Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Balian (Orlando Bloom) goes off to crusade in 12th-century Jerusalem. The kingdom teeters on the brink of ruin; ambitious fools and religious zealots threaten to tip it over the edge.
In one sense, the film is like Scott's earlier Gladiator: a great, 90 minute action-adventure flick buried in 150 minutes of holier-than-thou handwaving. A glib dismissal doesn't quite do Kingdom justice, however; the padding between battles is an engrossing morality play, exploring the limits religious faith and personal responsibility.
If it's not quite as effective a historical epic as it was intended, it might be the fault of the studios, reportedly responsible for the removal of almost an hour's worth of additional material, much of it character development, from the theatrical cut. On the other hand, I'm more inclined to blame the look of the film: though widely praised for its sweeping vistas, pretty production design and so on, it simply felt too mythic for its themes.
Of course, the film was intended as a throwback to the likes of religio-historical epics like Spartacus and Ben-Hur, and the rather obvious political point about conflict in modern-day Jerusalem requires the establishment of archetypes, not men, but the effect is nevertheless distancing. It's impossible to empathize with an archetype.