Good heavens

Jerusalem has the power to drive men mad.

It’s the paradox of this city sacred to three great religions that there are those who would kill to defend its holiness. That’s as true today as it was nearly a thousand years ago, when Pope Urban II’s cry of “God wills it!” sent Europe’s knights to the Middle East in a series of bloody expeditions against Islam that we know as the Crusades.

Director Ridley Scott, long fascinated by knights, those heroic Boy Scouts of yore, has made a film about not the entire two-century span of those invasions but rather a brief and pointed moment between the Second and Third Crusades when the fate of Jerusalem and the region hung in the balance.

Scott, the epic director of our time (“Gladiator,” “Blade Runner,” “Black Hawk Down”), is not what you would call a political animal, but in “Kingdom of Heaven” he delivers that rare big-star blockbuster (Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons top the cast) that still manages to have something relevant to say.

Working from a strong script by William Monahan and making full use of that solid cast and his own impeccable skill with imagery, Scott has fashioned an impressive film that resonates with lessons for an age when Crusaders, this time in American uniforms, are trying to save the Middle East from itself yet one more time.

Scott did not necessarily set out to do that. He wanted an action-adventure film that would provide satisfactions commensurate with (and able to repay) its estimated $140-million budget. He’s provided huge battles, spectacular vistas and slash-and-burn action, but given the times the film was made in, it is fortunate, and perhaps fated, that it turned into something more.

“Kingdom of Heaven” is not one of those cheerful combat movies that believe bloodletting is the answer to everything. It is a violent movie that laments a peace that didn’t last, a downbeat but compelling epic that looks to have lost faith in the value of cinematic savagery for its own sake. If you combine this film with Scott’s recent “Black Hawk Down,” you find the director in a place where he is no longer exulting in his ability simply to put violence on screen; he wants you to feel its searing effects as well.

What Scott and screenwriter Monahan do believe in is the code of chivalry, the notion that, as one character puts it, “holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves.” The knight who initially exemplifies these traits is Godfrey of Ibelin (a powerful Neeson), a nobleman introduced returning to France in 1184 accompanied by a member of the military order of Hospitaler (David Thewlis). Back in the East, Jerusalem has been under Crusader rule for nearly a century, but Godfrey has returned on a personal mission: He wants to find a son he’s never acknowledged.

That would be humble blacksmith Balian (Bloom), who gets the news about his parentage just as he’s suffered a terrible personal tragedy. Godfrey asks his son to join him in Jerusalem, “a new land at the end of the world” where “you are not who you are born but who you can make yourself to be.”

There wouldn’t be much of a movie if Balian didn’t decide to take the trip, but he is initially more of a brooder -- albeit a very masculine one -- than a man of action. He worries about his faith and the state of his soul, worries that he is “outside God’s grace.” Truly, no one ever needed a new world more.

Once in Jerusalem, Balian follows his father’s advice and aligns himself with the forces of light. That would be King Baldwin IV (an especially effective Edward Norton), an intrepid ruler so eaten away by leprosy he wears a silver mask over his face at all times, and Tiberias (Irons), the man who runs the city for him.

Representing the dark side are the ambitious Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas) and the wily Reynald de Chatillon (Brendan Gleeson, always irresistible). Bridging the gap between good and evil is Sibylla (Eva Green of Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers”), sister of the king, wife of Guy and a woman who just happens to have a weakness for brooding types newly arrived from France.

What makes the bad guys the bad guys, interestingly enough, is that they are aligned with religious zealots who are sworn enemies of a fragile truce that has existed for a precious few years under the sponsorship of Baldwin. His opposite number, the great general Saladin, is a hero who faces equal pressures from fanatics on his side of the issue to go to war for the greater glory of God.

Saladin is intensely played by the charismatic Ghassan Massoud, a major film star in his native Syria. “Kingdom’s” willingness to cast its net that far to ensure a strong performance is a sign of how scrupulously careful the film has been to be fair to both sides, not just for political reasons but to ensure good drama. It’s a quest that has succeeded on all counts.

William Monahan’s script for “Kingdom of Heaven” is not always convincing, but (except for liberties taken with Balian) it does a better-than-expected job of staying as close as it could to the reality of its characters’ lives while tailoring them to the needs of a major motion picture. Howler lines like “I once fought two days with an arrow through my testicles” are kept to a minimum, and the dialogue is largely intelligent and to the point.

The star of “Kingdom of Heaven” is not the script or any of the actors, it is the director’s unmatched gift for the visual. Shooting in Morocco and Spain, he created a physical replica of the walls of Jerusalem by using 6,000 tons of plaster, then he masterfully tweaked the result with digital technology.

Working with editor Dody Dorn (who cut Christopher Nolan’s very different “Memento”) and composer Harry Gregson-Williams, he knows just how to pace battle scenes, how to intercut aerial master shots with intimate details, and he refuses to linger on the effects of violence more than he has to.

Collaborating for not the first time with his key production crew -- cinematographer John Mathieson, production designer Arthur Max and costume designer Janty Yates -- Scott has accomplished the difficult feat of making his film look as real as it is exotic.

Scott and company have gotten so accomplished at re-creating history that the results have a welcome offhanded quality, making them spectacular without seeming to be showing off. No matter what we’re looking at, we’re thinking, “It must have looked like that.” For a film like “Kingdom of Heaven,” a better compliment would be hard to find.

*

‘Kingdom of Heaven’

MPAA rating: R for strong violence and epic warfare

Times guidelines: Considerable medieval combat violence

Released by 20th Century Fox. Director, producer Ridley Scott. Executive producers Branko Lustig, Lisa Ellzey, Terry Needham. Screenplay William Monahan. Cinematographer John Mathieson. Editor Dody Dorn. Costumes Janty Yates. Music Harry Gregson-Williams. Production design Arthur Max. Running time: 2 hours, 18 minutes.

In general release.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

By the Numbers / Ridley’s games

Ridley Scott is one of the most accomplished filmmakers and, from the look of his resume, one of the most interesting. A few examples: the fascinatingly odd pairing of Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel in his first theatrical feature, ‘The Duelists’; the seminal grim view of future Los Angeles, ‘Blade Runner’; the desperate women on the lam in ‘Thelma & Louise’; the Oscar-winning ‘Gladiator’; and the Crusades adventure that opens today, ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’

Film (Year released) / Domestic gross (In millions)

‘Gladiator’ (‘00) / $187.7

‘Hannibal’ (‘01) / $165.1

‘Black Hawk Down’ (‘01) / $108.6

‘Alien’ (‘79) / $80.9

‘G.I. Jane’ (‘97) / $48.2

‘Black Rain’ (‘89) / $46.2

‘Thelma & Louise’ (‘91) / $45.4

‘Matchstick Men’ (‘03) / $36.9

‘Blade Runner’ (‘82) / $31.3

‘Legend’ (‘86) / $15.5

Source: Boxofficemojo.com