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I finally got around to seeing Kingdom of Heaven. (The director’s cut, for those keeping score.)

And, well, what is there to say? It wasn’t awful by any means, although it suffered greatly from the usual Hollywood tropes.

Balain of Ibalin, played by quiet, distinctly not-medieval Orlando Bloom, is a blacksmith in France. His previously unknown father shows up to take him on a crusader adventure to Jersusalem around the era of the 2nd Crusade. At first he declines, but his brother prods him about his dead wife. After throwing the priest into the fire he finds Liam Neeson and begins his hero quest into the bowls of crusader Europe.

Liam Neeson kept the beginning from being too boring and he hass had enough practice being the mentor (Cough, Batman, Cough) that it carried admirably. The whole ‘Ibalin needs forgiveness’ theme got old quick and tends to fall apart as soon as you have a knight hacking people apart, but trying to protect the muslims. Either he’s a crusader killing for glory and heaven or he’s not. Only in Hollywood is the perfect knight a butcher and a race-blind saint.

Jeremy Irons, always a pleasure to watch, didn’t get a lot of face time, but he had the honor of introducing the political and social issues, which they managed to depict more astutely than expected. Baldwin the King of Jerusalem has leprosy, there’s a tenuous peace between the Christians and the Muslims, the knights templars led by Guy of Lusignan (Marton Csokas) and Raynald of Chatillon (Brendan Gleeson) are causing problems. The doubtful and adolescent heir of Princess Sibylla (the ever gorgeous Eva Green), puts the whole kingdom in a precarious state of near chaos.

Enter Orlando Bloom, now as a crusader champion. He takes command of his father’s estate (Liam Neeson), managsto miraculously turn it into a thriving barony complete with small children playing in the newly dug irrigation ditches. Apparently everyone else who lived there for thousands of years forgot how to dig a well.

The ending is held together by the historical politics, which make for a rousing tale of crusader glory, Saladin’s respectful and pious heroics, and the turbulance of the household. Unfortunately, instead of letting the story tell itself, good ol Balin has to make everyone a knight and save Jerusalem. He negotiates a safe end to the crusader kingdom and finds inner peace, but only after slaying twice the population of Antioch in a final siege that stands as an admirable battle scene, but a rather silly note in Ibalin’s story.

The whole things wraps together with Balain going back home to france with Eva Green (apparently, he’s not wanted for murder anymore?) and shrugging off King Richard the Lionhearted who gets a cameo.

Overall I enjoyed the movie. I’m well aware that it is getting on four years old now, but it hadn’t passed by me yet. Seeing Jerusalem in its crusader glory was worth the wait and it is certainly a very pretty movie. They even managed to court the political nuances of the age without dropping too much.

My only complaint is the main character. If they’d stayed true to the time, Ibalin would have been a heroic knight and soldier, and even courteous with the muslim factions, but not nearly as tolerant and ‘modern’ as they made him. His return home would have been as an exhausted crusader warrior, not as a newly absolved lover ready to start a new life. The speeches about finding forgiveness in the holy land fell pretty flat and were entirely unnecessary. The drama of the age and of the personalities was more than enough to tell a good story. Throwing in the usual Hollywood niceties of the hero getting the girl, learning a lesson, and living happily ever after just dumbs down the whole affair.

Still, it’s a good flick. The director’s cut was three hours, so a bit long, but it has an intermission. Worth watching on DVD if you’re bored and want to see the crusaders on film.

Over the last few months the articles have descended in length in quality with only the rare exception. It’s my intent to get back into more substantial articles. It’s a never-ending process of measuring time and other projects against a desire to make this website at least moderately worth maintaing and, hopefully, reading.

My tastes in reading tend to take me in obscure directions. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a modern fantasy novel of its own peculiar, pedantic bent. George RR Martin furfills my historical fantasy wishes. Neuromancer and Snowcrash would likely fall under science-fiction, cyberpunk, things like that. In fiction, I rotate between histories, cookbooks, biographies, a never ending line of words and stories.

My most recent labor has been The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon. This epic tome (6 volumes, each many hundreds of thousands of words) from the 18th century remains a respected general history of Rome and the template from which most modern histories are derived. As a work of writing it maintains an intimate, though sarcastic, tone that reveals the author more than one would expect. It dabbles with personal narratives, often finding fault and merit in the various personages that drove the history of Rome, and explors the curiosities of history with an eye for their greater affect and analysis. The story is pushed along even more fully by a rigorous exploration of the religious, military, and economics circumstances affecting the most important provinces and people of the realm. It is, quite simply, a very complete history of Rome from its pinnacle age under the early Emperors to its ignominious collapse and then, in the second half, through the crusades and beyond.

It is an incredibly impressive achievement. It remains a respected work in the field, which attests to the scholarship, the prodigious footnotes validate the years of research that went into the book, and the scope, the life of an empire, is unmatched. Nevertheless, I would have hard time recommending this great achievement. The prose is outdated and simply tough to read. It is a literary and academic masterpiece, but its length and obtuseness to the modern tongue makes more modern histories of Rome far more accessible.

In lieu of a recommendation, I would prefer to say that, for me, it has been an immensely beneficial book to read. My own story is, in a way, a sort of general history. A fictional futuristic history, but a history nonetheless. I find, quite often, that many stories lack a world. They have a dramatic scenario and characters to furfill to the obligations of the plot, but there is no anchor and no setting. The events transcend any particular culture and thus lose so much of their effect. The best stories work within and win a greater historical narrative. The Sharpe and Flashman Series provide easy examples, but historical fiction is hardly the only field this is true. Lord of the Rings created a world history almost as epic as that of Gibbon. Don Quixote only makes sense in a world where chivalry is on the cusp of irrelevancy. Jurassic Park requires a world that is freely dabbling with the consequences of genetic manipulation. Tom Clancy’s works are predicated on the tensions of a post cold-war world. Every story requires a history to provide context and verisimilitude to the drama.

Reading Gibbon has provided a great deal of inspiration to flesh out the world in my own, hopefully nearing completion, novel. I need to touch more fully on the political establishment, the mindset of the people, the economics, the military, the religious and spiritual inclinations. My futuristic world needs a setting that expands beyond the immediate locale to a world that is, like all worlds and all settings, twisting with a number of idealistic conflicts. Gibbon provides an example of a real empire suffering an extended drama that would make for the greatest fiction work of all, if it wasn’t so true, so tragic, and so complete.

As an update, I am proceeding along with my work. I’m quite a bit behind where I should like to be, but that is always the case with schedules. I’ll have more to say as soon as I have more done!

Playing Empire Total War has got me interesting in Napoleonic Warfare. For those similarly inclined this website has been entertaining me…