Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut)

Kingdom of Heaven

Director: Ridley Scott Writers: William Monahan

Genre: Action, Adventure, History

Runtine: 190min

Rotten tomatoes 39%

Metacritic 63%

This film received a poor rating at the initial opening for the reasons no smooth story line and lack of depth. However, the evaluation was changed after reopening director’s cut.

This film was made like a historical epic which is properly weaved love, religion and human’s greed. Historical background is Baldwin 4, the crusades, and geographical background is Jerusalem which is called melting pot or seeds of conflict for the religious and geopolitical reason. In particular, it shows the various human characters of ruling class filling their won greed in the name of God.

This film tried to follow historical event as closely as possible and properly expressed the social aspect of the time. Unlike the other Hollywood movies, it is impressive to see with balanced eyes two religion, Christianity and Islam even though they were in the mid of war.

This film can feel a vivid sense of realism by taking the battle scene with mobilizing large scale of staff and avoiding computer graphic as much as possible. The screen filled with vivid scenes shows the characteristics of the director. How could he play well about his desperate situation only with gestures and lines without facial expression acting? The highlight of this movie is the acting of Edward Norton who plays the Baldwin IV.

★★★☆