a greater good".

Balian, however, can safely leave the evildoing to most of the people around him. Reynald of Chatillon (Brendan Gleeson, whose long, red hair makes him easy to spot in a marauding crowd, or decapitated on the end of a stick) and Guy de Lusignan (Martin Csokas, the heavy in many a present-day action film) are only two of the power-crazed operators determined to hold Jerusalem against the might of Muslim leader Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Only the disillusioned but still principled Tiberias (Jeremy Irons) can see the reason of Balian's ways.

Director Ridley Scott took an alarming turn to the ideological right in films such as White Squall (1996) and Black Hawk Down (2001). Although Kingdom of Heaven, via the figure of the father whom Balian never knew (Liam Neeson as Godfrey of Ibelin), recycles the intense patriarchal-bonding theme familiar from several Scott films, it is also a more measured drama when it comes to evaluating the carnage wrought by imperialism and religious wars, as well as in its even-handed depiction (striking in the post-September 11 climate) of different cultures. (There is an intriguing and largely positive account of Scott's intentions in Sight and Sound by the film's scholarly cultural-historical adviser. [1])

Scott began his feature career with the bold, intriguing historical drama of The Duellists (1977) but, in these post-Gladiator (2000) days, he too crumbles under the weight of the hoary old conventions of the costume epic. Far too many scenes in Kingdom of Heaven involve characters in full armour standing around like statues, proclaiming that so-and-so has moved troops westward or signed some treaty. (To give Scott the benefit of doubt, he claims that the 194 minute director’s-cut version on DVD is far more coherent.)

It all becomes terribly abstract and unengaging – at least until the battles begin. Apart from the usual wash of slow-motion sword wounds, flying mud and flailing limbs that we have come to expect from historical action films (a long way below what Orson Welles was able to achieve, on a fraction of the budget, back in 1966 in Chimes at Midnight), Scott does invent some striking, digitally-enhanced images of crowds in the haze of sunlight, or troops from above as they appear and disappear.

Such passing effects are not quite enough to make Kingdom of Heaven the exciting, romantic saga it longs to be, but they do indicate the underlying intelligence that keeps it from going way over the top.

MORE Scott: Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise

© Adrian Martin May 2005

ENDNOTE

1.Hamid Dabashi, “Warriors of Faith”, Sight and Sound (May 2005). back