Kingdom of Heaven Sought to Be an Epic Film, But Became a Disaster in Production

Kingdom of Heaven - 1 Star (Terrible)

Unfortunately for the "Kingdom of Heaven," what began as an ambitious epic movie about a little known time in history was almost a disaster on his release and was only average at best. There is enough blame to spread around.

Firstly, there is a reason why the immortal "Gone with the Wind", which involved a turbulent love affair in the American South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, took nearly 4 hours to see. You clearly can not do a quality classic films on the civil war in less time. Ken Burns' acclaimed documentary "The Civil War" was composed of 9 episodes and took 11 hours to see.

Secondly, there may be a market for a film in the Middle Ages around the Christian Crusades, a series of military expeditions by Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th, 12th and 13 century. This market, unfortunately, is very small compared to an epic about the Civil War, World War I or World War II we.

Thirdly, when 3-time Best Director Academy Award nominees Ridley Scott ( "Black Hawk Down," "Gladiator" and "Thelma and Louise") presented the film to the studio in 194 minutes (3 hours and 14 minutes), in the studio Exec demanded that it be cut to two hours, to think that moviegoers would not sit through a 3-hour movie.

It proved to be a critical error in the sentence. It was almost impossible for Scott to tell Kingdom of Heaven story in 2 hours, and when the movie got really mixed reviews, and proved a financial disappointment in the U.S. that the error was clearly noticeable.

Fourth, not only was this film to be an epic story, its production costs were enormous. Most of the footage was in Morocco, and Mohammad VI, King of Morocco, on condition of his 1500 military personnel and equipment to assist in the filming.

Moreover, there were apparently 15,000 handmade costumes for the film, which also required helmets, boots, gloves, chain mail, belts and scabbards. The flag of the film's budget was $ 250,000. There were 7,500 weapons, 3,000 shields and 20,000 arrows used in the movie. In one scene alone, there were 143 extras, 60 military personnel, 125 horses and 60 camels.

A solid copy of Jerusalem was built in the Sahara Desert, which contains 28,000 square meters of wall, which required 6,000 tons of plaster. The front set was 1200 meters long and the walls were 56 feet tall. Good Lord.

Fifth, writer William Monahan first draft of the screenplay was 186 pages. Executive producer Lisa Ellery thought Fox would never approve the script because of its length, so she cut it to only 20 pages before you send it.

Sixth, it was Orlando Bloom is not ready to play the leading role of Balian of Iselin, and his results do not reflect the kind of command and presence needed to pull it out.

Seventh, we had big problems as the movie makes the story as its presentation requires much more care in a context, or from one tells us to understand what happened, when and why it was important.

Eighth, the sound of the movie was awful. There were times when it was impossible to understand the dialogue and without this essential element, there is no way that the film would be rated good by our standards. The sound is also a fundamental need to succeed and when it goes unnoticed because it is well made, it is not a problem.

Ninth, this whole project was sad from beginning to end. What could have been a good film could not overcome the obstacles along the route. Two bright spots in the film were performances by Liam Nelson as Godfrey of Iselin and Glasson Massed as Saladin, the great Muslim leader.

In its quest to be noble, Liam Nelson was able to deliver this dialogue as Godfrey of Iselin: "Be without fear to our enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath. "(spoken with his son, Balkan, when they make him a knight.)

History records, Saladin and his Muslim troops did retake Jerusalem, after defeating the King of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hatton near the Sea of Galilee. When Saladin's troops into the city of Jerusalem, they were not allowed to kill civilians, rob people or damage to the city.

In many ways, Muslims come out looking better than the Christians in the kingdom of heaven, and historically, they were.