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Kingdom of Heaven | 2005 | R | - 4.8.2
Historical film taking place during the 12th century Crusades: Before he dies, a nobleman (Liam Neeson) acknowledges his illegitimate son Balian (Orlando Bloom) and bestows on him his title. Now as Balian of Ibelin he joins the crusading Christian knights and becomes the defender of Jerusalem against a large Muslim army led by Saladin. Also with Eva Green, Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons. Directed by Ridley Scott. [2:25]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A woman comes into a man's room, wearing a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage, they talk, kiss, and they begin to remove each other's clothing; they lie on pillows and we see his bare back and brief thrusting while they continue kissing.
► A man is shown bare-chested and wearing only period undergarments. A man is bare-chested when he changes his shirt.
► A woman touches a man's face and tries to kiss him. A woman watches a man with interest. A man tells another man that he is his father, he tells the man that his encounter with his mother was against her wishes, but at the same time that he did not force her (it's not clear what the implication is).
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VIOLENCE/GORE 8 - Many men fight with bows and arrows and swords: one man is shot through the head with an arrow, one man is slashed (blood sprays) and another man is hacked with a sword across the back of the legs.
► Several men are attacked by men with bows and arrows and swords (we hear crunching and slashing): one man is struck in the back with an arrow, one is struck through the throat (we see blood gush), one is struck in the side (he cannot put his arm down), and one man is slashed and blood sprays.
► A man is slashed across the throat (blood spurts and pours) and we hear him gurgling and grunting, and he is taken away by two men who then cut off his head (we later see his head and the head of another man displayed on sticks).
► A man with an arrow through his throat continues fighting many men with swords and arrows and he is struck in the chest by many arrows (we see blood on his head, mouth and chest); another man is beheaded, and another man's head is split by a sword (we see the scalp separate and bleed).
► After a battle we see a few men hacking at people with axes, then see another person beheaded (he leans over a stump, a sword is raised and brought down, and we see the separated head flop to the ground).
► A man stabs a man under the chin with a dagger (blood spurts and pours from the wound), he falls back onto the ground and is dragged away (blood smears on the ground under him). A man stabs another man in the stomach with a hot sword, he pushes the man back into a fire, the man gets up screaming and with his clothes in flames, and then falls to the ground dead.
► Several knights surround an unarmed man, and he fights them with a rock (pounding one on the head repeatedly), then a piece of a broken pot (pounding another), he stomps on the throat of one man (we hear a crunch), and he picks up a sword and stabs another through the helmet.
► Two men fight with swords (one is on horseback): they slash at each other, one throws a spear at the other, one man is slashed across the throat (blood spurts and sprays, blood sprays on a horse and we see blood on the sword), the horse rears and throws its rider and a man stands over him with a sword.
► Many men shoot arrows back and forth at each other (some in a fortress and others outside the walls), and large wooden structures carry many men with bows and arrows. The structures are pulled down, causing them to crush many men under them, pots of flaming liquid are thrown into the wooden structures (we see men in flames and hear them screaming) heated oil is poured over the side of the fortress wall onto men below and they are set on fire (we hear the men screaming), large spikes attached to ropes are shot into wooden structures, the ropes are pulled causing the structures to topple over and crush many men on the ground.
► The wall of a fortress is bombarded with catapulted boulders and it eventually crumbles leaving space for many men to pour through and fight with men inside the walls; there is a lot of slashing and hacking and stabbing with a lot of blood gushing and spurting and spraying.
► Large flaming boulders are catapulted into a fortress, the fortress fires back at the army outside its walls, many men are hit by the boulders or the shrapnel and rubble caused by the impact. Large flaming boulders are catapulted into a fortress causing people to be thrown from the impact, others run in flames, and there is much damage done to the structure.
► Two large groups of men clash with swords and spears, slashing and piercing: men and horses are struck and fall to the ground (we see blood spurting and spraying), and one wounded man on the ground is nearly stabbed in the head by another man standing over him with a sword (we see many bodies and horses scattered on the ground).
► Several knights attack a caravan, people run and scream, they are cut down by the knights on horseback, and we see a lot of blood spraying and squirting. Three men are hung while crowds of people watch and yell (we see them jerk and kick when they drop and we hear a crunch).
► A body lies wrapped in cloth and tied with rope near a man who digs a hole in the ground for burial; the cloth blows off revealing a woman's blue-tinged face, and we hear that the woman committed suicide; a man is told to "cut off her head," he raises an ax over her and swings it down (we hear a thud and crunch).
► A man with leprosy removes a glove from his hand (we see open, bloody sores and disfigured fingers), forces a man to kiss his hand and then beats him repeatedly with a stick. We see many bloody, wounded men as they are being bandaged; one man's hand is unwrapped and we see a deep cut across his hand (we see his very bloody hand and hear squishing). A man tries to remove an arrow from a man's side, the man grimaces, we hear squishing, and see blood and the tip of the arrow.
► Very rough seas toss ships back and forth, one ship tips on its side, its masts break and it sinks (we see men going under water), and we see many dead bodies and rubble on a beach.
► After battle sequences we frequently see the ground littered with bloody, dismembered bodies. We see many bodies being buried and others being piled in a pit and burned. Men begin to collapse and fall off of their horses as they march a great distance through the desert with no water. A wounded man rides a horse into a village (we see blood on the horse and the man slumps and falls off the horse). Vultures circle over a battlefield strewn with bloody bodies.
► A man strikes another man with a stick, and a man slaps a man across the face. A man holds a metal crucifix in his hand and because it had been heated by flames, his hand is burned (we see his reddened flesh). A man slaps a young man hard across the face (we see a trickle of blood from his nose).
► A man shoes a horse (we hear a sizzle and see a puff of smoke rise from the horse's hoof). A woman removes a mask from a dead body and reveals a badly disfigured face. A man suffering from leprosy wears a mask and gloves (we can see reddened skin around the eyes). A woman looks in a mirror and sees the image of her dead brother's deformed features. A man has a long scar across his eye and a man appears to have a large scar on his back.
► Men on horseback ride into a camp and threaten the men there. Several men practice fighting with swords. A man appears very weak as we see him take his last breath. A man is told to kill a man, and we hear that a woman killed herself after her baby died. A man says that he fought even with an arrow through a part of his body. A man with his hands bound and wearing only period undergarments is led through a street seated backwards on a donkey.
LANGUAGE 2 - 2 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities.
SUBSTANCE USE - Men and women drink wine, and a man drinks from a clay pot (it is unclear whether it is alcohol or water).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - The Crusades, religious faith, repression, poverty, wars waged because of religion, Jerusalem, the Holy Land, leprosy, freedom, safety, vanity, virtue, bravery, conscience, blasphemy, infidelity, children out of wedlock, peace, forgiveness, arranged marriages, conceit, slavery, guilt, desert warfare.
MESSAGE - Goodness should be determined by one's actions not by their religion. You reap what you sow.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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