The Times They Are a Changin’

Kingdom of Heaven is probably one of the most underrated movies i have seen in the recent past – a movie which at first viewing made no sense – i mean orlando bloom in skirts doesnt make sense but a second watch (against much advice) allowed me to appreciate that ridley “the gladiator” scott indeed made a decent movie on a very difficult, very contemporary and ver controversial subject – the middle east and jerusalem.. Set in the middle ages at the times of the crusades and the rule of Baldwin the leper (the dates are slightly mixed up here) – it is the tale of the balian the defender of jerusalem – a blacksmith who flees from france to search for redemption in jerusalem, he is also the son of Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam neeson) who is a key figure in the crusades and who true to the character of that time had sown enough wild oats across the european country side to have built a brigade out of his offspring.. he zeroes in on balian to be his successor, cos if he didnt we wouldnt have the movie.. the initial sequences in the movie are kind of confusing to the average theatre goer but with a watch on DVD with the subtitles (in whichever language on) allows one to understand liam neeson’s mumbling, orlando’s even worse mumbling and the general dark and dreary surroundings and sets the movie up for the later happenings.. which involve palace intrigues, battle sequences, illicit love affairs, much talk abt killing and much killing and of course, saladin.. the story is somewhat along these lines, balian (bloom in skirts) sets off to the crusades with daddy dearest (neeson) though not before killing a village priest and some assorted guardsmen of the bishop – along with daddy and bloom is a hospitaler – who is one of the saner people in the movie.. landing at i forget the name of the place, it is called the port of the holy land or to the holy land and crossing the seas (the mediterranean I presume) in what looked suspiciously like a Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V of the ocean sequence from ‘Troy’ – balian and co land at the holy land or rather are landed at the holy land by way of a storm – i forgot, neeson kinda croaks before this sequence but not before making bloom a knight and hence, having the right to wear skirts.. it involves murmuring something and something and then, neeson slaps him.. also gives him a ring which could have been easily worn around the neck of some of us.. and of course, his holy sword with which neeson’s erstwhile companions can recognise the new lord.. the new lord sets off to jerusalem and on the way encounters the rather disgusting guy de lusignan and the even more disgusting reynard both templars which in the film’s rather black and white rendition of events are the villainous lot, ie the sabre rattling morons, the ones that would like to whip the collective muslim backside even if they had the chance of a fly in katrina, the zealots.. reynard is very well played by brendan gleeson, who seems to have made playing such disgusting characters his forte.. enter jerusalem, where a couple of templars are being hung by tiberius, the commandant general (jeremy irons, in one of his sleep through roles) for baldwin the leper, who is played really really well by ed norton, i mean it is just the voice and i personally found the characters of baldwin and saladin as the two emperors against each other as the most interesting.. In jerusalem, amongst others balian encounters sybilla, sister of the king and the wife of guy de lusignan (a rather sultry looking eva green).. from all historical accounts, the character of guy is not as black as portrayed in the movie, the character of reynard most accounts agree is black.. anyways, the story as it pans out is reynard, guy and co provoke saladin, who attacks the fort of tertiak, which is defened by balian – the two armies meet all glittering crosses and whatever else.. baldwin and saladin (brilliantly played by Ghassan Massoud, the Algerian director) agree to not fight – the two are shown to be eminently sane leaders, whose major worry is to ensure that bloodshed is avoided at all costs – both of them are shown to hassled by the zealots – saladin has a qazi constantly reminding him that he had promised jerusalem and that the faithful are getting impatient, baldwin has the blood thirsty reynard and guy.. it is in this bit that the movie actually is good.. the talks between baldwin and saladin shows the sagacity of the two leaders, which is little appreciated by their underlings.. sybilla flips for skirted balian and much breathing exercises (as one of my friends terms it) ensues.. post the stand off at tertiak, reynard is sentenced to death and imprisoned.. some palace intrigue ensues with the king and tiberius trying to marry balian off to sybilla – balian being the nice feller refuses..then the king croaks and guy becomes the king and promptly becomes the middle ages equivalent of george bush II – raises an army and promptly runs off after the enemy – only to find the enemy 4-5 hot marching days away – by the end of the march, the army is routed and guy taken prisoner.. then saladin and army march away on to jerusalem – where obviously our skirted hero awaits him with some 2.5 knights and lots of townsmen.. some very good and spectacularly managed animated sequences ensue – including one which involves a lot of fireballs being thrown at the forted jerusalem – of course, that all the fireballs manage to miss everyone important follows the hollywood rule (refer roger ebert’s review for further details).. The battle sequences are quite spectacular – saladin is shown as an astute general marshalling his forces well, similarly balian is depicted as a good general (given his blacksmith background) managing the defences of jerusalem well.. the final battle is one in which the defenders defend a breach in the wall.. the speech that balian gives before that exemplifies the thought process behind the movie – he says “they have come to fight for an offence which we did not give and to receive which they werent there” or something to that effect.. basically saying that the whole fight was because a bunch of nutcases on both sides were bent on having it for personal glory or whatever.. saladin agrees with it.. The final touch is when balian asks saladin what jerusalem means to him – he says “nothing” walks off, then turns around, smiles and says “everything”