May 7, 2005 -- “Kingdom of Heaven” is the latest in a series of grim, big-budget epics set in a historical period when warriors waged battle with spears and swords instead of machine guns. That's not to say the beautiful people who star in these movies do not have capped teeth and the women don't wear modern makeup, but the movies do look sport historic costumes and old-looking buildings.

The story of this film begins in the year 1186, following many years of wars in the Middle East between the European Crusaders and the Muslims of the Middle East. The European rulers of Jerusalem have become weak, ruling over warring factions. The European occupiers have become corrupt. Balian (Orlando Bloom of “Lord of the Rings”), a blacksmith in France receives a surprise visit from a famous knight, Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson of “Kinsey”), who tells Balian that he is his father. Godfrey asks Balian to accompany him to Jerusalem.

After a very adventurous trip, Balian arrives in Jerusalem where he becomes enmeshed in a fierce political struggle with Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas of “The Bourne Supremacy”), who wants to be the new ruler of Jerusalem after the current ruler, King Baldwin, (David Thewlis of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”) dies. While King Baldwin was a wise ruler, who maintained a delicate peace with the great Muslim leader, Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), Guy de Lusignan proved to be a foolish leader. After leading his army to slaughter in a war against Saladin, Jerusalem is left with very few defenders. Balian leads a valiant defense against Saladin's huge army. This final siege is the main battle sequence in the film, although there are others.

This is the third such epic movie in the last year. The first two, “Troy” and “Alexander” were disappointing, to say the least. “Troy” was passable entertainment, but “Alexander” was a mess. This film is superior to either of those films, but not as good as “Gladiator.” Even though it is a long film, two hours and 25 minutes, it feels compact. The characters are well-defined. The action scenes are well-staged. They are shown in such a way that the strategy of both sides is easy to understand. You can see how the soldiers on both sides of the battle are positioned in relation to one another.

Even though the reason for most of the battles in the film is religious, this is not a movie about religion. One of the few scenes in the film which is explicitly about religion has a monk telling the Crusaders passing by that it is no sin to kill an infidel. This is, of course the same thing some Muslims are now saying about Christians, and what some Christians say about Muslims. The movie does not portray Muslims as being particularly bad and it doesn't portray Christians as being particularly good. Even though it is a story about the Crusades, it is not really a movie about history. This is a story about men of honor in a struggle against men who love war and chaos. Rather than following religion, the hero, Balian, follows the romantic code of knighthood taught to him by his father: to protect the helpless and to safeguard the peace. The only problem with this is that Balian has almost no training in being a knight. He is also far too well-educated for a medieval blacksmith. Balian follows this heroic path with King Baldwin and Baldwin's military advisor, Tiberias (Jeremy Irons). Other men of honor include Saladin and one of his top generals, Nasir (Alexander Siddig of “Vertical Limit”). On the other side are the men without honor, Guy de Lusignan and his murderous, thieving henchman, Reynald, (Brendan Gleeson of “Braveheart”).

At some point in the movie, Balian is given a choice something like this: marry the hottest babe in the movie (Sibylla, played by Eva Green of “The Dreamers”) and become King of Jerusalem and get rid of Guy de Lusignan, thereby saving Jerusalem from being ruled by an insufferable twit. His other choice is to decline the hot chick and let Jerusalem go to hell. Balian chooses the latter. The reason for this decision escapes me. It has something to do with honor. Suffice it to say that royal intrigue is not the movie's strong suit. Thankfully, political machinations do not play a large role in the film, as they did in “Alexander.” This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2005 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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