Synopsis:

This edit presents a less political and more historically accurate version of Ridley Scott’s epic. Events, characters and motivations are made more ambigious, requiring the audience to think about them, instead of being told loudly and clearly how the film should be interpreted.

Intentions:

One of the major shortcomings of Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” is that it does all the thinking for us. The film’s message “Muslims aren’t all bad, Christians aren’t all good, we should all just learn to get along etc. “is hammered home far too often, and the audience isn’t given the opportunity to think for itself and draw its own conclusions. I think Scott and Monahan tried too hard not to offend anyone with their portrayal of the crusades, and ended up seriously offending the audience’s intelligence. Show, don’t tell. We don’t need characters to spell out the film’s message every fifteen minutes; we can figure it out for ourselves if given the chance. One of the goals of this edit was therefore to remove as many of these “morality monologues” as possible. Relating to the “show, don’t tell” principle, certain characters have been made a bit more ambiguous, in particular the characters of Sibylla and Saladin. These are both interesting and complex characters, but they’re both defined far too early as unequivocally good. It’s much more interesting if we’re kept guessing about their allegiance and motivations.

Change List:

- Added “The Holy Land 1184? title card after the company logos - The film opens with Balian waking up after the shipwreck - Cut all dialogue between Balian and Imad after the cavalier’s defeat, apart from “Take me to Jerusalem” - Cut Imad’s line “This is your prize” etc., and Balian’s response - Added brief flashbacks as Balian examines his pendant outside the sepulchre - After Balian’s V/O ‘God… What is it you want of me?’ we fade to the title and grave digging scene - Added ‘France – Several months earlier’ text overlay - Used the theatrical version of the grave digging scene - Cut the bishop’s ‘There is so much done in Christendom of which Christ would be incapable’ - Cut the gaoler’s ‘…and there’s troubles in it’ - Cut the gaoler’s ‘Do yourself no injury… other men are always good for that.’ - Cut the priest’s ‘He will be one of the few on your journey worth more alive than dead’ - The ‘Have you been at war?’ dialogue between Balian and Odo has been moved to a later point, and now replaces the dialogue about the Latin inscription, which has been cut - Cut Godfrey’s ‘I knew your namesake’ - Reinserted Godfrey’s ‘I loved her, in my fashion’ and ‘Balian, I’m your father’ from the theatrical cut - Cut Godfrey’s ‘Have you come to kill me?’ etc. - Cut Godfrey’s ‘Show me your hand’ - Cut the Hospitaller’s ‘His hand is hurt, My Lord’ - Cut Godfrey’s ‘I once fought two days with an arrow through my testicle’ - Replaced the sheriff’s ‘You’re my uncle… I must give you the road’ with ‘You’re a Lord… I must give you the road’ from the theatrical cut - Cut hospitaller and Godfrey’s discussion about the madness of the crusades - Cut Godfrey’s ‘Fortunately, you’re too old to be one of mine’ during the encounter with Guy - Cut all dialogue between Balian and Godfrey about how peace and a better world lie at the end of the crusades - Cut the scene where Balian and the sergeant meet Guy in Messina - After the storm, we fade back to Balian outside the Sepulchre - Cut Balian’s ‘How can you be in hell when you’re in my heart?’ - Used the theatrical version of Balian waking up in his new house in Jerusalem - Cut Sibylla’s ‘Thank you for the drink’ - Cut the Hospitaller’s speech about religion - Cut Balian and the Hospitaller’s dialogue after the hanging of the Templars - Cut Reynald’s ‘Let me know, Tiberias, when men are equal and the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived’ - Cut Tiberias’ dialogue about how the king and Saladin would create a better world - Cut Guy’s ‘My wife does not lament my absence etc.’ - Cut Tiberias’ ‘To the very best of wives’ - Cut Sibylla’s ‘A woman in my position has two faces etc.’ - Used the theatrical version of Balian’s meeting with the king - Cut Almaric’s ‘This is a poor and dusty place’ - Cut the scene where Balian and Sibylla eat dinner together - Used the theatrical version of the ‘time lapse’ sequence - The sexual relationship of Balian and Sibylla has been removed entirely - Cut Tiberas implicating Guy in the caravan attack - Cut some of the arguing during the council sequence - Cut King Baldwin’s ‘… with 200 000 men’ - Cut the scene where Sibylla prepares to leave Ibelin - Cut Almaric’s ‘These people are not safe outside the walls. Saladin will certainly come behind them.’ - Cut Almaric’s ‘We cannot attack that and live’ - Cut Imad’s ‘Your quality will be known among your enemies before ever you meet them, my friend’ - Cut Imad’s ‘…he was my servant’ - Cut Saladin’s ‘I will send you my physicians’ - Cut Balian kissing the ring he got from Sibylla - Cut the scene at Saladin’s encampment - Cut the scene where Guy returns to Jerusalem - Cut the scenes where Guy practices his swordplay - Cut the scene where Guy has sex with the servant girl - The scene with Reynald in the dungeons has been moved to after Baldwin and the Patriarch’s scene - Cut the scene with Balian and Sibylla in bed - Cut some bits of dialogue from Balian, Baldwin and Tiberias’ discussion of what will happen after Baldwin’s death - Cut the scene where Tiberias tries to make Balian reconsider the king’s offer - Cut ”…that I would sell my soul?’ and Sibylla’s ‘There will come a day etc.’ from the following scene with Balian and Sibylla - Cut the scene with Guy visiting Reynald in the dungeons - Replaced Sibylla’s ‘If my son has your knights…’ with ‘If I have your knights…’ - Cut the Hospitaller’s ‘Do you love her?’ ‘The heart will mend. Your duty is to the people’ - Cut the Hospitaller’s ‘Nor should they’ - Cut some bits of the war council - Cut the Mullah’s ‘God wills it!’ before the Battle of Hattin - Cut Balian’s ‘Can you sense it?’ to Tiberias just after Hattin - Cut Reynald’s ‘No… My lord’ just before his execution - Cut Tiberias’ speech about ‘First I thought we were fighting for God…’ - Cut Balian’s pre-battle speech and the mass knighting - Cut Balian making Almaric the new lord of Ibelin - Cut some shots of the bombardment - Cut the scene with Saladin’s troops celebrating after the first day of the siege - Cut all dialogue in the granary after Almaric’s ‘Saladin will show no mercy’ - Cut the scene where Saladin and Imad discuss Balian - Removed the ballistae that are used to bring down the siege towers - Cut the gravedigger specifically identifying Sibylla as Queen of Jerusalem - Cut Saladin crying at the burial of his troops - Cut some dialogue from the scenes where the Christians burn their dead - Cut the scene in Saladin’s camp where they discuss a possible weakness in the wall - Cut the Mullah’s speech - Cut Balian’s ‘Remember me in France’ to the dead gravedigger - Cut the Patriarch’s ‘Convert to Islam … Repent later!’ and Balian’s response - Cut some of the dialogue from Balian’s parlay with Saladin - Cut Sibylla’s ‘What should I do? I’m still queen of Acre, Ascalon, Tripoli’ and Balian’s ‘Decide not to be a queen, and I will come to you’ - Cut Imad’s ‘If God does not love you, how could you have done all the things you have done?’ to Balian - Cut the scene where Saladin picks up the fallen cross - Cut Balian meeting Sibylla outside Jerusalem - Cut Balian reading the Latin inscription back at his forge in France - The film ends with Richard the Lionheart riding off on his crusade

Additional Notes:

In addition, the opening of the film has been changed. In the original, we expect a movie about the crusades, but spend 45 minutes in France and Italy before getting to Outremer, with characters we won’t see again (apart from the Hospitaller). For these reasons, I think it works much better to have the parts in France and Italy as a flashback, which I think makes them more interesting, instead of just making the audience wait for Balian to get to Outremer, they serve to explain how he ends up where he does. At the beginning, Balian’s character and situation are now a mystery, and the flashback to France is the answer to that mystery.

Other Sources:

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