Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
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Overview

Kingdom of Heaven is an epic historical action film set during the period just before the third crusade in 1184. The film takes place in France, Italy and the Crusader Kingdom of King Baldwin IV around Jerusalem. The film is made by director Ridley Scott and stars an ensemble cast including newcomers and Hollywood heavy weights. The story and screenplay was written by William Monahan and is roughly based on the life of the real Balian of Ibelin.

Creation

Ridley Scott came on board as the director after meeting were held with William Monahan while they were both working on Scotts previous film Matchstick Men. The two were in the process of doing preproduction work on an idea Monahan had for a film called Tripoli but this film came into trouble and eventually died, but during the work done Monahan began working on the Kingdom of Heaven screenplay and the two agreed to work together on the project. Initially the screenplay was viewed as being too long at 186 pages so Lisa Ellzey the producer cut out much of the parenthetical description of how the lines should be spoken and cut the length down by 20 pages and the script was given the green light by Fox.

Plot Summary

In a remote French village, a blacksmith named Balian (Orlando Bloom) grieves heavily for his recently deceased wife. A group of Crusaders led by a Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) visit the village and approach Balian. Godfrey reveals to Balian that he is his father and invites him to come with them to Jerusalem. Balian turns down Godfrey's offer and the Crusaders depart.

Balian and Godfrey

Balian's half-brother priest (Michael Sheen) reveals that he had his wife beheaded before burial (as was customary for someone who committed suicide). Bailan then notices that his brother is wearing the cross necklace that his wife used to wear. Furious, Balian plunges a hot piece of steel into his brother and retrieves the necklace. His brother dead, Balian flees the village and seeks out his father and his band of Crusaders. Upon finding them, Balian tells Godfrey that he hopes to find redemption and forgiveness for both himself and his wife in the holy land of Jerusalem. Godfrey asks to see what Balian knows of combat and the two begin some short training exercises as he has previously fought for his old lord. While they are going through the motions they are interrupted by the Lords son, who is Godfrey's nephew, who demands they hand over Balian to answer for the killing of the priest. Godfrey refuses and there is a short fight over who is in the right on the matter. During the fight Godfrey kills his nephew but is wounded in the process and breaks the arrow stuck in him which results in broken ribs.

The port of Messina

The group continue on toward the Crusader Kingdom and arrive in Messina where they must rest as Godfrey is in a bad way. He calls a meeting of his knights and makes Balian his heir and makes him swear to serve the king in Jerusalem and be a good knight before he succumbs to his wounds. Now the lord of Ibelin, Balian prepares to make the Journey across the see, but before he leaves he meets Guy de Lusignan, the husband of the Kings sister who does not take kindly to Balian's inheriting Godfreys lands. After a brief exchange of words Balian departs for the holy land but while on route his ship is caught in a storm and wrecked on the cost. Coming to on the coast he heads inland with on the trail of a horse where he is confronted by a Muslim cavalier and his servant. After an altercation Balian kills the cavalier and takes the servant with him to show him the way to Jerusalem. Upon arriving at the city Balian sets the servant free and then heads in to find his new home.

Tiberius at court

In the city he finds some of Godfrey's men-at-arms who at first are skeptical of Balian's identity but after proving who he is the men take him to his house in the city where he is cleaned and introduced to his men. While he is checking his horses a rider arrives who is revealed to be Sibylla, the kings sister, who invites him to the kings table for dinner before leaving. Balian goes to court and is introduced to Teberius, the city marshal, and again meets Sibylla while waiting to meet the king, who is unwell suffering with leprosy. He meets the king in his chambers after another run in with Guy and is ordered to go to his lands at Ibelin and protect the pilgrim road from raiders and keep the kings peace with the Muslims. Balian agrees and leaves for his lands.

Reynald attacks the Muslim caravan

Once at his lands, Balian discovers they are not good lands and are unimportant on the map. He immediately sets to work in improving them and starts a project to find water. He starts sinking wells all over his land and once the water is found he sets up irrigation systems to make the land fertile and green. While he is at work in the fields he has a visit from Sibylla and the two soon start having an affair. Meanwhile Reynald de Chatillon and his Templars set about raiding Muslim caravans with the aim of bringing about a war. In court the Tiberius accuses the Templars of trying to start a war and things soon descend into arguing and shouting when a message is received saying the Saladin, the Muslim sultan, has begun marching on Reynald's castle at Karrak with 200,000 men. Baldin has no option but to assemble the army and meet Saladin at Karrak and sends word to Balian to protect the pilgrims.

Baldwin arrives with the army

Word reaches Balian and he rides to Karrak with his men only to arrive as the Muslim cavalry does, instead of taking his men into the castle he rides to meet the enemy and protect the civilians who are trying to get to the castle. His men are soon overcome in a brief battle but the people are safe, as it appears he is to be killed his captor is revealed to be the man he set free when first arrived. After a brief discussion he lets Balian and his men free but is warned if he goes into the castle he will die there as Saladin has arrived with his men. As they are about to leave there is a glinting behind Balian as the Christian army arrives. The two forces line up and the two Kings meet to discuss what is to happen. Saladin agrees to leave and accepts that Reynald will be punished and peace is restored between the two nations.

Baldwin beats Reynald

With the war averted King Baldwin moves into the castle and demands Reynald give him the kiss of peace on what is left of his leprous hand. After the kiss he beats Reynald with his riding crop but passes out from the exertion, he then asks Balain to come to Jerusalem as he has need of him and Reynald is arrested and taken to the dungeon in the palace. Back in the city Baldwin is dieing and he asks if Balain is willing to marry his sister in order to stop the throne falling to Guy, but Balain is unwilling to cause the death of another person as he is trying to save his soul. As a result when Baldwin dies Sibylla agrees that the throne will pass to her and Guy will be regent and thus king. He immediately has Reynald set free and asks him to start a war with the Muslims, and sends assassins to kill Balian who is no longer welcome at court.

Guy's war council

Balian beats the three assassins and escapes with his life, while Reynald attacks another caravan but this time kills Saladins sister who is riding with them. At the Christian court a Muslim envoy is sent demanding the heads of those responsible for the death of his sister, the return of her body, and the surrender of Jerusalem. Guy responds by killing the envoy and assembling the army for war. As the army prepares, Balian arrives and gives council that they should wait for Saladin to come to them but Guy decides to leave the city and head out for them. Balian refuses to ride with them, as does Tiberius and his men, who all decide to remain behind to protect the city.

Tiberius and Balian find the army

The army is soon lost in the desert and lacking in water when they are attacked and defeated by Saladin's army. Reynald and Guy are taken prisoner and meet Saladin who talks down to Guy and kills Reynald for the death of his sister. Tiberius have received no word from the army and head out to find them. They soon find the crows circling the bodies of the army and they find the remnants laying in the sun. With this news Tiberius decides to leave and head for Tripoli and asks Balin to join him but he refuses as someone must protect the people when Saladin attack so he returns to the city and prepares for the defenses with his few remaining men and what is left of the city garrison.

Saladin is forced to seek terms

Saladin arrive as he city and lays siege to the walls. He begins the attack with a bombardment and then attacks the next day believing the city will easily fall with the main army already defeated. His army is repulsed several times during the next few days and each time they seem to have succeeded they are forced back until they hear that the wall at the old gate is weaker and they prepare to attack the wall there. The bombardment breaches the wall and brings it falling down and the defenders rally there for the final fight. The battle is long and hard, with losses on both sides but ends in stalemate. The Muslims seek to meet the defenders and they offer terms for the surrender of the city, which Saladin accepts and allows the people to go free and leave the kingdom. With the battle won and the people safe Balain leave Ibelin to his trusted vassal and heads off with the people returning to Europe, on the way he meets Sibylla walking with the other people as she has chosen to no longer be the Queen.

King Richard is seeking help

Back in Europe, Balian and Sibylla have left there lives behind and have returned to Balian's old village and his blacksmiths shop where his story began. While looking around he sees the tree planted by his wife starting to bud and sees this as a sign of new life. The two are about to leave when they are stopped by many riders who are looking for Balian the defender of Jerusalem and the leader introduces himself as the King of England heading to retake the holy-land from the Muslims. Balian says he is the blacksmiths and sends them on there way, then he and Sibylla ride off to a new life.

Production

Filming of the movie took place in Morocco in Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou where Ridley Scott has good work relationships with the locals as these were the locations he used to film Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. Filming also took place in Spain, at the Loarre Castle, Segovia, Ávila, Palma del Río and Casa de Pilatos in Sevilla. Scott became interested in the project from working with writer Monahan on a previous project. When their work on a project called Tripoli fell through some of the elements from that film found there way into Kingdom of Heaven. The original script was a huge 186 pages in length which made the financing at Fox question siging off on the film so producer Lisa Ellzey went through the script cutting out the unnecessary parenthetical description which reduced the script by 20 pages and funding was given the green light.

Scott filmed in Morocco as he knew Mohammad VI, King of Morocco from previous work on Gladiator and Black Hawk Down and he provided 1,500 of his military personnel with accompanying equipment to help in the filming. A replica of medieval Jerusalem was constructed in the desert. In addition, there were apparently 15,000 handmade costumes for the film that also required helmets, boots, gloves, chain mail, belts and scabbards. The flag budget for the film was $250,000. There were 7,500 weapons, 3,000 shields and 20,000 arrows used in the film. In one scene alone, there were 143 extras, 60 military personnel, 125 horses and 60 camels. Three 60-foot siege towers were built for the film, using the technology of the period. Each one weighed 25 tons. To accomplish the scene where a number of siege towers collapse, one of the real towers was knocked over on set and filmed from 11 different positions and locations.

At any given time during production there were seven different departments working separately as offshoots of the props department: the smalls department (kept all the small props together), the drapes department (made anything involving fabrics), the dying department (aged props as needed), the paint department (painted the props), the model-making department (made anything that could not be built to scale), the leather department (made anything of leather), the woodwork department (made all the furniture and wooden props), and the metal work department (made all metal props).

The first cut of the film presented to the Fox executives was 186 minutes long. This had been taken from a 280 minute assembly edit (in the assembly, the actual siege itself was 45 minutes long). The main thing the executives questioned was the subplot involving Sibylla's son, as they felt this was Balian's story, and his story didn't need that particular plot line. Indeed, even during pre-production itself, executives had ordered writer Monahan to write a version of the script without the Baldwin V plot, and Scott shot the film in such a way that the plot could be easily cut.

Critical Reception

Upon its release, the film was met with a mixed to negative reception. There was praise for a good solid historical film from some reviewers but out right hatred from others. The film currently has a metacritic rating of 63 out of 100 and a score of 39% on Rotten Tomatoes. The praise for the film came most strongly from Roger Ebert who found the films message far stronger than Scotts other films.

There was also some controversy among the academic world over the depiction of the events in the film and of the factions as a whole. Crusader historians such as Jonathan Riley-Smith, quoted by The Daily Telegraph, called the film "dangerous to Arab relations", claiming the movie was Osama bin Laden's version of the Crusades and would "fuel the Islamic fundamentalists". Riley-Smith further commented against the historical accuracy stating "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. Fellow Crusade historian Jonathan Phillips also spoke against the film. Paul Halsall defended 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".

The general consensus for the film seems to be that the final theatrical cut seemed incomplete and disjointed. The executives decision to cut down the run time and excise elements from the story lead to a far dummed down film that audiences in the us did not connect with. It failed to find an audience in the US and took only $47 million for the budget of $130 million. The film fared much better in the rest of the world especially Europe and Egypt taking $164 million. As a result of the feelings that the film was incomplete a Directors Cut was released which added back many elements removed from the theatrical cut increasing the run time by 45 minutes. This directors cut did well on DVD and was considered a success.

Director's Cut

As well as including more shots depicting violence and bloodshed, the later director's cut provides several details not present in the original theatrical release:

The village priest who taunts Balian and is killed by him is revealed to be his half-brother (his mother's son by her lawful husband). The animosity between them is shown as originating from the priest's coveting of the firstborn Balian's meager inheritance.
Godfrey is not only the father of Balian but the younger brother of the village lord who believes that Godfrey is looking for his own son to be Godfrey's heir in Ibelin. It is this lord's son and heir who organizes the attack on Godfrey's party in the forest and is subsequently killed. Both this plot point and the one above hinge on the firstborn son's right to exclusive inheritance: this is what apparently drove Godfrey to the Holy Land and the priest to begin his scheming against Balian.
A dying Baldwin IV is shown refusing the last sacrament from Patriarch Heraclius.
The character of Baldwin V, shown in some of original trailers but lacking in the theatrical release, is re-inserted into the film. He is the son of Sibylla by her first husband; not named in the film, the father is William of Montferrat. The boy is crowned King after Baldwin IV's death, but is then discovered to have leprosy, like his uncle. His death is depicted as an act of euthanasia by his mother, who administers poison via the child's ear. As in the theatrical version, Sibylla is then crowned queen.
Balian fights a climactic duel with Guy near the end of the film, after Jerusalem is surrendered and Guy has been released by Saladin (an act intended to humiliate Guy in the eyes of his former subjects). Guy is humiliated furthermore by challenging Balian to a duel, being defeated, and then spared by Balian.
A scene with Balian discussing his situation with the Hospitaller in the desert, which included the line "I go to pray" (featured in most trailers) is re-inserted
It is made clear that Guy de Lusignan knows that Sibylla is having an affair with Balian; however, his interest in her is primarily political, rather than emotional
It is revealed that Balian has fought in several battles in the past, is a skilled strategist, and is well-known for building siege engines.
Saladin decapitates Raynald de Châtillon instead of only cutting his throat; this is generally believed to be more historically accurate.
Sibylla is portrayed much more as a corrupt princess and unpredictable as she herself stated.
The Gravedigger of Balian's wife is given more than his previous one line, despite his lowly status he is very intelligent, remarking that the suicide was far more of a personal choice and not an act of the devil and realizes that Sibylla is not a nurse but the Queen.

	Orlando Bloom	Balian de Ibelin
	Eva Green	Sibylla
	Marton Csokas	Guy de Lusignan
	Liam Neeson	Godfrey de Ibelin
	David Thewlis	Hospitaler
	Jeremy Irons	Tiberias
	Brendan Gleeson	Reynald de Chatillon
	Edward Norton	Baldwin the Leper
	Michael Sheen	Priest
	Bronson Webb	Apprentice
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forum	One of my favorite movies.	Afro_Stevens
blog	What to watch (UK) 22/11/10 - 28/11/10	CrazyCraven
blog	Director's cut or no director's cut. That is the question.	TheThirdMan

Name	Kingdom of Heaven
US Release	May 6, 2005
UK Release	May 6, 2005
AUS Release	May 5, 2005
Runtime	144
Language(s)	Add a new language English Arabic
Genre(s)	Add a new genre Drama Action History War
Theme(s)	Add a new theme historical love medieval redemption religious multiple storylines
Rating	R
Alias(es)

	Ivanhoe
	Braveheart
	Gladiator
	Troy
	King Arthur
	Alexander
	Robin Hood
	Ironclad

	Inspiratonal Speech
	Horses Never Get Tired
	Closing The Eyes Of The Dead
	Reluctant Hero
	All Explosives Make Huge Fireballs
	Story Progression Montage

Domestic	$47,398,413
Foreign	+$164,253,638

By Rating
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Domestic	$47,398,413
Foreign	+164,253,638

Kingdom of Heaven (2005) Add