A TOUCH OF HISTORY AND ROMANCE : "KINGDOM OF HEAVEN"

I heard a lot of bad stuff about this film. The criticism ranged from the political messaging to the lack of originality. I had next to no expectations from it when I had to watch it for course purposes. I have to admit some of the criticism is true for some things but I did still enjoy it, hence I thought it only fair to write it up. Let me try and explain what I mean. Balian (Orlando Bloom – yum!) is a poor blacksmith that has grown up a bastard in a small village. He isn’t very well liked (it is the 12th century after all) and his life has grown even darker after the suicide of his beloved wife following the death of their child. Into his dark world comes a piece of good fortune Balian never expected. A rich baron comes along and reveals that he is Balian’s father. He lives in Jerusalem after the crusades and he is in a position to offer Balian a brand new life in Jerusalem, the chance to start again from scratch, with wealth and power. The problem is, however that this new world Balian is brought into is governed largely by intrigue, greed and the lust for war. Balian only aims to find forgiveness for himself and his wife (whose suicide, it is believed in those days, means she wonders around hell, headless). But will his will to do the right thing by those he is responsible for and for himself prevail over the forces around him? Ok, so you can see the whole pattern coming out already, right. It starts off kinda like Cinderella actually now I come to think of it. Our beautiful and unfortunate hero is delivered from his cruel fate by what is, for all intents and purposes a fairy godmother. Then, the moral side of the story begins. Will Balian be tempted by his position and new found wealth or will he stick to his morals and principals? You can well imagine what the answer is. The film does take an interesting tack though. It is, in my opinion, a bit of a commentary on the wars being fought in the name of religion, the wars that have in fact been fought all through history. Balian is not particularly religious, in fact it is never openly said but implied that he has lost his faith if he ever had faith in the first place. And yet, he is the truly good person in the film, the hero if you will, which I found a tad surprising. It is true that Ridley Scott puts a rather “perfect” ending on the film and Balian ends up being a little too good and moral to be believed, his one major flaw being his lack of faith (which is not even really portrayed or demonized as a flaw come to think of it). The film is good fun though, contains some good emotional moments and made for a good evening’s entertainment all in all. Just don’t expect it to rock your world…