Went to watch Kingdom of Heaven yesterday with Ivan, and it was really good. Also, it's the first Ridley Scott film in which Hans Zimmer isn't the man behind the score, so I really wanted to see what the music would be like. Wasn't disappointed, though; there's a lovely main theme which I just can't get out of my head, which has a strong backing of drums and is sometimes overlaid with some strange wind or string instrument which I can't identify, or a children's choir.

Music's by Harry Gregson-Williams though, which some video game fanatics may or may not recognise as the man who wrote the score for "Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty" and "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater". Ivan said that some parts of the score sounded a lot like Metal Gear 2 to him; I concur on that. :P

Despite how great the film is, Ivan and I both realised after we watched it that there isn't a lot of publicity for it in Singapore, so to make up for that, I'll tell you now:

GO WATCH

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!!!

I think that should be loud enough. :P

It's the same old "pre-modern history" kind of movie, set in the late 1100s between the second and third Crusades, if I'm not wrong, in a period when everyone (well, everyone with a religion, that is) seemed always anxious to earn merit in the eyes of their god; which really just makes you wonder anew if it just might have been that they thought that you could buy your way into Heaven. Was an interesting focus for me, looking almost solely at the city of Jerusalem, since before, when I was younger, all the stories that I used to read about knights and all that, "King Arthur" and "Ivanhoe" and all that sort of stuff; they never mentioned small cities on their own, only the whole of England. Although to be fair, King Arthur, in his story, wasn't really crusading; he just went off to look for the Holy Grail while his dream city was being built and only came back about... oh, I forget how many bloody years later. :P And for those of you who don't know (shame on thy heathen soul), that ideal city that Arthur wanted to built was Camelot; Arthur envisioned a city where every man would be equal before God, where justice would prevail and peace would reign always-- Camelot was supposed to be the embodiment of everything good in the world, so to speak.

Camelot was also the place where the Round Table was to be housed. The Round Table was the name of an order of King Arthur's knights; the best in the realm. The Table was also a round one because at a round table, there is no head, and so in accordance with the values of Camelot, every man is equal, even Arthur himself, to all the other men seated with him at that table. There were fifty seats at the table, and it was said by Merlin, who presented the Round Table to Arthur, that when the seat directly opposite Arthur's at the table- the Seat Perilous- was filled, then the table would be full, and when that happened, the order would fall.

I did realise however, years after I read that book, that if Camelot had truly fulfilled its purpose, then knighthood itself would have become needless and worthless. Counterproductive, in a way, hm?

Just like how I thought bombarding the city was quite pointless; while in the cinema, when they were two seconds into bombing Jerusalem, it suddenly struck me: What do you want a city for if it's going to be gone by the time you take it?

But getting back to the topic at hand, "Kingdom of Heaven" was a good show, albeit that during the first hour or so it starts to seem like it should be renamed "Ridley Scott's 'A Series of Extremely Fortunate Events'", given how quickly protagonist, Balian, moves up the social ladder. From a blacksmith with no kin left in the world, he suddenly gains a father (and there were plenty of snickers in the theatre when Godfrey said "Balian.. I'm your father." He said it in a very clipped, matter-of-fact tone, but that didn't really help matters either; especially since a "Star Wars Episode Three" trailer had been shown just before the film).

And his father happens to be a knight and the Baron of Ibelin. Immediately racks up his social standing quite considerably, of course. Oh, but then he gets made his father's squire; and this is a spoiler coz poor old dad doesn't last very long in the film (pity really; I love Liam Neeson's acting) and so Balian gets made a knight and the next Baron of Ibelin in a big hurry because he's all the kin that Godfrey has left in the world.

So he goes to Ibelin, gains the favour of his new people by helping them find water and irrigating their land; then he gains the favour of the royal household (just the King of Jerusalem and his sister, really) because the King thought highly of his father and not surprisingly after meeting Balian, thinks well of him too. And his sister, Sibylla (the King's sister, not Balian's), also takes an instant liking to this guy and is really friendly with him because she finds him an upright man and really, she just hates her husband and wants to roll with someone else whom she actually likes in the hay but you're not supposed to know that.

Also, Ivan pointed out that it's strange how a blacksmith turns out to be a master strategist in orchestrating the defense of Jerusalem, but then again, I suppose we're to believe that by the time Balian was defender of Jerusalem, some years had already passed. Which would have been in keeping with the history; the film starts in 1184, but Jerusalem fell in 1187.

So wow, it looks like everyone just loves this guy; don't everyone rush to adore him all at once now, you just might actually prove that he's capable of being smothered. But of course, there're the bad guys in power in films like these, and here they come in the guise of Reynald de Chatillon (pronounced: Rei-nald de Sha-ti-YON) and Guy de Lusignan (pronounced: gh-EE de Loo-si-NYON). I forget exactly who the former was meant to be, but Guy de Lusignan was Sybilla's husband.

I'll leave the rest to you to find out for yourself, since going on any further would spoil stuff in the story, but while it was a good film, most of the characters which feature in the film are historical characters which are heavily fictionalised.

Balian of Ibelin, while in actual fact, was the defender of Jerusalem and the man who surrendered it, was definitely not a blacksmith. Apparently, the Ibelin family were notoriously ambitious, and Balian actually married King Baldwin IV's (the leper King) stepmother; upon accomplishing this, the Ibelin family also proceeded to attempt to marry King Baldwin's sister, Sibylla, and his step-sister, Isabella, into the family as well. Said attempts didn't succeed, for reasons too long and complicated to list and explain here, though.

Oh, and King Baldwin IV? Now I realise why I loved the King's voice so much in the film, even though we never see his face; and even when we do, it is a terribly scarred one at that. King Baldwin IV was played by Edward Norton. Who really does have a lovely voice. And is a "beautiful boy" indeed. :)

And the strange thing in this movie is that for the first one hour or so, there's no actual dialogue. Just a lot of sage advice which everyone seems to be really keen at heaping upon Balian and awkward silences and rhetorical questions. This may be true only for Singapore though, since when I watched the initial trailer released on the net, I took note of a lot of scenes which I didn't see in the film yesterday, so there may have been a lot of scenes cut in Singapore. Damn.

But, in line with all the sage advice and quoteworthy quotes that I heard in the film, here're a few of them which I particularly loved:


"Holiness is in right action. And courage, on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves."

-Hospitaller


On burning the bodies of the fallen knights to prevent disease from spreading in the city, against the Bishop's protest that if a body is burnt, its soul cannot be given rest until Judgment Day:

"God will understand. If he does not, then he is not God. And we need not worry."

-Balian


“A man may move himself. A King may move a man. A father may claim a son. And then the man begins his own game. When you answer to God you cannot say ‘I was told it was thus’, or that virtue ‘was not the fashion of my times’. Remember."

-King Baldwin IV


And my favourite, the Knight's Oath, which, really is a very basic one, because there're a LOT of Knightly Virtues which a knight is supposed to possess. Compare the list that I'm about to present you with, with the quote from the movie later below.

Being Beautiful in Spirit, Charity, Good Cheer, Chivalry, Courage, Courtesy, Determination, Selflessness, Endurance, Faithfulness, Forgiveness, Friendliness, Happiness, Helpfulness, Honour, Hopefulness, Humility, Justice, Kindness, Loyalty, Mercy, Morality, Nobility, Obediency, Patience, Perseverance, Prudence, Sincerity, Sympathy, Tenderness, Truthfulness, and Wisdom.

"Be Without Fear In The Face Of Your 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."

Even if it's really simplified, it still carries the same values; and it's a beautiful oath, anyway. :)