Ridley's 'kingdom' true to life

Making a movie about the Crusades for post-9/11 audiences takes serious sack, and few Hollywood power players have a bigger one than Ridley Scott. His "Kingdom of Heaven" tells the tale of Balian, the French blacksmith (Orlando Bloom), who through a chance meeting with his father Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) ends up a knight charged with the protection of Jerusalem from invading Muslims and power-hungry Christians alike in 1184 A.D.\nScott smartly keeps Kingdom grounded in secularism, pandering to neither Christian nor Muslim viewers in any way. Both sides are shown as equally misguided in their motivations. In a time where wars for land, wealth and notoriety were waged in the name of God/Allah, Balian rides the fence in full realization of how ridiculous such wars are, but fully accepting of his position as a man sworn to do honest good in the face of such atrocities.\nAesthetically, it's tough to top a Ridley flick. Cinematographer John Mathieson drops jaws with expertly staged and gloriously blood-soaked battle scenes and the 12th century setting is made wholly believable via well-crafted sets and elaborate costumes. The actors mostly hold their own, with the always reliable Jeremy Irons and David Thewlis representing opposing views of the Crusades. A masked Edward Norton is effectively spooky yet wise as King Baldwin IV and the arresting Eva Green impresses as Balian's eventual love interest. Yet it's Bloom himself who fails to fully inhabit a role of such importance. Bloom, yet to prove himself a viable leading man, is relegated almost to supporting status here, despite his top billing.\nExtras on disc two of this set include the History Channel's "History vs. Hollywood" segment on the historical accuracy of the film, A&E's "Movie Real" program on the making of the film, as well as three mini-docs on costuming, set design and visual effects. Also added here is "The Pilgrim's Guide," which is essentially a Pop-Up Video feature where notes on the film's production as well as historical trivia run in step with the movie and a curious interactive production grid allowing viewers to customize most of the making-of material to their chronological liking.\nThe recent rash of high-budget historical epics brought on by the success of Scott's own "Gladiator" in 2000, rendered ugly with artistic failures like "King Arthur" and Oliver Stone's bloated "Alexander," has been given an attractive makeover with "Kingdom of Heaven," a film which conscientiously uses history to make valid conclusions about problems plaguing today's world.