Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It features an ensemble cast including Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Marton Csokas, and Liam Neeson.
The film is a heavily fictionalised portrayal of the events leading to the Third Crusade, focusing mainly on Balian of Ibelin who fights to defend the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem from the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin.
Filming took place in Ouarzazate, Morocco and in Spain, at the Loarre Castle (Huesca), Segovia, Ávila, Palma del Río, and Seville's Casa de Pilatos and Alcázar. The film was released on 6 May 2005 by 20th Century Fox and received mixed reviews upon theatrical release. It grossed $218 million worldwide. On 23 December 2005, Scott released a director's cut, which many reviewers called the definitive version of the film.[5][6]
Plot
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 Sultan Saladin 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 King Baldwin 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, who reaffirms he will destroy Jerusalem if Saladin does not accept his terms of surrender. Saladin agrees 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 as Balian of Ibelin
Eva Green as Sibylla of Jerusalem
Jeremy Irons as Raymond III of Tripoli ("Tiberias")
David Thewlis as The Hospitaller
Brendan Gleeson as Raynald of Châtillon ("Reynald")
Marton Csokas as Guy de Lusignan
Edward Norton as King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
Michael Sheen as Priest
Liam Neeson as Barisan of Ibelin ("Godfrey")
Velibor Topić as Amalric
Ghassan Massoud as Saladin
Alexander Siddig as Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani
Khaled Nabawy as Mullah
Kevin McKidd as English Sergeant
Michael Shaeffer as Young Sergeant
Jon Finch as Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem
Ulrich Thomsen as Gerard de Ridefort ("Templar Master")
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Village Sheriff
Martin Hancock as Gravedigger
Nathalie Cox as Balian's Wife
Eriq Ebouaney as Firuz
Jouko Ahola as Odo
Giannina Facio as Saladin's sister
Philip Glenister as Squire
Bronson Webb as Apprentice
Steven Robertson as Angelic Priest
Iain Glen as King Richard I of England (Richard Coeur de Lion)
Angus Wright as Richard's Knight
Production
Director Ridley Scott in 2005
Filming
Filming took place in Ouarzazate, Morocco, where Scott had previously filmed Gladiator (2000) and Black Hawk Down (2001), and in Spain, at the Loarre Castle (Huesca), Segovia, Ávila, Palma del Río, and Seville's Casa de Pilatos and Alcázar.[7] Cinematographer John Mathieson created many large, sweeping landscapes,[8] and a large set of ancient Jerusalem was constructed based on the production design of Arthur Max.[9]
Orlando Bloom reportedly gained 20 pounds 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]
Music
Main article: Kingdom of Heaven (soundtrack)
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 39% based on reviews from 191 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 aggregator Metacritic 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]
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".[20] 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".[21] 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".[22] 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.[23]
Accolades
Awards for Kingdom of Heaven
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient Outcome
Golden Schmoes Awards Best DVD/Blu-ray of the Year 4-Disc Director's Cut Special Edition Nominated
Goya Awards 26 January 2006 Best Costume Design Janty Yates
Hollywood Film Awards 24 October 2005 Composer of the Year Harry Gregson-Williams (also for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) Won
International Film Music Critics Association Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure Film Harry Gregson-Williams Nominated
International Online Cinema Awards Best Costume Design Janty Yates
Motion Picture Sound Editors 4 March 2006 Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – Foreign
Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – Music
Satellite Awards 17 December 2005 Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role, Drama Edward Norton
Outstanding Art Direction and Production Design Arthur Max
Outstanding Costume Design Janty Yates
Outstanding Visual Effects Tom Wood
Outstanding Original Score Harry Gregson-Williams Won
Teen Choice Awards 14 August 2005 Choice Movie: Action Adventure Nominated
Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure/Thriller Orlando Bloom
Choice Movie Love Scene Orlando Bloom and Eva Green
Choice Movie Liplock
Visual Effects Society Awards 15 February 2006 Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture 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.[24]
Academic criticism has focused on the supposed peaceful relationship between Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem and other cities depicted. Historians of the Crusades such as 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".[25][26][27] Paul 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".[23]
Thomas F. Madden, Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, criticised the film's presentation of the Crusades:
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.[28]
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".[30] 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."[31]
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."[32]
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.[33]
The historical Sibylla was devoted to Guy, but the filmmakers wanted the character to be "stronger and wiser".[30] 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.[34][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.[34]