After the immense commercial and critical success of Gladiator in 2000, there was a revitalization of the historical epic in Hollywood. In 2004 Oliver Stone directed Alexander, a hugely underrated movie, that I hope will one day receive its deserved status as one of the best historical movies of the 90’s; the same year, Wolfgang Petersen directed Troy, an epic wannabe, with Brad Pitt in the leading role which assured the movie a relative commercial success if not artistic value; and, finally, in 2005, Ridley Scott tried to repeat the success of Gladiator with another big scale project – Kingdom of Heaven. This time it was about the Crusades, not about gladiators. Unfortunately, Orlando Bloom is not Russell Crowe, no matter how much he tries, and 2005 is not 2000. When Gladiator hit the big screens in 2000, the last historical epic that people remembered seeing was Ben Hur and that was back in 1959 (!!!). So there was an opportunity for the revitalization of the genre and Ridley Scott was the man to do it. The movie was released at the right time so there is no wonder about its immense success (it won 5 Oscars, including best picture).
Kingdom of Heaven came out after all the others but didn’t bring anything new or special. Orlando Bloom is a mannequin not an actor; maybe he can impress the 9 year old girls in Pirates of the Caribbean, but I think he really should stay away from acting.
Gladiator had coolness written all over it, it was about intrigues, violence, treason, it had some great lines and some good acting and, of course, it had Russell Crowe. Kingdom of Heaven is dull, boring, long, declarative and politically incorrect. The Arabs are the gentlemen and the Christians are the savages (except Orlando who, of course, is purity and chastity incarnated). The bad guys are really bad and the director wants to make sure you see that. But there is some good stuff too: there is Jeremy Irons, always a wonderful actor, no matter how good or bad the movie is, the cinematography, the choreography of the battles, the locations and the perfect marriage between image and music, all being Ridley Scott trademarks.
There is a theatrical release and a director’s cut (45 minutes longer) version of the movie but longer doesn’t mean better, it’s still boring even if the intrigue is more elaborated.
Don’t get me wrong, Ridley Scott is a great director, he made movies that are landmarks in the history of cinema (The Duellists, Blade Runner, Alien) but, unfortunately, he also directed some poor ones (G.I. Jane, Hannibal) and this goes into the second category. Like Steven Spielberg, Scott is a product of Hollywood, with the good and the bad that comes with it.
5 out of 10