Kingdom of Heaven

2005 Directed by Ridley Scott

Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong

After his wife dies, a blacksmith named Balian is thrust into royalty, political intrigue and bloody holy wars during the Crusades.

Orlando Bloom Eva Green Jeremy Irons David Thewlis Liam Neeson Ghassan Massoud Brendan Gleeson Marton Csokas Edward Norton Michael Sheen Alexander Siddig Khaled El Nabawy Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Kevin McKidd Velibor Topic Jon Finch Ulrich Thomsen Jouko Ahola Shane Attwooll Peter Cant Nathalie Cox Emilio Doorgasingh Samira Draa Ériq Ebouaney Giannina Facio Iain Glen Philip Glenister Martin Hancock Lotfi Yahya Jedidi Show All…

Alternative Titles

Cruzada, Kingdom Of Heaven Director's Cut, Kingdom of Heaven Part 1, Kingdom of Heaven Part 2, Taevane kuningriik, Kraljevstvo nebesko, Regatul Cerului, Nebesko kraljevstvo, Nebesko kraljestvo, 킹덤 오브 헤븐, Cruzada: El Reino de los Cielos, To vasileio ton ouranon, To basileio ton ouranon, Kingdom Of Heaven Director's Cut Roadshow, The Crusades, As Cruzadas, Kingdom of Heaven - Königreich der Himmel

drama history adventure war action

144 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Travis Lytle ★★★★★ 4

Rousing, heartbreaking, and important, Ridley Scott's masterful "Kingdom of Heaven" soars like epics of the past while brimming with contemporary significance. Pitting men who claim to fight in the name of God against Godly men who stand for peace, the film is thrillingly assembled and grippingly told. It is a remarkable piece of work from a great director.
Taking place nearly a thousand years ago, "Kingdom of Heaven" tells the story of Orlando Bloom's disgraced Balian, a blacksmith who becomes a man of importance in Jerusalem. One on hand, the film is about an individual who rises to become something great. On the other, it is about the politics the mark the Holy Land even to this day. Balian is…
Review by Daniel Kibbe ★★★★ 4

*Watched the Director's Cut*
An incredibly striking epic, and one that could've only come from the hands of Ridley Scott. I had forgotten just how visually impressive this film is. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, and if there's one thing Ridley knows how to do, it's direct a battle scene. The story is level in its portrayal of sides and is engaging throughout the 3 hour runtime. All the acting is very good (probably a best from Orlando Bloom which, I guess, isn't saying a whole lot), and Edward Norton is excellent, but I do wish Jeremy Iron's character was a little more fleshed out.
Kingdom of Heaven is fantastic historical epic that's worthy of being placed among the best.
Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 3

"If God did not love you, how could you do all the things that you have done?"
This is really excellent, traditional spectacle, pretty and exciting and very self-consciously classy. Ridley never met a metaphor he wouldn't belabor or a theme he wouldn't thuddingly spell out in dialogue, but this is also so blindingly sincere in its pretentiously noble depiction of an areligious (or maybe just secular) righteousness that it transcends itself. I mean, there's literally a scene where Jeremy Irons gravely intones: "First I thought we were fighting for God, then I realized we were fighting for wealth and land. I was ashamed." Cornball earnest but simultaneously so completely forthright about its depiction of the political expediency of fanaticism and its attendant economy of wasted lives that it becomes actively moving. Orlando Bloom is just awful in it.
[Extended cut]
Review by AlexDavies ★★★★½ 4

“Your quality will be known among your enemies, before ever you meet them, my friend.”
A quest to Jerusalem to find your faith and also explore meaning and place. Dignity is a quality that some have, some don’t. There are extremists on both sides. A tale of motivation, nobility, and reason that pressures you too prove your worth in this world. Ridley Scott’s gaze is open-minded and observant. He can produce any location. His love for creating a setting shines here. Kingdom of Heaven is a Crusades epic bolstering the richest of historical context and purposefully situational appositeness. This circumstantiality yields great amounts of knowledge and erudition. “It is a kingdom of conscience, or nothing”.
Orlando Bloom’s silent yet affecting…
Review by Mario ★★★★

Just like Alexander I have seen this a few times on tv when I was a child, probably the theatrical version. This was my first time seeing the Director's cut, but I'm not able to remember much from my previous viewings, so I can't really compare the different versions.
What I can certainly say is that this movie features one of the best casts I've ever seen. These are only the actors I recognized and knew by name without looking them up: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Michael Sheen, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Eva Green, David Thewlis, Kevin McKidd, Marton Csokas, Nicola Coster-Waldner, Edward Norton and Sir Friendzone himself Iain Glen.
The score is unbelievably beautiful. Mad respect to Harry Gregson-Williams for pulling that of.
As much as I despise war, especially religious war, this is part of our history and should never be forgotten. Hopefully we will be able to someday learn something of it.
Review by Nate ★★★★ 2

God Ridley gave us the definitive nu-medieval movie: a dusty emo gore-fest about the Iraq War, a key text for 2000's nostalgia. A sword and socks-with-sandals epic.
Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★ 6

the exact kind of stupendously moronic revisionist epic that only an idiot-savant like ridley scott could make. monstrous in scope, heaps upon heaps of gruesome violence, a formidably stacked cast of thespians, all these half-baked thematic platitudes about religious tolerance and chivalry and ethics, it's all here. i can't decide whether to laugh at the portentous 2000s-era gritty desaturated gloominess, or to uncritically adore it; i think i'll do both. the whole script is just a cinematic playground where ridley scott stages a teenager's naïve conception of medieval history in which a singular peasant magically transports themselves through sheer coincidence and willpower past all class divisions and social strata. reminds me a lot of the assassin's creed videogames where 70%…
Review by Jared ★★★★ 4

An interesting epic considering the contrast between those who fight in god's name, and the others who stand for god through peace. To avoid getting overly political, it's simply a very astute work that has real relevance in modern times; crushingly sad when you consider how far we've come since the times this film takes place in. Senseless, incomprehensible religious turmoil still has a hold in that same region. Same conflict different players. It's truly sad how familiar this feels despite it taking place when the average lifespan was around 38.
Cinematically, this feels very much like a superior, more meaningful version of Gladiator. The stakes are very real, the characters well-realized, and the fight scenes are the closest I've…
Review by Scott Anderson ★★★

Is it weird that whenever I watch epic films or television shows of this ilk, I spend a decent amount of time thinking about how pathetic I would have been when faced with such circumstances?
I understand it isn't a feasible conversation because had I existed then, I wouldn't know what life is like now so I would adapt to my surroundings, but still...I complain when I have to take the garbage out. That process is literally rolling two large receptacles about 40 feet each, and the key word in there is rolling. I don't even have to lift the cans, nowadays you just kinda pull em with a small percentage of force. Regardless, I bitch about it as if…
Review by Andy Summers ★★★★★ 1

I've been keeping a movie diary for nearly seven years now and this is now my 4001st diary entry. Sir Ridders of Scott features heavily among those other 4000 entries, he's simply one of those filmmakers that has continued to excite me throughout many years of film watching with quality productions that rarely disappoint. He does on occasion however make the odd casting choice that on reflection doesn't sit as comfortably as say Sigourney Weaver does as Ripley in the Alien franchise. Orlando Bloom is unfortunately as dull as arse, but the rest of the cast in Kingdom of Heaven more than make up for his shortcomings as a heroic Crusader defending Jerusalem in the 12th Century.
Kingdom of Heaven…
Review by Shawn Bu ★★★★½ 1

The theatrical cut was just okay.
The director‘s cut is a masterpiece!
It‘s a completely different film.
Beautiful, compelling and still important.
One of Ridley Scott‘s best films. Love it.
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★ 1

53/100
[originally published on Nerve.com]
Inveterate goof-spotters will want to keep their eyes peeled for a real howler in Kingdom of Heaven, Ridley Scott's new historical epic. Set in the late twelfth century, during the brief, uneasy truce among Christians, Jews and Muslims that flourished between the Second and Third Crusades, the film climaxes with a scrupulous and thrilling recreation of the siege of Jerusalem. The scene is replete with every art of war imaginable, from close-quarters skirmishes involving battleaxes to giant catapults winging fiery death from half a mile away. It's a virtuoso sequence, fierce, frenetic and utterly convincing...until, that is, you notice that each and every warrior has a brand-new 60GB iPod Photo clipped to his chain-mail tunic.…

Recent reviews

Review by evilblueberry ★★★★½

Incredible film if you watch the director’s cut.
Review by Steve Tremblay ★★★½

A nice mix of action and storytelling with good acting from the cast. Ridley Scott gives us huge cinematography and an explosive soundtrack.
Review by Samson Dannetta ★★★½

Director's Cut
Review by Ryan Walsh ★★★★½

Rewatched the Director's Cut Roadshow Version.
This film is just full of dynamite performances. Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, Ghassan Massoud, Edward Norton, David Thewlis, Alexander Siddig, Brendan Gleeson, Marton Csokas, Liam Neeson, all fantastic. Love having the overture and intermission in the roadshow version.
Review by CJ MacMillan ★★★★★

Another spectacular addition to the canon of massive, often romantic, action-and-adventure-filled epic cinema. Orlando Bloom has no business being in as many of these as he is, and Ridley Scott should make much more of 'em like this. Beautiful landscapes, fantastic effects work, articulate characters, and straightforward, yet penetrative themes. And, of course, every battle scene is just incredible. Tonight was my first time watching this, of many more to come I'm sure, but I took some good advice and went with the director's cut. Reading up on the theatrical version now... no wonder it bombed. Everything it severs off from this is seriously unbelievable. Now, some loose ends are still left untied here, with a few points in the middle not really seeming to head in the direction of the film's ultimate destination, but they're all heavily eclipsed by that grand conclusion itself. The last hour was more than I could've ever hoped for. All-round phenomenal storytelling.
Review by Haris Khan ★★★

I feel like this should've been better.
Review by plasmo58 ★★★★

While not Ridley Scott's best work, the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven makes for an enjoyable Crusades flick. Orlando Bloom miscast however.
Review by lyra ★★

director's (189 minute) cut.
masking our heart with the cross of God, but as with all deferred symbology, its meaning is stolen—returned by the father who positions the heroic as a mnemonic ableism, forever defined by the performative synthesis of familial intersubjectivity. kings fall to the emptiness of the memorial state space. kingdom of heaven is a chronicle of its own making, balian rights the ship, the confessional an empty signifier of absent christian metaphysics.
Review by Henry Faherty ★★★★★ 2

Dude, this movie -- especially the Extended/Roadshow Version -- is so awesome. Very underrated.
Ridley Scott is the man.
Review by Jacob Stout ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

*Watched the Director's Cut*
This massive epic is beautifully crafted. The ark of Balian's journey is one of naiveté as he attempts to remain a "good knight" among all others who are obsessed with self image and their own power.
It is a balanced story about the religious acceptance and the reminder of a time where one of the most tumultuous areas in religious history lived at peace.
Review by Zé Walderico ★★★★

Continua muito bom
Review by SirWittlebits ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

„No, I don’t want to be king” ...thousands die. Good job Orlando.
That was one string of stupid decisions.