I think this is (apart from the usual historical inaccuracies in Hollywood history films) a quite well-made attempt to make the Crusaders' era come alive, with all its religious mania on the one hand - and the intrigues and sex at the Frankish court of Jerusalem on the other.
What's your opinion?
Let's be realists, let's demand the impossible.
While I prefer "Arn the knight templar" (which one might see as the Swedish take on the crusades era), "Kingdom of Heaven" is good too.
Intelligence and purity.
Ah, a Swedish version, I haven't seen that one! Seems difficult for a movie from any other country to compete with the Hollywood stuff internationally...
Let's be realists, let's demand the impossible.
I believe it became the most expensive Swedish movie project ever, and I seem to remember that they needed financial support from other countries to make it. It's actually two movies, based on three books by Jan Guillou. What I like about these stories is that while Arn becomes a knight templar and goes to the Holy Land, we also get to follow his fiancée Cecilia back in Sweden. So while a great part of the story is about war and power struggle, just like "Kingdom of Heaven", we also get glimpses into other aspects of Medieval life. Of course, it helped that there were two movies in this project, so there was time to show other things...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0837106/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0950739/?ref_=tt_trv_cnn
Intelligence and purity.
That all sounds VERY interesting, thank you very much for the information! I hope I'll get a chance to see them some day, because I'm a great fan of historical movies...
Let's be realists, let's demand the impossible.
I'd say I think it's pretty darn underrated.
shareYes, you're absolutely right; you probably wouldn't find it in any list of 'the best historical movies of recent years' - although its cast is QUITE impressive, the plot is very suspenseful and intelligent, and all the details from the settings to the costumes were designed in a historically VERY accurate way!
Let's be realists, let's demand the impossible.