Last movie I watched...
Its kinda boring to sit idle and watch TV all the time. Me having lot of free time after office hours. What i usually do is to watch TV or talk to friends or listen some music. Two days before i was sitting at home with nothing to do and no one around. So i thought of watching a movie. Actually i had been collecting DVDs for quite a while now. Most of them were watched. I searched my kitty and found an untouched one. 'Kingdom of Heaven' by Ridley Scott. I had bought it one month before. I had heard about the film. Bought it only becoz it was from the director of 'Gladiator', also becoz the hero was Orlando bloom. Also i knew that it was a war epic sort of thing. Those were the only things tat made me buy the DVD. I didn't even know if its a good film or not. So with enough free time on my side, i started watching . After 2-3 scenes i found it... gripping. The story of a village blacksmith who goes on to aid the city of Jerusalem in its defense against the Muslim leader Saladin, who battles to reclaim the city from the Christians. More about the story you can read at the bottom of this post.
As far as I am concerned , i liked it. Its a nicely directed film with a deep message.
The best scene of the film is.. The scene in which Balian knights the villagers, as the Patriarch of Jerusalem complaints they cant fight with Saladin to defend Jerusalem as they don't have any knights. The oath he give them is the same given to him by his father who knights him to be the Baron of Ibelin.
Balian of Ibelin: "Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.[cuffs the man with the back of his hand] And that's so you remember it."
Also the title card at the end is very thought provoking..
"The King, Richard the Lionheart, went on to the Holy Land and crusaded for three years. His struggle to regain Jerusalem ended in an uneasy truce with Saladin. Nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive."
All together the film is a nice watchable one with visually stunning cinematography..I read somewhere Orlando bloom gained weight for this film to look like a knight. Anyway he don't look like a man in his late 30s. If you have played Age of empires, you will be aware of Saladin. The portrayal of Saladin's character by Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud is described by The New York Times as "cool as a tall glass of water".So if you have time and have taste for war films this one is a must watch..
The summary of the story is given below. Don't read it if you are going to watch the film( spoiler warning..;) )
'Kingdom of Heaven' follows the story of a blacksmith in France, haunted by his wife's recent suicide as the result of a miscarriage. A group of Crusaders rides by the small village. He discovers the existence of his out-of-wedlock father, Baron Godfrey of Ibelin, amongst the crusaders, the town priest reveals that his wife's body was beheaded before burial, which was customary practice in those times for people who committed suicide. Enraged, he viciously murders the priest. Afterwards he decides to follow his father and his men to Jerusalem in the hope of gaining redemption and forgiveness for both his wife and himself.
In Messina, Godfrey, on the brink of death, knights Balian, orders him to serve the King of Jerusalem and protect the helpless, and ultimately shares with him his vision of a 'kingdom of conscience', morality, and righteousness in the Holy Land. Balian soon finds himself confronting a pair of Muslim knights—one master, one servant—over possession of a horse. He slays the master and asks the servant to take him to Jerusalem. Upon his arrival in Jerusalem, he releases his prisoner, who tells Balian, 'Your qualities will be known among your enemies before ever you meet them'. Balian soon becomes acquainted with the main players of Jerusalem's political arena: King Baldwin IV , stricken by leprosy yet nevertheless one of the film's wisest and most sensible rulers; Princess Sibylla, King Baldwin IV's sister and Balian's love interest; Guy de Lusignan, Sibylla's scheming, bloodthirsty, and intolerant husband.
Guy and Raynald of Châtillon soon massacre a Muslim trade caravan. Enraged, Saladin sets off for Kerak, Raynald's castle stronghold. Balian heads to defend Kerak from Saladin's army. Outnumbered, Balian and his knights nevertheless charge straight into the center of Saladin's army in order to buy time for Kerak's surrounding villagers to safely evacuate into the castle. The battle is quickly over and Balian is taken prisoner. In a scene paralleling the one where Balian released the Muslim servant earlier, we find that the supposed servant he released is in fact one of Saladin's generals, and quotes the line he said to Balian previously, before releasing him into Kerak. By this time, King Baldwin IV arrives and successfully implores Saladin to retreat, averting a bloodbath.
As the film progresses, King Baldwin dies and is succeeded by Sibylla. She names her husband Guy the King Consort of Jerusalem. Guy, with Raynald's assistance, provokes Saladin to war by murdering Saladin's sister, and marches off into the desert, without adequate provisions for food and water to meet Saladin. The Muslim army ambushes a tired and weak Crusader force. King Guy and Raynald are captured and Raynald is later beheaded by Saladin, who then marches upon Jerusalem, defended only by Balian, and besieges it. Three days of intense siege battle ensues, and Balian demonstrates immense tactical skill in knocking down Saladin's mammoth siege towers. A section of Jerusalem's walls is knocked down, but the defenders are able to hold off Saladin's forces in a bloody battle. The next day, Balian then surrenders to Saladin under the condition of safe passage for the inhabitants to the Christian Lands.
At the end of the film, Balian is seen back at his old home in France. Reminiscent of an earlier scene, a column of crusader knights rides by again, this time led by King Richard I of England. Richard tells Balian that he is leading his forces on a new Crusade to retake Jerusalem from Saladin. King Richard seeks Balian, the defender of Jerusalem, to join him, but Balian responds that he is only a blacksmith, and declines. We then see Sibylla, dressed in a rich traveling costume, and the final shot is of Balian and Sibylla riding off together after stopping briefly at the grave of Balian's wife. The film ends with a placard summarizing that after many years of war Richard is unable to retake Jerusalem, and fighting over Jerusalem continues for years to come as "even today, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive."
