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Kevin Michael Vance
Writer - Portland, Oregon
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Title: KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Director: Ridley Scott
Year: 2005
Reviewed: May 09, 2005
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Fast Food Meal-Third Highest Rating |
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Ridley Scott is the master. He is my favorite director, bar none. Arguably, Scott has helmed the greatest horror movie of all time, Alien, as well as the greatest science fiction movie of all time, Blade Runner (whose special effects, sans C.G.I., rival those of such visual fodder as the Star Wars prequels and the last two Matrix's). Here's the thing about Ridley Scott… he has had an incredible career spanning over three decades, with such films as Legend, Gladiator, White Squall, G.I. Jane, Thelma and Louise, Black Hawk Down, and The Duelists (just to name a few), Scott has shown himself to be an artist of the highest caliber. The fact that Hollywood has thus far shunned and denied these attributes and achievements, even going so far as to "snub" Scott an Oscar for best director when both his movie- Gladiator- and his actor- Russell Crowe- won, is and forever will be irreprehensible and unprofessional in the extreme. There is something… in every single Ridley Scott film… something beautiful, something magical, something astonishing, something stunning. His films are feasts, visual pictures that move across the screen like the brush strokes of a brilliant painting, or like the choreographed fight of a Shaolin monk.
With all that said, "Kingdom of Heaven" is not my favorite Ridley Scott film. Is it worth seeing? Yes. Is it worth the price of admission? Hell yes! Is it Scott's best movie to date? No.
I give "Kingdom of Heaven" a high, Fast Food meal review.
As it concerns "Kingdom of Heaven"… I wanted more: more passion, more intimacy, more story, more character depth. I enjoyed the premise, and I think rediscovering the lunacy of the Crusades is a wonderful thing. I liked how the script took a strong, close look at religion and the turmoil and dread that always seems to follow, or rather, precede, it. I really liked the films strong anti-war sentiment, and of how ludicrous it is for men to fight and die over a piece of land; the same piece of land that, to this day, zealot men are still fighting and dieing over.
However, there was a lot about the film that felt familiar, and not in the best of ways. The first few scenes with the snow floating through the air were a directly facsimile of Gladiator's first few scenes. The enormous, epic battle scenes reminded me of every single enormous, epic battle scene I have ever seen, from Brave Heart to Return of the King to Alexander. I don't really know what happens with those battle scenes either but somewhere along the way, as thousands upon thousands of men topple off battlements and die screaming beneath burning oil, I lose some of my interest. It's almost as if they themselves, meaning the battle scenes, lose aspects of their intimacy and humanity, like a musician who prefers playing smaller clubs than huge amphitheatres. The epic battle scenes are the amphitheatres- enormous, impressive, but somehow distant, the fight scenes between a few men are the smaller clubs- easier to follow, and more detailed and close. There is a fight scene at the beginning of "Kingdom of Heaven" between 7 to 15 men that is much more thought out, much more emotional and impacting, and much more fun than any of the other epic scenes. I think the eye and the mind can only take in so much at one time, and I also think that is why Gladiator worked so well; the fight scenes were, for the most part, man on man, which lent to it an air of closeness and confidence that those epic battle scenes could never hope to achieve. You felt like you were with Maximus in the arena, fighting against tyranny, fighting for the honor of his wife and child.
"Kingdom of Heaven" is a good movie and worth paying to see. Yes… the script could have been written better (albeit there are some wonderful lines), the battles scenes are over the top, and some of it appears as if Ridley Scott is emulating… Ridley Scott, but it is also beautiful and horrible and breathtaking. Orlando Bloom becomes a man in this film… not the waspish, soft-spoken elf, or the insipidly weak Troy royalty, but a man, capable of leading kingdoms and conquering armies. My only thought is that "Kingdom of Heaven" needed more substance and more depth. I liked it. In fact, I'll probably see it a second time, but, as stated before, it did have and air of familiarity that was not necessarily good.
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