(Credit:DVDtown.com)
Directed by
Ridley Scott
Cast:
Martin Hancock …. Gravedigger
Michael Sheen …. Priest
Nathalie Cox …. Balian’s Wife
Eriq Ebouaney …. Firuz
Jouko Ahola …. Odo
David Thewlis …. Hospitaler
Liam Neeson …. Godfrey
Philip Glenister …. Squire
Orlando Bloom …. Balian
Bronson Webb …. Apprentice
Kevin McKidd …. English Sergeant
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau …. Village Sheriff
Steven Robertson …. Angelic Priest
Marton Csokas …. Guy de Lusignan
Alexander Siddig …. Nasir
Velibor Topic …. Almaric
Michael Shaeffer …. Young Sergeant
Eva Green …. Sibylla
Brendan Gleeson …. Reynald
Nasser Memarzia …. Muslim Grandee
Jeremy Irons …. Tiberias
Jon Finch …. Jerusalem
Edward Norton …. King Baldwin
The Movie:
When it was released last summer, Kingdom of Heaven made a very little splash with moviegoers. Met with lackluster reviews from critics, the $130 million movie made only $47 million domestically, starting the downward slide for the entire summer box office in 2005. For director Ridley Scott, this was the first real setback in some time. His Gladiator was the first to start the Epic craze back in 2000, then followed up with the box office smash Hannibal, the widely successful Black Hawk Down, and the critical favorite, Matchstick Men. But why was Kingdom of Heaven such a wash?
There are several reasons that could have contributed to people staying away from the film. Perhaps the field had just gotten too crowded for audiences in between Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. Gladiator imitators Troy, King Arthur, and Alexander were critical duds. Historical Epics The Last Samurai, Master and Commander, and Cold Mountain all did marginally well, but didn’t set the world on fire.
Maybe political climate was the reason for the film’s downfall. Did the public want to see a movie about the Crusades when a war in the Middle East rages right now? Perhaps the film was just too heavy for audiences wanting escapism from the day to day problems with the world.
But then, there were the mixed reviews for the film. Admittedly, the picture seemed to be light in the story department, even if the action was top notch. Character motivations appeared forced, and star Orlando Bloom’s storyline gave the impression that big chunks were missing.
With Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven: Directo’s Cut a lot of questions are finally answered. While most cuts of this nature add only a few moments back into a movie, Kingdom of Heaven goes from its theatrical running time of two hours and twenty five minutes to a whopping three hours and ten minutes. The difference is astonishing. Kingdom of Heaven goes from being a decent movie with flaws to one of the best films to have come out in 2005. 20th Century Fox must have felt the longer running time would have been too daunting for summer audiences, but watching this cut of the film makes you feel as if they shot themselves in the foot and missed out on some Oscar glory.
The spine of the movie is still there, as Balian (Orlando Bloom) is discovered by his father and taken to Jerusalem. There, he becomes one of the most important knights in the realm, and is instrumental in defending the Holy Land against the forces of Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). All these elements were in tact upon Kingdom of Heaven’s release in 2005. What this Directo’s Cut does is give the spine some much needed meat.
Even from the beginning, this new cut of Kingdom of Heaven is a richer experience. Characters, such as the Priest from the film’s opening (Michael Sheen), and Sir Godfrey (Liam Neeson) are much better developed than the previous version. Sheen’s character is much more treacherous, yet tragic here, as he’s not just a two dimensional “evil” priest, but actually Balian’s older brother. His emotions seem to be much more mixed toward Balian, wanting to condemn him at first, claiming he is a devil worshiper, and then seemingly wanting him to find redemption by joining the party of Godfrey, a knight returning from the Crusades looking for his long lost son.
This entire subplot is nearly completely done away with in the film original version as are others. Now that they are restored, we see the Priest and other characters in a whole new light. Godfrey is a man who has fought his whole life and now wants to find his only son. We see that his brother is the lord of the territory, and with Godfrey out of the way, his own son will inherit the land he possesses. This gives the conflict between Godfrey’s knights and the lord’s over Balian’s future much more weight and subtext.
As for Orlando Bloom himself, Balian has much more depth in the Directo’s Cut. His journey to Jerusalem is an odyssey of redemption as well as just trying to find his destiny. We learn he is an engineer as well as being a blacksmith, which makes more sense when he is given so much responsibility in defending Jerusalem when he gets to the Holy Land. Just simply giving him more screen time helps with filling out the gaps in his story, as if we’re not just seeing the story’s cliff notes.
Lastly, the character helped most with this new cut is Eva Green’s Sibylla. Her character was shallow and not given nearly enough screen time, but here she’s fleshed out quite a bit. Her character isn’t the impulsive brat from before, condemning Jerusalem after being rejected by Balian. There is a heartbreaking sequence involving her son, which has her character making tons of more sense than before.
All of these now fully developed characters bring a much deeper resonance to Ridley Scott’s expertly constructed epic. This is a film about ideas and ideology, not just action and adventure, not that there isn’t plenty of that too. The Muslim forces are not savages, but men wanting to take back land that was taken from them. Saladin is shown as a noble adversary, and a man of conscience and great strength. Edward Norton does wonders with King Baldwin, the ruler of Jerusalem. This must have been a challenging role for Norton who was saddled with a mask, but even with the use of just his voice, the character has a humanity that surpasses most others in the film. Baldwin is a philosopher King, trying desperately to hold onto a fragile peace between Christian and Muslim empires. It is zealotry that brings was to the Kingdom, as fanatics such as Marton Csokas’ Guy de Lusignan or Brendan Gleeson’s Reynald do their best to bring war to Jerusalem.
This may end up being the performance of Orlando Bloom’s career. This is definitely not a pretty boy role, and Bloom never seems out of his depth with the seasoned actors that surround him. It helps to have the likes of Jeremy Irons and David Thewlis, who make the most of their supporting roles, to make Bloom look good, and that is exactly what they do.
Battle scenes are brutally choreographed and put on an amazing scale. The siege of Jerusalem of is on a scale worthy of the defense of Helm’s Deep from the The Two Towers and nearly that of Return of the King’s Minas Tirith battle. These battles are raw and adrenaline filled, much like the controlled chaos of Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. Those scared of seeing battles similar to the crowded yawn fests that Troy brought you should put their fears to rest. These are bloody; bone crunching engagements that few main characters are able survive.
Kingdom of Heaven was already a gorgeous movie to look at, but now it has characters that fully live in that world. The film was gutted by executives the first time out, but hopefully audiences will give the film another chance on DVD with this Directo’s Cut. This is a tremendous movie from Ridley Scott, who makes the most out of this edition with one of the best movies of 2005.
STORY: 9.5/10
ACTING: 9.5/10
ORIGINALITY: 9.0/10
LOOK/FEEL: 10/10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 10/10
TOTAL POINTS: 48/50
FINAL MOVIE SCORE: 9.5
The DVD:
The Video
One word; gorgeous. Spread over two discs, this movie looks phenomenal with a great improvement over the previous version of Kingdom of Heaven. This transfer is virtually flawless with a great attention to detail. At no point is the image ever too dark, helpfully especially during the night battles, as a film such as this thrives on its attention to detail. The film is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The Audio
The audio track here is on par or better. The bombast of the film’s fight scenes comes across in startling clarity. The film’s sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Hours and hours of Extras including Audio Commentaries, Text Commentary, “Making of” Documentary, Featurettes, Trailers, and Deleted Scenes.
Discs 1 and 2
AUDIO COMMENTARIES: Director Ridley Scott and Writer William Monahan by executive producer Lisa Ellzey, film editor Dody Dorn, visual effects supervisor Wes Sewell and first assistant director Adam Somner — These are both very informative commentaries tracks that are full of content from start to finish. Ridley Scott is a bit dry, but if you’ve ever heard a Scott commentary before, then you know what you’re in for. The guy may be kind of dry, but he’s got a ton of info, and seems to get it all in.
THE ENGINER’S GUIDE – This is text track that runs throughout the length of the film, telling many of the secrets of the medieval technology.
Disc 3
DEVELOPMENT
Feature Length Documentary: THE PATH TO REDEMPTION DOCUMENTARY – Disc 3 contains about an hour or more of this documentary and is broken up into several parts, beginning with Good Intentions and a Tripoli Overview. This portion talks about how this project actually began as the Russell Crowe vehicle named Tripoli that Ridley Scott was working on while filming Matchstick Men. When that fell through, Scott turned to Screenwriter William Monahan, who gave Ridley Scott an idea about a movie about the Crusades. He then started to develop the film, and this doc also features a lot of the Location Scout work done on the film including many pictures.
PRE-PRODUCTION
The second portion of disc 3 Faith and Courage talks about how much research was done in the early stages on the film, then moves to Screen Tests with many of the cast members. One test for Orlando Bloom seems to have James Morrison (Bill Buchanan from 24) in the background, but it’s hard to tell.
From there, the DVD shows the first ever filmed Cast Rehearsals from a Ridley Scott picture. Usually these are closed door sessions, but Scott allowed the cameras in to see Bloom, Neeson and others meet and work together for the first time. This is fascinating, as it shows how actors like Liam Neeson and David Thewlis really take their craft seriously and how lines will vary according on what they are trying to do with a character.
Featurettes concerning Costume and Weapon Design is delved into quite deeply, showing just how much work went into the various styles and costumes. The look at the weaponry is also quite entertaining as so much detail went into making the weapons faithful to the time period. There is then a look at Production Design, Conceptual Art, and Costume Galleries all of which are highly comprehensive even featuring a section on the flags used in the film.
PRODUCTION: SPAIN
The last portion of the 3rd disc begins with The Pilgrimage Begins and looks at the shooting that took place in Spain, which covers the beginning and very ending of the film. A beautiful castle was found and apparently was breathtaking to behold. The production then moves to Seville where modern buildings were used as sets for the palace interiors in Jerusalem. This portion was apparently a bit difficult as the weather kept warping portions of the sets. A funny sequence in the documentary shows Orlando Bloom being mobbed by teenage girls. He inadvertently waves to a mob, and when his car gets stuck in a traffic jam, the group of girls tries desperately to get to him. Brendan Gleeson also has a funny line when he tells us “I think those girls were for me,” giving us a wink.
The Featurette Creative Accuracy: The Scholars Speak features several experts on the period praising the film for its ideals, even when it has to cheat on accuracy. Ridley Scott defends any break with correctness, stating that he “isn’t making a documentary”. For the most part, this is a well put together fifteen minutes that shows quite a few viewpoints.
Storyboard Comparisons and Photo Galleries round out the disc.
Disc 4
PRODUCTION: MOROCCO
THE PATH TO REDEMPTION continues with Into the Promised Land, which looks at how the production moved to Morocco. The city the rest of the film was made in seemed to be quite remote and the actors had to adapt to their surroundings. The Jerusalem set that was used was also enormous as it was one of the largest ever built.
Unholy War: Mounting the Siege is a look at the tremendous battles that take place in the film. Apparently the King of Morocco, who seems to be a personal friend to Ridley Scott, leant him 1500 troops as extras in the movie.
Again more Storyboard Comparisons and Photo Galleries are to be found.
POST-PRODUCTION
Apparently, Ridley Scott hates post production and this portion of the extras is the driest. The Burning Bush details the film’s vast video and audio editing process.
Deleted & Alternate Scene runs about 30 minutes and covers a wide variety of scenes, none of which are any better than what was actually in the movie. The most disturbing has a full on rape scene in the background that seems to make Ridley Scott ill. Scott has optional commentary for each scene.
The Sound Design Suite is an interactive little feature that allows you to play with ADR a bit and also goes into detail about how difficult it is to match voice-work to film.
The Visual Effects Breakdowns Featurette is an exhaustive look at the CGI sequences in the film, which are some of the most seamless I have ever witnessed. These guys did a terrific job on these sequences and add an atmosphere perhaps not even capable on this type of picture before CGI.
RELEASE
The last portion of THE PATH TO REDEMPTION is entitled Sins and Absolution and covers Kingdom of Heaven’s Theatrical Release and Box Office failure. There are several reasons given to the film, but the film’s theatrical cut is not really delved into very much.
There are a lot of Trailers & TV Spots here, one of which, featuring a heavy rock score, is one of the weirdest uses of music in a trailer I have ever seen.
ShoWest Presentation and Press Junket Walkthrough were both marketing campaign promotions that didn’t help in the end.
Japanese & London Premieres – Want to see girls swooning over Orlando Bloom? Here’s your chance.
Poster Explorations: Domestic & International – This is a look at the many poster campaigns for the film.
The Director’s Cut & DVD Campaign – This has many involved overjoyed at the chance to release Kingdom of Heaven at its correct running time. None are really harsh to Fox, then again, I’ve never seen Ridley Scott do a lot of yelling. Most are just happy that all their hard work is coming out for the public to see.
Score: 10/10
