I saw this movie originally on DVD in 2006, but I got the 2 disk edition so I could watch with my sons, and they were amazed at the realism and life of the crusaders (both good and bad) and especially the battle scenes.

The extras disk was very good showing all aspects of the production before, during, and even post production. Unlike Scott’s Gladiator which I thought was too heavily digitized, Kingdom of Heaven had massive sets built, even the siege towers were real which is all shown to you on the extras disk. The Pilgrams Guide is a running pop-up facts during the movie about the crusades and that era in time, but the big thing lacking was a directors commentary from Ridley Scott which I would have liked to hear.

A bit of a morality play. Lots of blood is shed in the name of God/Allah. Well acted by Bloom and Neeson. The war scenes are pure Ridley Scott. See it, for sure.

I suspect this ended up on our Netflix list at one point because of Liam Neeson and Orlando Bloom. At a later point we watched a trailer and were not impressed. I’m surprised we didn’t yank it. So, the recent batch of Netflix came without careful selection and this movie arrived. We sat down to watch last night with the lowest of expectations, and we were delightedly surprised. An entertaining and engaging story, which had me immediately turn to reading up on the time depicted.

The character played by Orlando Bloom is highly fictionalized compared to the historic person of Balian of Ibelin but provides a nice canvas on which to paint an ideal of a war leader, one who cares about the less powerful, one who makes intelligent use of his forces in defensive contexts. I regret to read the actual Balian did not quite win free passage for all the citizens of the surrendered city, but it was close enough.

I am struck by the speech given by Liam Neeson in the early part of the film, of the East being a new world where one could find opportunity. Apparently, the Ibelin family had achieved nobility rather quickly in the East. I contrast this with the social effects of the Conquistadors leaving Spain, ponder the origins of the United States, “The American Dream”….

I loved this movie! There was something about the honor and code that the hero displayed that made him quite formidable. I have to agree that some plot lines were a tad predictable, it did start out a bit slow and it was quite gory in some scenes, but the end was absolutely amazing. It’s on my favorite list of 2005.

If you liked King Arthur, Troy, Tristan&Isolde, and A Knight’s Tale, then you will probably like Kingdom of Heaven.