REVIEWED - KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: Orlando Bloom is the callow centre of this impressive epic, but Ridley Scott's war epic might have been called Crusader, given how much its outline recalls the structure of his earlier Gladiator, writes Michael Dwyer.
MANY centuries ago, a young warrior strives for redemption and meaning in his life after the death of his wife. He finds both through extreme physical combat even though the odds are heavily stacked against him.
Ridley Scott's war epic Kingdom of Heaven might well have been called Crusader, given how much its outline recalls the structure of his earlier Gladiator. There are further similarities in their visual schemes, beginning with woodland scenes shot through blue filters.
However, whereas Gladiator gained in dramatic power from its classically pared-down storyline, Kingdom of Heaven struggles under the weightier - and sensitive - theme of conflict between Christians and Muslims during the Crusades.
It begins in the bleak midwinter of 1184, towards the end of the long truce between the first and second Crusades, as it introduces its dramatic cipher, Balian (Orlando Bloom), a young French blacksmith whose wife has killed herself after the death of her child.
Having lost his spouse, Balian promptly gains a parent in Godfrey, Baron of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), who tells him that he is his son and seeks his forgiveness. He trains Balian in swordplay and grooms him as his successor, a role he has to take on soon after a vicious, bloody, snow-flecked battle.
Godfrey passes down his ambition for "a kingdom of conscience, a kingdom of peace", but that idealistic aspiration is at odds with the reality that lessons are rarely learned from history - a point emphasised in a closing caption of how little has changed over 800 years later.
Addressing that significance in the post-9/11 world, as it has to, the movie is at pains to achieve a scrupulously balanced point of view that will offend neither Christian nor Muslim. The Saracen leader Saladin (played with gravitas by Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud) is depicted as being just as noble and thoughtful as the Christian king, Baldwin VI (Edward Norton), who is dying of leprosy and hides his disfigured face behind a silver mask.
In a film that clocks up a vast body count, there are, oddly, few outright villains - Baldwin's aggressive brother-in-law, Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas), who demands, "Give me a war", and the reptilian Reynald of Chatillon (Brendan Gleeson in flowing red curls and beard) who obliges and declares, "I am what I am - someone has to be." There is a glibness to some of screenwriter William Monahan's dialogue, which feeds characters with superficial slogans and is hampered by certain implausible contrivances.
It does not help that Bloom still looks so boyish in a beard and that he lacks the heroic stature of a gladiatorial Russell Crowe. Although Scott wisely surrounds him with many superior actors, Bloom remains unconvincing in the abrupt transition of Balian from humble blacksmith to heroic leader and brilliant war strategist.
Scott does war better than most directors, as he demonstrated so powerfully in Black Hawk Down, which was all war all the time, and he brings his flair for spectacle to bear with terrific panache in the battle scenes which, for all its loftier ambitions, are the raison d'etre of Kingdom of Heaven.
The outstanding setpiece is the siege of Jerusalem, which is magnificently staged in meticulous detail and at length, impeccably edited and making marvellous use of CGI. It begins with a nocturnal bombardment that (presumably deliberately) evokes TV images of the bombing of Baghdad in much more recent years. Even in daylight, the sky is obscured by clouds of black smoke as the film vividly illustrates the military tactics and the immense scale of the conflict, and its massive toll of human destruction. The film finally and firmly makes its point.
