Last night we indulged in a nice dinner and a night at the movies. Our flick of choice? The new Ridley Scott historical epic, Kingdom of Heaven. Like Gladiator, this film tells the story of one man living during a tumultuous period of history. In this case we meet Balian, the Blacksmith/Knight, who lived during the years between the 2nd and 3rd Crusade. Played by Orlando Bloom (with 25lbs of extra muscle I might add, rawr) Balian is portrayed as the “perfect knight.” Raised in a poor village in France, he became a blacksmith by trade; but when his wife & child die Balian’s fate presents an unexpected twist. The end result turns him into a Knight fighting “for the people” in Jerusalem, and a Baron serving the King. The film features fantastic fighting scenes, stunning imagery and a reasonably engaging storyline. Overall I give it 3 out of 5 stars:

Though entertaining, Kingdom of Heaven has more than a few areas that could have been improved. The plot, for example, was in desperate need of character development. The director spent little time exploring the motivations of the main characters, especially Balian, who is riddled with contradictions. He joins the Crusade in hopes of seeking forgiveness for both himself and his recently dead wife (who was a suicide), and so one expects to witness his struggle with grief, faith and personal salvation. Within a few weeks of arriving in Jerusalem, however, Balian has lost his faith and become involved in an adulterous affair. Why does he suddenly feel God has abandoned him? What made him decide to sleep with another woman when he is supposedly grieving for his wife? Who knows. Moreover, the forced elements of vapid romance take away from the substance of the film.

Kingdom of Heaven is also historically inaccurate in many respects. The Latin King of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV (played by Ed Norton), is portrayed as being fairly functional in the movie. He is able to govern meetings with the Latin nobles, even ride out with his army to meet Saladin on the battlefield. However by this period in history Baldwin IV was already in an advanced stage of leprosy. As a result he no longer had the use of his limbs, was practically blind and could not travel. Also, when he died in 1185, he was not succeeded by Guy of Lusignan. Though Guy was appointed as his regent in 1183 when Baldwin’s leprosy began to overwhelm him, the commission was withdrawn the same year and Baldwin’s five-year-old nephew (the son of Baldwin’s sister Sibylla from her first marriage) was crowned king as Baldwin V. Raymond, Count of Tripoli, was then regent for Baldwin V, who was eventually succeeded as king by Guy of Lusignan. Kingdom of Heaven gets this series of events completely wrong. According to the film, not only does Guy succeed Baldwin IV through his marriage to Sibylla, but Baldwin IV even considers giving the kingdom to Balian. Also, the film shows Jerusalem falling almost immediately after Guy takes the throne, but in reality he ruled for some 3 years. He was then defeated and captured in 1187 by Saladin at the battle of Hattin, which then led to the fall of Jerusalem.

There were other historical discrepancies, though I’m not going to go into detail since this review is already pretty long. (For example: Raymond of Tripoli - mentioned above - is called Tiberius in the movie & some of Saladin’s seige weaponry was used inaccurately.) Though I picked on the historical accuracy of the movie, I realize that the film was largely a work of historical fiction inspired by real-life events. As such, differences in names and dates only accounted for a small portion of my overall impression. If you enjoy epic films with grand battle scenes then I would recommend this film to you - just don’t get your hopes up when it comes to discovering why the characters do what they do.