Customer Reviews

Kingdom of Heaven (The Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kingdom of Heaven, the Director's Cut, is steeped in history and faithful to the Middle Ages. The time period was filled with religious and political hypocrisy, cruelty and greed, where innocent people suffered for the power and land grabs of kings and religious leaders--sound familiar?

Ridley Scott presents his vision of the Middle Ages and the Crusades with rich colours, beautiful architecture, panoramic vistas, glorious costumes, and in my opinion, with a certain sarcastic and almost angry tone to the script. William Monahan's script was written in a way to show the viewer that even though the film is about those wars that occurred almost one thousand years ago, those wars are still occurring today. And those wars still lead to the intolerable suffering of innocent people.

There is a truly revolutionary subtext in the script. The oath that Balian takes when he knighted by Godfrey (played by Liam Neeson): '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. Do no wrong', is an oath we should all take, with or without the God reference. We could all 'do the right thing' and in doing so, we could create a 'Kingdom of Conscience'. This idea is peppered throughout the film, and it makes one think: if we all acted ethically, there would be a lot less government and coercive religion, but more importantly, THERE WOULD BE NO WAR.

The actors were well-cast for their roles. Orlando Bloom is perfect as Balian. His role requires intelligence, skepticism, ethical and physical strength, and Bloom got it exactly right. Ghassan Massoud, who plays Saladin, has a truly majestic presence on the screen that makes it easy for the viewer to believe the history--that Saladin was one of the greatest warrior kings, ever.

There are some shots of battle scenes that owners of the Lord of the Rings extended edition will recognize. The raid at Osgiliath, the battle at Helm's Deep, the charge at Pelennor Fields and the siege of Gondor seem to have been transplanted from Middle Earth to the Middle East, but it is astonishing to see how much more life-like, gritty and violent Ridley Scott has filmed battle scenes.

Anyone who is a history nut for the period will be rolling in catnip. Again, in my opinion, this film could be a lot longer, perhaps giving more historical background, considering all the back and forth that went on between kings and popes, etc. Sir Ridley, if you read this . . .

Kingdom of Heaven is one of the best films I have ever seen.

After watching the theatrical cut of the film I was dazzled by Ridley Scott's great visual style but left cold by the muddy storyline and character development. In this new 3hr cut the film is now one of my favorites of last year. The story has been fleshed out and even Orlando Bloom, who I thought was wildly miscast, seems perfect and convincing in the lead. Basically the studio thought that by cutting an hour of drama and leaving only battle scenes would make the film more exciting. WRONG. the new version flows seamlessly and I was never bored a moment. Unlike the dir cut. of GLadiator which the added scenes seemed tacked on and tedious, the new stuff here is absolutley essential. If you totally hated the first cut then you will probably won't like this either, but if you thought the film was good but could have been great I really advise you to check this out. I really think it's one of Scott's best films ( and if this version would have been released first I think it could have got a best picture nomination) oh well.........As for the set itself. the 4disc coll. is superb. the 3hr making of doc is almost too comprehensive, with a good commentary by Scott and Bloom, complete marketing campaign and dts sound to boot. Simply one of the best dvds of 2006 so far... enjoy!

Sometimes I really think that Ridley Scott should stand up to his producers. I've lost count of the different ways he's remade Blade Runner, he clearly wasn't happy with the final cut of Gladiator (or he's just reselling old material); and in this case he should have stuck to his guns and kept a substantial amount of material in. The original release is a marginal historical epic with a couple of gorgeous shots, but the extended version really develops characters further, widens the scope of the film, and, to put it bluntly, makes more sense. Once you see how certain scenes were meant to look, you'll be amazed at the ways in which he consented to butcher his own film.

The fundamental weakness of the film remains unalterable - and that is Orlando Bloom. Great Legolas, great Will Turner, but lacks the gravity to be the centrepoint of an epic film. I don't know why this is so - I like the guy and enjoy his acting - but he just doesn't carry things in the manner of, say, Russell Crowe in Gladiator.

Despite the film's weaknesses - in acting, in ambiguous dialogue, in some real historical whoppers - I like it. Scott is tackling an area of history where angels fear to tread, and I think that he really manages to give the audience a wonderful Salah ad-Din, and a solid Reynald of Chatillon (apart from some silly shouting). Liam Neeson as Godfrey is wonderfully dry, and probably shouldn't have gone back to France to find his son.

I don't know, i just came out of the theater really liking this movie. Not that it is the best one Mr. Scott has made -it really isn't "Blade Runner" hands down is- it was just a decent waste of time.

Although the action scenes here are terribly shot and edited. I just can't stand it when the camera shakes so bad you can't see anything and on top of that the editors squeeze in about 100 other shots in a blink of an eye. the result is terrible.

If you like this kind of movie it is a decent one.

I did enjoy the movie when I first saw it in the theater, and since I find Eva Green mesmerizing, I thought I'd get the Blu-ray director's cut.

There's a wealth of new material added into the movie, and some of it is quite interesting. There's a bit more set up, more character build up and background that explains the motivation of the key players. And that has pros and cons.

The cons are that the director's cut feels sluggish, whereas the theatrical version which I seem to remember was more frantic (throwing Bloom's character into the pilgrimage within minutes of the opening) felt more appropriate for a story set in the bedlam that was the middle east of that period.

The pros are that if you loved the movie in its original release, well, this time you get a bit more. This is the third director's cut I've seen from Mr. Scott, the others being Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2-Disc Special Edition) and Legend (Ultimate Edition); and I gotta say that I would side with the movie execs in each one of these 3 instances.

The original release was a good movie (but as one other reviewer mentioned not matching the power of Scott's earlier Gladiator (2 Discs), nor anywhere near the epic and truly beautiful classic Lawrence of Arabia (Widescreen)), and the added material did not make it great; I'm not even sure it made it better.

What's truly amazing is that with all the space available on a Blu-ray disk, we don't get the theatrical version, commentary tracks, interesting tid-bits about the making of the movie, or about the historical figures that appear in the movie. I've taken this for granted, since most recent DVDs offer such material.

So I'd rate the movie as ****, but the Blu-ray package as a **. Then I'm averaging it out. Then I'm tempted to take away a * 'cause I like bringing some balance into the average review which seems a tad inflated, but I won't.

I apologize in advance to all those who loved the movie and thought it was epic, or that it gave insight into something that is fascinating and fascinatingly hard to comprehend; I'm being vague on purpose - again, not to offend.

I like historically based movies. This release is much better than the theatrical release. Much better fluidity in the storyline.

I was not aware that the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven would be so vastly different from the theatrical release until a friend of mine and I were discussing the film and he started explaining to me all of the plot-holes created by the theatrical editting of the film. So, I bought the bluray and saw for myself... Sure enough, the Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut was a completely new experience! With all of the additional footage included, there is actually a story that can be followed... not the shambles of a plot that was contained in the theatrical release. If you have not watched Kingdom of Heaven, just skip the Theatrical Release and see the Director's Cut.

This is one of my favourite movies and my favourite lines from this movie is,....."I am not those men" and "nothing and everything". They are both said with such strenght. I don't know who the actor is but he delivers those lines so powerfully perfect for this amazing movie.

I see by other comments, that others would rather watch American gas explosions and car chases. If that's all it takes to amuse you, then this is not your movie I guess. But then Hollywood Cookie-cutter movies do entertain those facinated by shiny objects don't they?
This is a very well done movie - in the special effects, in the grande scale of the visuals, in the casting (Bloom very believable I thought, as with the entire cast really), the visuals, the acting, story, and the historical accuracies in this movie made it particularly un-american and added greatly to my enjoyment of the film. I have curled up on the sofa and watched this movie 5 times so far and plan on re:watching again and again. Thoroughly enjoyable - a real treat to enjoy over and over again. I highly recommend.

To start with, I would like to highlight that this is one of my favorite movies. Usually, any addition to an already good movie enhances the experience, but not so with the Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut. The extra scenes take all the tension out of the movie and its character's conflicts. The side stories are distracting and do not increase the depth of the movie. Leave the cutting to the people that train for it and make sure that next time Ridley Scott is on the other side of the planet when the scenes are composed! Now, I have to buy the dvd version again.