Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
Any cinephile worth their salt is going to have a soft spot for epic pictures. The grandest tales told on the biggest screens with the hugest visuals conceivable to mankind, and the runtimes to match. This month’s “Epics Revisited” programming highlights the Cinapse team’s curated list of some of our top films that were significantly altered (and improved) by their Director’s Cuts. Often these are titles that are drastically different than what was initially released theatrically.
The Pick: Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut (2005/2006)
To close this topic out, we go to one of the prime examples of “better in the director’s version” from a filmmaker who’s no stranger to historical epics. Only five years after the Best Picture-winning Gladiator (and, notably, less than four years after 9/11), Ridley Scott delivered a sweeping saga of both cynicism and romance that has a lot to say about waging war in the Middle East. Forced by 20th Century Fox to cut his original version of 194 minutes, Scott had to chop out major character details, entire subplots, and even major players in the story in order to bring it under 2 1/2 hours. Imagine if Fellowship of the Ring were an hour shorter and didn’t include Boromir, and you have an idea of the handicap at play. However, after screening to near-universal acclaim in late 2005, Scott’s Director’s Cut received lavish a 4-disc release in May of 2006, and immediately joined Blade Runner on the shelf of “Ridley can deliver a masterpiece if you don’t screw with him.” Now, it’s more or less accepted as the only version of the film worth considering, and our crack team will spell out why.
The Team
I was deeply moved by the Kingdom of Heaven Director’s Cut. I didn’t bother to revisit the theatrical cut, but recall it having no real impact on me. I can see why a studio would want to chop this down into an action film, and why it really didn’t work in that format. Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven really isn’t a clear cut tale of right versus wrong or good versus evil, or even redemption versus damnation. It’s a nuanced character exploration that requires its epic scope to truly help us see into the hearts and minds of the men and women at its center. Broadly, it is a tale of the Crusades in which the Christian soldiers are the main characters. One could be forgiven for thinking this endeavor unwise. However, Oscar-winning writer William Monahan was up to the task of portraying men and women, Christian and Muslim, healthy and leprous, with humanity and complexity that yields epic emotional payoffs in the midst of massive Crusade warfare–which was never going to be black-and-white enough for mainstream audiences.
Orlando Bloom’s Balian of Ibelin is a complex lead, a murderer who nevertheless does the hard work of redemption and eventually “saves” Jerusalem through compromise. A mutual respect arises between Balian, who is leading the Crusaders in defense of Jerusalem (in a massive and stunning set piece), and his “enemy,” the revered Muslim general Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Generally, a leader laying down arms and allowing the invading army to grant them safe passage home isn’t the stuff of rallying cries and patriotism. But here in Kingdom of Heaven’s Director’s Cut, we’re given space to see the measure of Men, to understand that character and actions matter, and the victory of lives saved and sacred cities left intact becomes clear.
Not only that, Balian and Saladin’s appreciation for the humanity of the other, and the character they’re willing to display against baser desires for bloodlust, has much to say to modern audiences. To be clear, this isn’t a diatribe on the virtues of compromise (nor is the film), but rather Monahan seems to be extolling the virtues of character, and a willingness to make hard choices that aren’t immediately expedient. Balian’s long and painful journey grants him many opportunities to sacrifice, to lead, to learn, and to trust. It resonates deeply today in a landscape starving for these virtues.
I happen to be in the very fortunate position of having only ever seen the extended director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven. I’d seen bits and pieces of the theatrical on cable and knew its reputation as a lackluster, severely compromised effort in the midst of a pretty historic run for Sir Ridley. When I finally did sit down and watch the director’s cut, it immediately skyrocketed to the top of my personal rankings of Scott’s films.
I’ll be honest: Ridley has typically been a director I admire more than I especially love. Alien is a masterpiece like no other, but other highly regarded entries in his career (your Blade Runners, your Gladiators) don’t really do anything for me. There’s a lot I appreciate about those movies, but they never connect on any real emotional/visceral level.
Kingdom of Heaven, though, Kingdom of Heaven is rich and messy and human in all the ways that Scott can typically be cold and cordoned off. In depicting the siege of Jerusalem, Scott finds empathy for each side of the conflict and for the participants at every level. From kings wrestling with the fates of nations to lowly soldiers just trying to scrape their way to survival, Kingdom of Heaven builds a tapestry of our imperfect and quarrelsome species and mounts the argument that if God is anywhere, He/She/It/Them resides in those imperfections and in those quarrels.
Alien may still clinch that top spot (because, well, it’s Alien), but Kingdom of Heaven is epic cinema at a scale and skill level beyond easy comparison.
“What man is a man who does not make the world better?”
Kingdom of Heaven is perhaps the Ridley Scott film whose difference between theatrical and extended versions couldn’t be more stark. While the original version was a disjointed and melodramatic mess, the director’s cut transforms it into a profound exploration of faith, religion, and power, set against the backdrop of the Crusades. Coupled with its roadshow format, restoring an Overture and Intermission, Kingdom of Heaven feels so damn momentous, a cinematic event whose epic runtime, intricate details, and thematic depth make it stand apart as Ridley Scott’s best film.
Seen through the eyes of Orlando Bloom’s artificer-out-of-water Balian, audiences leave the grim, frozen comforts of France to be plunged into the towering battles and shadowy intrigue of the Crusades. Echoing the blend of ordinary characters and extraordinary circumstances of his later Oscar-winning screenplay The Departed, William Monahan expertly balances the staggering scale of combating religions with the more intimate, personal conflicts of Balian and those who surround him. The film opens as a father reconciling with a son and evolves into that son evolving his father’s legacy, gradually expanding in scope to entwine the personal and romantic with the political, cultural, and divine. This intricate blend grounds us deeply in Scott and Monahan’s take on such a turbulent era of religious and social history, making larger social shifts frequently hit home as the only the best epic tales can do. There’s so many wonderful little character details, too, that speak to the level of Kingdom of Heaven’s historical research as well as Scott and Monahan’s dedication to fully realizing the world of their story. Whether it’s children placing toy boats in the flows of newly-constructed aqueducts, Balian reacting to seafood like first seeing aliens, or a Viking using his braids as napkins during a campfire meal, there’s so much in Kingdom of Heaven that makes it feel like an organic, vibrant world.
What makes Kingdom of Heaven Ridley Scott’s best film, though, is its nuanced depiction of religion, succinctly distinguishing between systems of belief and control. Released at the height of the Iraq war “Crusade,” Kingdom of Heaven refuses to oversimplify its characters to fit cartoonish definitions of good and evil in ways that mirrored current foreign policy. Christians and Muslims alike span wide spectrums of heroic and corrupt, with plenty of them willing to rely on their faith to justify atrocities. The scene where Templars devolve into chants of “God wills it!” is particularly chilling, as they use religion to rationalize their greed. Scott and Monahan also grant Kingdom of Heaven an ambiguously supernatural perspective in David Thewlis’ Hospitaler/Angel, who sharply critiques these hypocritical institutions while emphasizing moral integrity. Where Balian goes to spiritually significant places and feels nothing, the Hospitaler sources true holiness not in iconography or ritual, but in actively deciding to be a good person–which stands in sharp contrast to the violence around him, offering moral clarity amid chaos. It’s Scott quantifying and questioning his audience’s demands for epic violence to match an epic tale, a through-line makes the film’s ending not one of failure, but one of immense grace and true power.
It’s a bold moral stand at a time of immense political and religious division, and it’s not surprising that Kingdom of Heaven’s calls for compassion went unheard during its original butchered release. The film’s themes of faith and power are more relevant today than ever, and its technical and narrative depth cement Kingdom of Heaven as the crown jewel of Ridley Scott’s near-unparalleled body of work.
My first thoughts on seeing the theatrical cut of this film in May of 2005 were, to paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirate King from Penzance, “there are the remains of a great movie about Kingdom of Heaven.” It was immediately apparent that there was serious filmmaking muscle behind this venture, from Harry Gregson-Williams’ soaring score to the climactic siege of Jerusalem that–even in the compromised cut–stood out as a set piece for the ages. And it was the film that made me pay attention to Eva Green just before she took her place as one of the greatest strengths of the rebooted James Bond franchise in 2006’s Casino Royale. However, every time the film seemed to be about to say something interesting, it would abruptly cut itself short and rush to the next scene, often jumping through narrative at a pace so uneven or with so little satisfying build-up that the end result was muddied and frustrating.
Then I saw the “real” version of the movie, and it was crystal clear both why it was cut down but also why it never should have been. Epics like Braveheart and Gladiator are far more narratively immediate and viscerally satisfying than what Scott is attempting here. However, that complexity and the film’s refusal to give the audience an easy out is what makes it so rich in the context of its time and so enduring nearly twenty years later–at least to most. Axel and Ulric of Geeks With Shields write “The Director’s cut of the movie does a lot to clean up the weird story beats. But doesn’t really solve the core issues of bad history and the weird, not subtle, political subtext. Ridley Scott is a director capable of making great films. Just not ones with a historical setting.” And Kingdom of Heaven will absolutely throw historical accuracy to the side in favor of the narrative, and often has little time for subtlety. This is a story about the great and little evils that people do in pursuit of their desires, from power to redemption to basic human connection, and the script by The Departed‘s William Monahan balances a wide ensemble circling the throne of the titular Kingdom, and while it features several outright villains, it steadfastly doesn’t pick a side as “right.” This movie looks the audience square in the eye and says that fighting for wealth and land in the Middle East is a fool’s errand, and that all have claim to Jerusalem.
It’s also asking a lot of Orlando Bloom, who is especially ill-served by the theatrical version essentially speed-running him through a very basic “Redemptive Hero’s Journey” and resulting in him being the least interesting piece on a board populated by some of the best actors of their time. However, the Director’s Cut of the movie lets you into Balian’s journey from emotionally-ravaged blacksmith and socially awkward engineer to a leader who commands the respect of kings. The shorter version is unable to dull Green’s movie star charisma, but robs her Queen Sybilla of most of her complexity (not to mention all the scenes her son) as well as the deliberate parallel grief she comes to share with Balian. What seems perfunctory cliche in the version that hit theaters becomes a melancholy romance poignant in its depiction of broken people finding a way to scrape a bit of happiness from the uncaring jaws of war.
Kingdom of Heaven has been fortunate to outlive its theatrical failure, standing as a monument to Scott’s talent as a filmmaker who can deliver period battlefields of massive siege towers and thundering ballistas as effectively as intimate character moments where a drop of spilled wax can shatter a person’s entire world. It’s a film that calls for communication and understanding amid greed and fanaticism and the lust for revenge, and insists that its never too late to rise above what we thought we were.
That’s going to close us out for our Best Forgotten Epics. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to ensure that these gems don’t go undiscovered for long.
OCTOBER: Found Footage Horror Curated by Julian Singleton in Honor of His NOROI Commentary Track
We couldn’t be more proud that our friend and colleague Julian Singleton had the opportunity to record a commentary track on his favorite horror film Noroi: the Curse for a major upcoming home video release from Arrow Video: J-Horror Rising! In celebration of Julian’s passion we’re dedicating spooky month to exploring some of his top found footage recommendations.
October 7 – Lake Mungo (Tubi – 1 hour 28 minutes)
October 14 – Incantation (Netflix – 1 hour 51 minutes)
October 21 – Horror in the High Desert (Tubi – 1 hour 22 minutes)
October 28 – Noroi: the Curse (Available on Shudder October 15 – 1 hour 55 minutes)
And We’re Out.
