Kingdom of Heaven Revisited

[naamah_darling]

Wow. So.

Sargon got me the special edition director's cut version of Kingdom of Heaven, and . . . wow. All my friends who have told me to see it were right.

You have to see it

Comments

[eudaimon]

A++ on this opinion, ma'am. It's exactly what I thought when I saw the director's cut. For me, Ridley Scott can usually do no wrong, but I felt like he'd let me down a bit on KoH until I saw the director's cut. Then...then I really believed in him again.

And it felt good. Very good.

[jlsigman]

Dittos on this. While the original was decent, it was lacking (and the historian in me was like, "Um, excuse me...") this really made up for a lot of the failings of the original.

[amanuensis1]

I haven't seen it at all, so I'm going to take your word for it and put this on my netflix queue. It reminds me of what I had to say about Alexander--I watched three different versions of that s**t just because The Persian Boy is one of my favorite books in existence, and was startled that the final one, the Revisited, Final Cut, was a much much better film than any previous version had even hinted. Without all the meat that they cut, the other versions are just a bleedin' montage.

[sanachan1]

I went to see Alexander in the theater with my hubby and two of our friends, and my husband was the only one who thought it was even passable. The rest of us wanted our money and that three hours of our lives back desperately. Would you say the Revisited, Final Cut is actually good or is it just better than the theatrical release? (Though nothing will make me forgive them to what they did with Colin Farrell's hair in that movie.)

[amanuensis1]

They take what are snippets of dialogue between people and put, like, two minutes of interaction back into each one so that there are actual scenes, rather than just sound bites trying to make up a whole film. No, I'm still not going to tell people that this makes it into a brilliant film, though. Just that if one is curious and plans to watch one version, please make sure it's the Revisited Final Cut version.

I was pretty much just in it for the slash, myself, so.

[sanachan1]

I was pretty much just in it for the slash, myself, so.

A time honored and valuable reason to be into almost anything. :)

[a1057soul]

I liked it the first time i saw it, I LOVED the directors cut.

I agree with everything you said... but did you happen to catch the subplot about the 'Hospitaler' (David Thewlis' character). Only certain characters acknowledge him or even seem to know he's there... and then there's the bit that happens with Balion in the desert with the bush... watch that scene again. I thought that was the most subtle thing in the movie.

it is one of my all time favorite movies tho because of the directors cut version.

:o)
Dan

[naamah_darling]

That's exactly the part that elevated the movie for me from "damn good" to "oh, dude, WHOA." It is SO hard to pull off that sort of thing without rubbing people's noses in it. This was a perfect example of that.

[a1057soul]

Exactly...

I didn't catch in the regular version that they had set the Hospitaler up as a Jesus figure... and even when Jo and I were watching the director's cut, it didn't sink in until that scene... it was so well done that most people only think he's a regular character.

There should be more moviemaking like that.

:o)
Dan

[crevette]

Ahem.

Yeah. I've been saying this for a LONG time. And this is why I keep saying Orlando Bloom is actually a really good actor. (Rent Haven some time...it's a mess, editing againg, but he's compelling)

Orlando and Eva and Ridley the others got SCREWED by the studio.

[naamah_darling]

Yes! Your assessment and FlameElf's were the two that I trusted; you both loved the longer version, and you both generally have excellent taste in movies.