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Product Description: From Ridley Scott the visionary director of Black Hawk Down and Gladiator comes this spectacular epic of courage honor and adventure. Orlando Bloom stars as Balian a young Frenchman in Medieval Jerusalem during the Crusades who having lost everything finds redemption in a heroic fight against overwhelming forces to save his people and fulfill his destiny as a knight.System Requirements:Running Time: 144 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 024543241454 Manufacturer No: 2234147 Amazon.com: It's hard to believe Ridley Scott's handsome epic won't become the cinematic touchstone of the Crusades for years to come. Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the sum of its parts, delivering a vital, mostly engrossing tale following Balian (Orlando Bloom), a lonely French blacksmith who discovers he's a noble heir and takes his father's (Liam Neeson) place in the center of the universe circa 1184: Jerusalem. Here, grand battles and backdoor politics are key as Scott and first-time screenwriter William Monahan fashion an excellent storyline to tackle the centuries-long conflict. Two forward-thinking kings, Baldwin (Edward Norton in an uncredited yet substantial role) and Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), hold an uneasy truce between Christians (who hold the city) and Muslims while factions champ at the bit for blood. There are good and evildoers on both sides, with the Knights Templar taking the brunt of the blame; Balian plans to find his soul while protecting Baldwin and the people. The look of the film, as nearly everything is from Scott, is impressive: his CGI-infused battle scenes rival the LOTR series and, with cinematographer John Mathieson, create postcard beauty with snowy French forests and the vast desert (filmed in Morocco and Spain). An excellent supporting cast, including Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, and David Thewlis, also help make the head and heart of the film work. Many critics pointed out that Bloom doesn't have the gravitas of Russell Crowe in the lead (then again, who does?), but it's the underdeveloped character and not the actor that hurts the film and impacts its power. Balian isn't given much more to do than be sullen and give an occasional big speech, alongside his perplexing abilities for warfare tactics and his wandering moral compass (whose sole purpose seems to be to put a love scene in the movie). Note: all the major characters except Neeson's are based on fact, but many are heavily fictionalized. --Doug Thomas On the DVD
The Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut is truly a DVD set of biblical proportions. If you are familiar with Ridley Scott's excellent, albeit massive, extended DVD sets for Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, you have a pretty good idea of what you are in for with this set. The biggest difference--unlike the Gladiator Director's Cut, which had some nice new scenes that really didn't add much to the film--is that this cut of Kingdom of Heaven is a drastic improvement over the theatrical release. This extensive 194-minute version brings the film back to Scott's original vision, maintaining an impressive balance of history, plot, and believable period reenactments and battle scenes. The best way to describe the improvements on the extended version is the film is now able to breathe a bit more, it's less choppy, and it has stronger character development. In addition to the extended scenes (which now span two discs in a clunky Road Show presentation), there is an exhaustive three-hour, six-part documentary detailing every aspect of filmmaking from the development of the "idea" through post-production and release. Also included are three feature-length commentary tracks, the best being the first with Ridley Scott, writer William Monahan, and actor Orlando Bloom. Included on the original release but missing from this set are the A&E/History Channel documentaries, the theatrical cut of the film, and "The Pilgrim's Guide," the fantastic text commentary which pointed out the historical anecdotes as the film played. Fans of the film and completists will probably want to hold onto both versions. However, those picking up Kingdom of Heaven for the first time need only to look to this definitive version. --Rob Bracco Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-05
Good message behind an average movie
Kingdom of Heaven confronts religious extremism as the bane of all evil. Using the Crusades as a backdrop, Christianity and Islam square off nearly 1000 years ago just as the major religions of the world do today. Battles over Jerusalem and concerns about what the city means to the world have been at the center of much human suffering for centuries. The tone of the film is greatly enhanced because its main character isn't particularly religious, and the film dissuades the viewer from taking sides, creating no demonized enemy, but rather a mesh of human beings being humans. Thus, this film is a true epic about our actual lives and histories and not about those men of virtue and bravery and evil and cowardice who exist only as abstracted myth.
Unfortunately, Orlando Bloom is cast in this film. He simply does not have the charisma to carry a movie as its star. He has only one or two expressions throughout the entire film, and he is completely surrounded by great actors who make him look silly. This drags the movie down for me, because he has a lot of screen time. I love the ideas behind the film, but I don't like it when I'm watching a film and just know that I'm watching an actor try to act and fail. I have yet to see a convincing performance by Bloom and cannot understand why he is so popular. At least someone like Keanu Reeves has charm despite his inability to act consistently.
The romance is completely copied and pasted. Boring.
In the end, the film is average to me. It tells a familiar tale, but I will admit that the timeliness of the film is at least interesting. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-02
Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
While I loved the origianal theater version of Kingdom of Heaven, the Director's Cut is superior in many ways. Many questions are answered and the character development is filled out. The theater version completely cut out the Queen's son just to make the movie shorter. If you liked the theater version, I highly recommend buying the Director's Cut. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-30
Kingdom of heaven
I got the movie in a decent time frame as stated. Great movie by the way. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-12
Great Scott !
This has to be one of my top movies. Yes the theatrical cut was a mess, but Ridley saw it coming. The beginning is great in that Mr. Scott comes up front and explains in short what we are about to see and why the story is what is was supposed to be. The characters are more developed and the Orlando "pretty boy" problem seems to be absent in my opinion. I would agree with, "Bloom doesn't have the gravitas of Russell Crowe in the lead (then again, who does?)" The director thought he was the right person for the job and he's the boss applesauce. Great editing, and a wonderful soundtrack.
I love the way David Thewlis pops in and out. He comes from and goes into nothing a couple of times. Ghassan Massoud is wonderful as Saladin. Eva Green's role is the only fly in the ointment. Her lines seem forced and sometimes a little corny. Her fault or the writer, who knows?
Rating:
Date: 2008-05-27
Great movie, visually compelling and improved story line
The theatrical version of the movie was excellent, and contained much food for thought in a world wracked by religious wars. I purchased the Blu-Ray edition expecting spectacular battle sequences, and I was not disappointed. However, there is much more to this disk. This is an extended version, and unlike many deleted scenes, the additional scenes in this edition make the story much more alive. I felt that I understood the movie, the characters and their motivation, much better. This is the version that should have been released to the theaters. |
