Kingdom of Heaven

Kingdom of Heaven (2005) is the best known example in cinema of editing killing a film and then reviving it. The theatrical release ran 144 minutes, was called incoherent by critics, and failed commercially. Ridley Scott's own cut runs 194 minutes. The fifty minutes between them are not a pile of extra scenes but the spine of the film: Sibylla, queen of Jerusalem, has a son, and that entire thread had been cut. Without it her decisions make no sense. When the director's cut appeared many of the same critics changed their assessment. The film is now generally discussed in its long form, and the short one as a cautionary tale. The setting is the 1180s. Balian, a French blacksmith, learns that his father is a baron in Jerusalem and travels to the Holy Land. The city is in Christian hands but the peace is fragile; the king is leprous and an accommodation with Saladin is holding. What stands out is the refusal to take a side. Saladin is not drawn as a villain and some of the Crusaders are plainly there to loot. In 2005 that choice caused argument. The siege sequences were built at real scale with little digital crowd work. It runs 194 minutes in the director's cut. Watch that one rather than the theatrical version. Good for: historical epics, Ridley Scott, and siege films. Less good for: it is very long, the battle violence is graphic, and there are serious criticisms of its historical accuracy.