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'Kingdom of Heaven': Grand and gory

Big-budget historical epics have had a hard time lately, with such wooden disappointments as Troy and Alexander failing to catch on with either moviegoers or critics. In fact, there has not been a successful period action tale released by Hollywood since Ridley Scott's Gladiator in 2000.

20th Century Fox 'Kingdom of Heaven' B The verdict: Scott returns to the epic storytelling and violence of Gladiator in a history of the Siege of Jerusalem. Director: Ridley Scott Starring: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Eva Green, Martin Hancock, Michael Sheen, Nathalie Cox Run time: 145 minutes Release date: May 6, 2005 Rating: R for strong violence and epic warfare. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Moving forward in time to the late 12th century, Scott returns to similar ground with Kingdom of Heaven, a gory tale with plot similarities to his Oscar winner, but with more overt commentaries on the clashes of cultures and belief systems of the Middle East that is likely to have more resonance for a contemporary audience.

It is the saga of a simple French blacksmith, Balian (Orlando Bloom of Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean), who is reunited with his father, Godfrey of Ebelin (Liam Neeson, Kinsey), a veteran of the Crusades. The father-son tug is the emotional foundation of Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not long before Godfrey is out of the picture, leaving Balian to take up a sword and defend against the Muslim forces in the Siege of Jerusalem, a key battle of the Crusades.

The king of the realm, the leprosy-ravaged Baldwin (voiced by Edward Norton, behind a delicate-featured silver mask), envisions a legacy of peace, hoping to leave the region as an eternal kingdom of heaven. But you do not have to know much about current tensions in that part of the world to sense how ephemeral was the king's dream. For starters, he did not figure on the resolve — or the superior army size — of Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), the ruler of the Muslims.

Maybe director Scott was attracted to this project for its message of how religious differences have been the underlying cause of bloodshed for thousands of years, or perhaps he just wanted the opportunity to depict the bloodshed.

Whichever it is, Scott seems more emotionally invested in re-creating the brutality of battle, which the squeamish — or even those who do not consider themselves to be bloodthirsty — are bound to find excessive. Still, the battle scenes do impress, from the vast panoramas of armies to the graphic close-ups of slit throats, lopped-off limbs and impaled bodies

While the comparison is unfair, having Bloom at the center of the action does bring to mind Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, which featured similar massive mayhem. It probably helps your enjoyment — if that's the word — of Kingdom of Heaven if you were not left weary of warfare from the Tolkien trilogy. You could argue that Scott's propensity for violence is over-the-top, but one could hardly tell this story any other way as effectively.

Neeson anchors the film's beginning well and it takes a while to recover from his absence. Bloom, in contrast, seems a little charisma-challenged, but he gives an earnest performance that eventually wins us over. He could learn a bit from the cagy supporting cast, including Brendan Gleeson as the monstrous Reynald of Chatillon, David Thewlis as Godfrey's sly military and spiritual counselor and the always intriguing, underplaying Jeremy Irons as Baldwin's influential aide Tiberias.

Those more interested in love than war will find a focal point in Eva Green (Bertolucci's The Dreamers), King Baldwin's sister Sibylla, who takes Balian into her bed.

From John Mathieson's cinematography to Janty Yates' period battle costuming to Dody Dorn's saber-sharp editing, Kingdom of Heaven delivers on its intended epic scale. Scott is in his element, though you have to hope he remembers how to make small, simple, satisfying films like Matchstick Men as well.