Up, Down and All Around

Kingdom of Heaven

Finally got a chance to watch Kingdom of Heaven yesterday on DVD.

I must admit that I really didn't feel like watching it at all because I wasn't in the mood for another period, blood-and-guts, chest-pounding movie. But surprisingly, I found myself liking it because it was well told, the pacing was good, and the effects were entertaining.

One thing that really stood out for me while watching this flick was the fact that life was really hard back then. It was set in the Middle Ages, during the Crusades, so I guess it's to be expected that people would be brutal and militaristic. I don't think I would have survived living in that time. Things were left to chance (or to God) too much. Man had so little control over his day-to-day existence. The uncertainty would be enough to drive me crazy, I think.

There were several scenes that brought the Lord of the Rings trilogy (1, 2, 3) to mind, particularly the siege of Jerusalem by Saladin. I think if we had not previously been exposed to Peter Jackson's epic, the battle scenes in Kingdom of Heaven would have been much more impressive.

Orlando Bloom impressed me also with his portrayal. I guess I wasn't expecting that much from him, but my view of him changed as the movie progressed. In the same way that Balian grew over the course of the movie into knighthood, Orlando sort of grew to fit into the acting shoes that he had to fill (at least in my mind). By the end of the movie, you saw a hardened, battle-weary, and accomplished knight... not a blacksmith.

Tags: Movies

Posted by CF at 11:30 AM