Critic's choice: DVD -"Kingdom of Heaven"
Critics' choice
Our top picks for the week's events
DVD
Just about this time last year, director Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" was proving to be the summer's earliest theatrical disaster, earning back less than a quarter of its $150 million-plus cost at the box office. Now, in the name of butchery undone, there's "Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut" (Fox, $34.98, R) on DVD, the full and far more satisfying movie that Scott wanted to release.
The studio balked at his version's 189-minute running time and sliced it down to 145 minutes, thereby gutting it of much sense and a great deal of texture. Obviously, this version is even more dismaying in its bulk, but it shows what Scott was really up to in this tale of Jerusalem during the Crusades, starring Orlando Bloom, and the film takes on dimension as it takes on length.
Look, historical epics have been flopping for the past few years now and there is no way that "Kingdom," with its bloody juxtaposition of Christian and Muslim cultures, was ever going to be a box-office hit, especially not in summer. But at least this version, which includes musical fanfare at both the film's beginning and intermission, shows it as the true epic it was intended to be.
Tom Long
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/ENT01/606020421/1032/ENT
Our top picks for the week's events
DVD
Just about this time last year, director Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" was proving to be the summer's earliest theatrical disaster, earning back less than a quarter of its $150 million-plus cost at the box office. Now, in the name of butchery undone, there's "Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut" (Fox, $34.98, R) on DVD, the full and far more satisfying movie that Scott wanted to release.
The studio balked at his version's 189-minute running time and sliced it down to 145 minutes, thereby gutting it of much sense and a great deal of texture. Obviously, this version is even more dismaying in its bulk, but it shows what Scott was really up to in this tale of Jerusalem during the Crusades, starring Orlando Bloom, and the film takes on dimension as it takes on length.
Look, historical epics have been flopping for the past few years now and there is no way that "Kingdom," with its bloody juxtaposition of Christian and Muslim cultures, was ever going to be a box-office hit, especially not in summer. But at least this version, which includes musical fanfare at both the film's beginning and intermission, shows it as the true epic it was intended to be.
Tom Long
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/ENT01/606020421/1032/ENT