Synopsis:

Balian of Ibelin travels to Jerusalem during the crusades of the 12th century, and there he finds himself as the defender of the city and its people.

Brian's Rating: B+ : If you have not seen Kingdom of Heaven, then rent it.  If you have seen it, then rent this Directors Cut and watch it again.

This is a wonderful period movie that follows a character through the events of one of the Crusades.  It has basis in historical accuracy although being a fictional character, but for a period piece from this long ago, that matters very little.

What does matter is that the directing in this film is amazing.  The characters are framed very well, and the setting is very realistic.  The audience is "shown" narration and plot mechanics, rather than being told them in schlocky dialog.  In an era where we saw so many very bad period pieces (Alexander, Troy, etc.), it is great to see something done how everybody should have.

The Directors cut is long.  It does do a better job in this length of showing some scenes that make the movie easier to figure out, however I can see why the studio heads ordered some further cuts.  Its too bad really.  The film does benefit from those scenes being expanded, yet it does suffer from length as it is paced slow to begin with.  Due to this, it leaves this Directors Cut in an odd category.  One where I would recommend it to anybody who saw and liked the Theatrical release, but if you have not seen the movie at all, I think I would recommend the theatrical release first.

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