Kingdom of Heaven

The film is about a black smith named Balian (Orlando Bloom) who has just lost his wife...

"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, safe guard the helpless and do no wrong" is the oath Orlando Bloom's character Balian takes when he becomes a knight in the film the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a film that conveys the message that even when we find ourselves in a position to have to leave our faith in order to survive we must hold our ground and trust God will protect us. Yet with these overtones in the film it still fails to say anything of the Gospel. The feeling is given that even we may enter heaven on good deeds alone.

The film is about a black smith named Balian (Orlando Bloom) who has just lost his wife after she committed suicide when their child died in birth. He believes that God has abandoned him and has left him to live a miserable life. All begins to change when the Lord Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) who turns out to be Balian's long lost father, asks him to join him in Jerusalem to find forgiveness for his sins. Together the two of them begin their quest toward Jerusalem whereupon they are ambushed and his father is fatally wounded. With his life on the line, Balian's father gives him the title of Lord, entitling Balian to all of his riches and command of his armies in the Holy Land.

When Balian arrives in the Holy city he comes to find that there is a power struggle between the leprosy stricken king (Edward Norton) who believes that Jerusalem should be a city where all are welcome to come and worship and the fanatical templar knights led by Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas), who believe that it should only be Christians that walk the earth and all others must die by the sword.

Balian is put in the middle of what brings down upon the city of Jerusalem an army of 200,000 Muslims led by the sultan Saladin (Syrian film director Ghassan Massoud). In the end it falls to Balian to protect the Holy City and the people with in from the invaders.

There are many symbols of God being over them all and that it is only God that will decide the outcome of every situation yet, there is still the things that seem to contradict being a good Christian. There is a strong belief in the film that the sword doing rightful acts will wash sins away rather then just asking for forgiveness. The director Ridley Scott who directed the Gladiator created a film where he seemed more worried about being politically correct then truly conveying a message. The film deserves a 3 out of 5 stars. It is a visual masterpiece but the message is not a Christian one.


Reviewed by Anthony La Fleur
BREATHE contributor