Kingdom of Heaven
May. 7th, 2005 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariOther Kenjari and I went to see Kingdom of Heaven last night. I quite enjoyed it. I think it does a good job of portraying the results of the first Crusade in a complex and multi-faceted way, when it would have been very easy to be simplistic about it.
I'd read a good novel (Jerusalem, by Cecilia Holland) last fall, so many of the people and events were fairly fresh in my head. So I spent the first half hour or so refreshing my memory on who all the characters were, what they did, and what happened to them. Every major character in the movie, with the exception of Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), is a real person, or at least a composite of several real people. And the events in the movie are pretty much what happened (at least as far as I know, given that I'm not an expert). Sure, there were some historical inaccuracies, especially in terms of simplifying and condensing events - but there always are in historical-epic movies.
I love Ridley Scott as a director, and he did not disappoint here. He always does such beautiful things with light, and the contrasts between the harsh sunlight of the middle eastern outdoors and the shadowy, indirectly lit ancient interiors gave him great material to work with. I'm also impressed with his handling of battle scenes - he makes them chaotic and exciting, but yet occasionally pauses to show us a detail or linger on a striking image. I kind of regret that the film didn't show us the actual Battle of Hattin - I've read about it several times and I would have loved to see it.
I liked the music, too. The composer, Harry Gregson-Williams, did a good job of suggesting medieval music in his score, both with the musical material and the instrumentation. There were a couple of actual medieval pieces in there, too.
I'd read a good novel (Jerusalem, by Cecilia Holland) last fall, so many of the people and events were fairly fresh in my head. So I spent the first half hour or so refreshing my memory on who all the characters were, what they did, and what happened to them. Every major character in the movie, with the exception of Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), is a real person, or at least a composite of several real people. And the events in the movie are pretty much what happened (at least as far as I know, given that I'm not an expert). Sure, there were some historical inaccuracies, especially in terms of simplifying and condensing events - but there always are in historical-epic movies.
I love Ridley Scott as a director, and he did not disappoint here. He always does such beautiful things with light, and the contrasts between the harsh sunlight of the middle eastern outdoors and the shadowy, indirectly lit ancient interiors gave him great material to work with. I'm also impressed with his handling of battle scenes - he makes them chaotic and exciting, but yet occasionally pauses to show us a detail or linger on a striking image. I kind of regret that the film didn't show us the actual Battle of Hattin - I've read about it several times and I would have loved to see it.
I liked the music, too. The composer, Harry Gregson-Williams, did a good job of suggesting medieval music in his score, both with the musical material and the instrumentation. There were a couple of actual medieval pieces in there, too.
