Five of Fifty-Two

Movie
Kingdom of Heaven

Ok, there are two versions of this film, the theatre version and the directors cut version. The Theatre version is not worth watching, the Directors cut is one of the best nine films I have ever seen.
 People reading this who havent seen the two films - yes they are two fundementally different films - will likely be sat there thinking 'But how can adding a couple of scenes change it so thoroughly?' well, let me tell you; it does. It really does.
Sure there are a load of token scenes that don't change much but then there's the introduction of Baldwin the V of Jerusalem, the Queens son.
The addition of a single character changes the entire film completely. The queens motivations change, the bad guy seems all the more dastardly because he is at odds with a ten year old.
It's hard to explain how different the film is without putting in any spoilers, and while i could put in a spoiler warning at the top like I've done before I would prefer not to ruin the film for you, I'd prefer you all go out and watch it.

The film follows Orlando Blooms character Balian (the only Orlando Bloom character I've ever loved)druing the 1200 ad crusades, as he goes from simple blacksmith in a little french village to the Baron of Iblin in/near Jerusalem, I'm not sure exactly.
It is a pretty awesome story of Balian's struggle with his own faith after the death of his wife and still born son, while maneuvering through the gritty dark side of religion.
It has love, grusome violence and all sides of faith. That's one of the reasons I like it. You can see every face of god in it and every face of those who worship him. The loving god and those who deteste violence. The arrogant god and those who believe that because they carry his cross (in the case of christians) and his word then it will be impossible to defeat them. The vengeful god and those who kill simply because another does not worship the same way, and all those in between.


It occurs to me now, after writing the above I could have (and should have) said a single thing to convince you of how awesome it is;
It's directed by Ridley Scott and has Liam Neesan and Edward Norton in it.

'Nuff Said.
Kingdom-Of-Videos
- James