Kingdom of Heaven - 4 Disc Director's Cut [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC) [DVD] [US Import]

Thought this film was excellent.

100% historical film fantastic all way through worth watching.

Kingdom of Heaven has taken a fair bit of criticism from many historians who are upset at its lack of historical accuracy. While they are correct in pointing out that it does take a fair bit of licence with historical fact, they miss out on the point that director Ridley Scott is not an historian. He is a movie maker charged with the responsibility of making an entertaining and profitable film. This he does on both counts. The film may not have been as successful in America as the studio would have liked but it has done well in Europe and combined with DVD sales it will turn over a nice little profit in the end. As far as beind a straight forward film is concerned, Kingdom of Heaven is pretty damn good. It loses one star for two reasons.1. Orlando Bloom, while not bad, doesn't seem strong enough to play the defender of Jerusalem.2. It's at least 30 minutes too short.Bloom is a good young actor. He is handsome and appears to have a bit more depth to him than many leading men at the moment do. However, the role of Balian calls for someone who you believe battle hardened Knights would be prepared to follow during a siege on their city. Surrounded by men like Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Liam Neeson, young Orlando doesn't give you the impression of being the kind of brave, strong, tough, cruel and generous leader that would have been necessary to motivate his men. Bloom may eventually grow into that kind of actor, but he isn't there just yet and it detracts from the film.Also, there is too much left unexplained in the movie. Like where does Balian, who starts out as a humble blacksmith, gain such a mastery of weaponry and tactics to be able to fight to a standstill an experienced general like Saladin, and how does he manage to hold onto his Father's estates. It is obvious that his Father is a man of some wealth and influence, surely somebody would have been looking to take these for themselves rather than allow them to pass into the hands of an illegitiamte son who knew his Father only a matter of weeks before his death. Young Balian is excepted far too easily and too much is left unexpalined during the course of the film. However, these critiscims aside, Kingdom of Heaven is a pretty good movie. It is engrossing, zips along at a good pace, has some excellent acting performances most notably from Irons, Gleeson (is this man able to turn in a bad performance. He is consistently excellent no matter what he is in), Neeson and most impressively of all from Edward Norton who plays the King of Jerusalem afflicted by leperosy. In his eerie and almost etheral performance, you get an idea of what a real medieval king would have been like. It is an understated yet tremendously effective show. Also some of the lesser supporting actors put in good performances most notably that of Saladin and also of the Templar Knight who succeeds to the throne on the leper King's death. KOH, also has more of an epic feel to it than Gladiator which was really about one man's quest for revenge, but it lacks that films emotional drive, mainly due to the lead performance. True, it isn't historical fact, but it is based on real events and characters and it is a lot closer to fact than Braveheart. The fall of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade lasted over seven years, and was an intricate mish mash of truces, plots and alliances. Scott isn't going to be able to cover it in a two and a half hour film, and keep people entertained at the same time.

Good film with lots of action

"There can be no victory except through God"Kingdom of Heaven is directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Marton Csokas, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Alexander Siddig, David Thewlis, Ghassan Massoud and Edward Norton. Cinematography is by John Mathieson and music scored by Harry Gregson-Williams.Director's Cut, two words that has these days come to mean a marketing ploy to get the home movie fan to part with more cash. Except maybe when they call it something else, such as Unrated Edition or Extended Edition, the Director's Cut has rarely been more than the original theatrical version with some added bits sewed back in. Case in point Ridley Scott's own Gladiator. But Scott is a big advocate of the home formats available to us, and what he says in his introduction on these releases are always telling. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut is one of the rare cases that deserves the label, it is the cut Scott wanted and with 45 minutes extra in the film, it's now a fully formed epic and without doubt a better film than the one the theatrical cut suggested.Nutshell plotting finds the story set during the Crusades of the 12th century. Balian (Bloom) is a French village blacksmith who after finally meeting his father Godfrey (Neeson), sets him on a course to aid the city of Jerusalem in its defence against the Muslim leader Saladin (Massoud). Saladin is battling to reclaim the city from the Christians. It's a fictionalised account of Balian de Ibelin the man, but with the Crusades featuring so rarely in movies it's good to see one with attention to detail in relation to the events and time period.Now this version exists there is no reason to visit the theatrical cut, for although this has one or two missteps in the narrative, big holes have been plugged and characters importantly expanded. Benefiting the most are Eva Green as Sibylla, and Bloom himself as Balian. The former now gets substance on why she transforms from a measured princess to a borderline head-case, and the latter gets a back story which helps us understand why he does what he does. Both actors performances are seen in better light as their characters become more defined. Neeson and Norton, too, also get more screen time, and that can never be a bad thing.In this day and age the topicality of the film as regards Muslims and Christians is obviously hard to ignore, but Scott and Monahan are not in the market for political posturing. Scott had long wanted to do a film about The Crusades, to make it an historical epic adventure reflecting the period, and he has achieved that without head banging messages. In fact the culmination of the films major battle comes by way of tolerance, compassion and mutual respect, not by over the top histrionics or side picking. It's a crucial point to note that the makers have not demonized the Arab leaders, both Saladin and Nasir (Siddig) are portrayed as intelligent and cultured men of standing. Their drive and determination coming off as respectful as Balian's defence of Jerusalem is. They also provide the film with two of its best acting performances. Impressive considering the film is full of very good acting turns.It will come as no surprise to fans of Scott's work to find that Kingdom of Heaven is tremendous on production value. Filled out with astonishing visuals and no overuse of CGI, it's arguably Scott's best production: it's certainly his most ambitious. Filmed in Spain and Morocco, the makers easily whisk us back centuries to the France and Jerusalem of the time, the ability to plant us firmly in the time frame is not to be understated. Mathieson (Gladiator) is a big part of that, his colour lensing for France (metallic cold blues) and Jerusalem (dusky yellow and brown hues) is a visual treat and integral to the feel of the story. While Gregson-Williams' score rarely gets a mention, but it's very at one with Scott's vision, a delightful mix of ethnic strains, mystical flair and medieval emphasis. Scott also ups the ante for visceral battles, the horrors of war never more vivid as they are here. Supremely constructed, the siege of Jersualem is one of the finest in cinema, the first sight of fireballs igniting the night sky bringing the hairs on the back of the neck standing to attention. It's just one of many great moments that form part of Scott's breath taking epic.Badly treated on cinema release by the studio, who even marketed that cut badly, Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut is these days worthy of a revisit and deeper inspection. For rich rewards await the genre faithful. 9.5/10

A quality movie based on the 'Crusades'.

good film worth watching

Not a masterpiece but very watchable and quite a long film. Was looking forward to seeing Michael Sheen but sadly his performance was cut quite short (one of the best actors) and Orlando Bloom remained throughout the film (not one of the best actors but this is probably his best performance). The film had a great initial cast ... I mean, any film with Liam Neeson is going to be excellent.

This is an epic movie. It has a engrossing story, insightful casting, great characters, superb cinematography, believable dialogue. It’s action, adventure, romance and history. Truly one of my favourites.

DVD neuf sous cellophane.

Dieser Film wird Maßstab sein für viele Jahrzehnte …..Er ist zur Zeit der wichtigste Film der Welt mit der wichtigsten Botschaft der Welt :Wenn die Menschen weiter existieren wollen, müssen sie verhandeln und sich gegenseitig respektieren.Wir können nur mit Toleranz und Liebe überleben…Habe ihn vor vielen Jahren meinem Sohn gegeben und jetzt noch mal gekauft….!!Ridley Scott sendet uns eine Botschaft und keiner kann es besser.Wenn man die Schlachtszenen weglässt ,könnte man diesen wertvollen Film sogar im Ethik-Unterricht abspielen.Er enthält alle wichtigen Botschaften, die wir gerade auch jetzt wieder ganz dringend benötigen.Unsere Eliten bringen uns zur Zeit an einen Weltuntergang mit der Begründung ,das Böse zu bekämpfen.Dieser Film bringt die Lösung und weist uns eindeutig darauf hin ,dass Alles in der Hand der Menschen und ihrer Taten liegt …………………….!!Der beste historische Film ,den ich kenne. Habe ihn schon mehrmals angeschaut und war immer wieder begeistert. Meisterhafte Verarbeitung des schwierigsten Themas seit 2000 Jahren.Die Suche nach Wahrheit,Gerechtigkeit und Gott……Wer ist der richtige Gott ?Obwohl das Schwert manchmal im Vordergrund steht ,wird schnell klar dass ,es nur ein Werkzeug ist, um die Schwachen zu beschützen….Die Darsteller und Produzenten haben bis in das Detail ihr Bestes gegeben ..!!!Ich muss hervorheben ,dass es so super gelungen ist, die Dialoge auf eine Kern-Aussage zu reduzieren ,dass man niemals gelangweilt ist . Also der Filmschnitt ist das Beste ,was ich kenne.Je öfter man den Film schaut ,versteht man die eigentliche Botschaft ….Toleranz kann Brücken und Frieden für alle Menschen schaffen .Gott will Liebe bringen ,aber die Menschen haben eine paradoxe Beschaffenheit.„Der Wahn von Fanatikern jeder Konfession haben im Namen Gottes viele Menschen getötet ..!! „Die extreme Unterschiedlichkeit der Überzeugungen,der Objekte religiöser Verehrung und Ansichten und das Streben nach Macht des Menschen bringt den Krieg und den Tod über die armen Menschen .. Die Reichen und Mächtigen sterben nicht im Krieg...Es gibt aber auch sehr schöne emotionale Momente ,als er auf seinem Vaters Wüsten-Grund , wo Moslems,Juden und Christen zusammen leben, Brunnen in der Wüste baut ..Die Kinder lachen wieder begeistert ganz laut und lassen Schiffchen fahren..Ich glaube dass der Schmied für viele hier schon ein wenig heilig wurde ….„Heiligkeit liegt in der gerechten Handlung und darin die zu verteidigen,die sich nicht selbst verteidigen können…Güte ist im Kopf und im Herzen….Das ,was ihr entscheidet zu tun jeden Tag, macht euch zu einem guten Menschen oder auch nicht…“…...Der Schmied wächst nun mit seinen Aufgaben und seiner Verantwortung…..Obwohl das Schwert eine wichtige Rolle spielt, gibt es die wichtigste Botschaft an uns überhaupt:Der Willen,die Diplomatie ,die Weisheit der Eliten und die Liebe des Menschen zum Menschen ist stärker und größer als die Unterschiede. Lieber Gott ,sende die Botschaft an die politischen Eliten dieser Welt und verwandle unsere Leit- Medien in die Überbringer der Wahrheit.!!!!!!!Obwohl es um die Schlacht um Jerusalem geht ,gibt es emotionale Momente und Liebe..Es kommt immer wieder die Botschaft : Ein französischer Schmied wird zum Ritter und Retter von vielen Menschen,weil er immer stärker wurde durch seinen Glauben und seine Liebe und seinen Verstand.Sehr empfehlenswerter Film.Lessing hat das schwierige Thema in seinem Werk „Nathan der Weise „ verarbeitet und alle Menschen der Welt sollten es lesen. !!!Damals waren wir noch das Land der Dichter und Denker…! Heute verzweifle ich am geistigen Zustand unseres Landes….Die Kritiken muss ich leider kommentieren :…Ein Kinofilm als Abenteuerfilm ist keine Doku und man hat nur begrenzte Zeit für einen Spielfilm ,den eine große Mehrheit der Zuschauer verstehen soll .Orlando Blum muss auch nicht lachen…Er macht es genau richtig in der Rolle de des verantwortungsvollen Retters ..!!Oder lacht uns Jesus an …….??????Wichtig war seine Aufopferung für die Schutzlosen und Schwachen……..Es waren schwere Zeiten , im Jahre 1184 sind viele Menschen höchsten 40 Jahre alt geworden….(Pilatus fragte Jesus : Was ist Wahrheit ??…..)„Setzt nie etwas anderes ein als diese Liebe, ihr könnt euch die ganze Welt untertan machen..Von Liebe erfüllte Menschlichkeit ist eine schreckliche Kraft, der keine andere gleichkommt.“(Dostojewskij,Russland, Die Brüder Karamasow 1880 )….

100 % OK Goede verzending en besteld item beantwoorde volledig aan de beschrijvingvan de verkoper ( uiterst tevreden ):-):-):-)

The Kingdom of Heaven – Director’s Cut (KOHDC) is not one, but it is many magnitudes of cuts higher than its Theatrical version. The theater-released version is 2 hours long because it had to be recut in order to fit into the standard cinema complex time mold. Good films often can’t be whittled down to conform to movie theater time shifts of every 2 hours. The Kingdom of Heaven – Director’s Cut is one of these films.With nondescript box office ratings, Ridley Scott went into rescue/ triage mode to resurrect a movie that no one had ever heard of and changed it into one of the best current films about the Knights Templar and other Knights factions escorting wealthy Christians from Europe to the Holy land – Jerusalem. He did this by adding back 51 critical minutes that were initially pruned from the box-office edition. This crucial information transformed the film because it filled back in important character and storyline details that had been felled, so that viewers could make sense of this entire story/ film.I know this first-hand, because before I bought this KOHDC version, I had originally bought the 2-disc DVD (and played it on our BluRay player, which made every part of the DVD film crystal-clear). While watching this version, I had questions about the storyline. Then, when I bought and watched the Director’s Cut, the movie made sense AND because of the BluRay HD, every scene was deep, super-defined, and it was as if I were in the scenes as an observer (which is what the BluRay experience does to viewers). One good thing about the DVD KOH set, though, is the inclusion of extra film and film-related information, which is missing from the 1-disc BluRay. So for film enthusiasts who want to have every bit of film product possible to experience, I would suggest buying both systems and watching them like I did – from simple, truncated film DVD (144 minutes) along with the 2nd disc extras, to the expanded but clarified KOHDC in BluRay (195 minutes), with the original, almost-1 hour added back.KOHDC has a stellar international cast, including: Liam Neeson, Orlando Bloom, (pre-‘Bond Girl’) Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, and Edward Norton, whose name wasn’t listed in the credits but who gave an outstanding performance while masked! Another stellar cast-mate is Syrian writer, actor, director, and filmmaker, Ghassan Massoud, well-known and respected in the Arab World, playing the legendary Salahuddin in this film. (He was also in the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.) Western audiences need to see more work from this man.The storyline loosely follows history, starting when a blacksmith in France who lost his wife kills his half-brother, meets his real father (a Knight Templar), and journeys with him to Jerusalem to escape being tried for fratricide. The journey itself is arduous, and on the wide screen, it is epic, both on land and the sea. The raison d’tre of the Templars is to provide a safe Christian escort for wealthy European Christians traversing a hostile route. Upon arrival but outside of the city, which is rural, there is peace, calm, and tranquility for wealthy Knights who have homesteads there, with sprawling desert irrigation systems. This contrasts to the dangerous and barbarous activities occurring inside of Jerusalem in the battles between 2 different religions and between 2 different sects of 1 religion. The battle scenes are gruesome as is the dealing with the spoils of war on all sides.This religious fighting takes on a sense of cognitive dissonance: How can any religion have its members kill in the name of God? On the other hand, how can any religion not kill in the name of politics and wealth accumulation to gain land and new members to join its ranks? Why would a person go through any monotheistic religious conversion to engage in these? How could there be any jockeying of power between any 2 religious sects of the same religion? These are serious questions for viewers of this film to think about and discuss. These questions are still unanswered when we turn on our news even today and see what is happening between the East and the West.The cinematography is epic: the journey to Jerusalem on land and at sea, the battlefields, and the castle defense scenes.If the viewer has at least some knowledge of religious history and the birth pangs of each of the 2 religions, geography, cultures, etc., this film might be viewed as an action film. However, for those of us who have lived and traveled in these places, this film makes our real-life, current-day experiences especially strong and personally-relevant, even many centuries later because our everyday lives there still live and breathe this history. Our experience, instead of viewing this film as an action film, then, is displaced by living our own lives there, woven into the fabric of these countries with strong histories of survival, echoes of which still ring true for us through: religious, social, political, and intercultural viewpoints. In sum, some of us have lived through scenes today similar to what is shown on TV or internet newscasts during their international news segments.The sets, cinematography, and storyline are all noteworthy, and the fact that this film (loosely) follows history, much of which is still happening today, is remarkable in that the issues besetting the people living during the Crusades are some of the same unresolved problems that we still have today. The question is: ‘why’.I highly recommend seeing both sets of this KOH film (the 2-disc DVD and the KOHDC 1-disc in BluRay). I also highly recommend sharing these films with family and friends and discussing them to engage in dialog that prompts critical thinking and problem-solving. Our world desperately needs this right now.