In this movie, the Evil Overlord is victorious! Saladin is the perfect evil overlord. He does not screw up by breaking any of the evil overlord rules. (Others in the movie do.)
Orlando Bloom is hitting like a heavyweight in the epic battle movies, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Troy, and now Kingdom of Heaven. He plays Balian, a village blacksmith that turns out to be the son of Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson). Godfrey is a crusader Lord returning from the Holy Land specifically to locate Balian. Godfrey appears in Balian’s village at a very opportune moment, since Balian’s wife has committed suicide.
All of the religious figures in the movie are flawed, since the message of the movie is that religious fanaticism causes war. The village priest is the most evil character in the whole movie. He tells Balian that his wife will burn in Hell for committing suicide. The priest also steals Balian’s wife’s crucifix necklace, and orders the gravediggers to cut off her head and bury her at the crossroads. The patriarch of Jerusalem is a craven coward. When Saladin’s armies break down the walls, he cries out, “Convert to Islam, you can repent later!” Other figures, Islamic and Christian, rave about the will of God.
The message in the movie is delivered by Hospitaller, played by David Thewliss (Professor Lupin in
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). “I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here [points to head] and here [points to heart], and by what you decide to do everyday, will make you a good man... or not.”
The final Epic battle of the siege of Jerusalem by Saladin was spectacularly done. This is the first time I have every seen the siege towers accurately portrayed in movie about medieval times.
The Return of The King was my first look at Trebuchets in action. Mechanized war is a dirty business. We even get a
Wilhelm scream as the Jerusalem siege engines begin to fire at the advancing Muslims. My one problem was that the opening scenes, at least on the DVD are too dark. And when I say too dark, I mean on an LCD TV at maximum brightness and backlighting in a darkened room I had a very difficult time viewing the opening shots. I do not know if this is poor cinematography or poor DVD transfer. I did get that directory Ridley Scott wanted to portray Europe as dark and wintry while the Holy land was warm and sunny. But it was just too dark. {BB}
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