Movie · 2005 · Drama, Action, Adventure, History, War · 2h 24m · R · English
Curator score: 5.1/10 (616K ratings)
Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong
Overview
After his wife dies, a blacksmith named Balian is thrust into royalty, political intrigue and bloody holy wars during the Crusades.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.1/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.69/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 39%
Metacritic: 63
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Ridley Scott
Production
Scott Free Productions, BK, KOH, Reino del Cielo, Inside Track 3, 20th Century Fox
Cast
Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Ghassan Massoud, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Marton Csokas, Alexander Siddig, Michael Sheen, Khaled El Nabawy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kevin McKidd, Velibor Topic, Jon Finch, Ulrich Thomsen, Jouko Ahola, Shane Attwooll, Peter Cant, Nathalie Cox
Where to watch
Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A sweeping, visually ambitious historical epic that pairs large-scale battle filmmaking with a surprisingly earnest argument for tolerance and civic responsibility. The theatrical cut is uneven, but the director’s cut is widely regarded as the version that unlocks the film’s scale, intelligence, and emotional force.
Best for
fans of grand historical epics
viewers who like war films with political and religious debate
people who appreciate large-scale production design and battle staging
audiences open to a sincere, old-school Hollywood spectacle
Skip if
you want brisk pacing and a tight runtime
you prefer emotionally intimate historical dramas over pageantry
you are looking for strict historical accuracy
you dislike earnest, sermon-like dialogue and broad thematic statements
Overview
Ridley Scott builds this as a proper old-fashioned epic: dust, steel, pageantry, siege engines, and a moral argument about what kind of civilization can survive its own zealotry. It’s at its best when it trusts scale and imagery, letting the city, the deserts, and the armies carry the weight of history. The film’s sincerity is part of the appeal; it wants to be noble, and often is.
Worth noting
The movie is also famously transformed by the director’s cut, which deepens the characters and makes the political and religious tensions feel more coherent. Orlando Bloom is serviceable rather than magnetic, but the surrounding cast and the production design do a lot of heavy lifting. The battle sequences are the main event, and Scott stages them with real command.
Bottom line
This is not a subtle film, and it can be heavy-handed when it spells out its themes. But if you want a modern studio epic that still believes in grandeur, moral conflict, and the emotional power of spectacle, it’s one of the stronger examples of the form.
Top Letterboxd reviews
matt lynch (4★) · 1958 likes
"If God did not love you, how could you do all the things that you have done?"
This is really excellent, traditional spectacle, pretty and exciting and very self-consciously classy. Ridley never met a metaphor he wouldn't belabor or a theme he wouldn't thuddingly spell out in dialogue, but this is also so blindingly sincere in its pretentiously noble depiction of an areligious (or maybe just secular) righteousness that it transcends itself. I mean, there's literally a scene where Jeremy… more
zoë rose bryant (5★) · 1166 likes
one of the last examples of The Great Historical Epic hollywood used to be known for but is now essentially - and unfortunately - nonexistent. the last hour here is some of the most enthralling and awe-inspiring filmmaking i’ve ever seen in my entire life. movies are fucking miracles man.
so glad i got to see this in a theater - couldn’t imagine experiencing it for the first time any other way. orlando bloom and eva green have two of the most beautiful faces i’ve ever seen on film. i hope ridley scott lives forever. VIVE LE CINÉMA
Daniel Kibbe (4★) · 981 likes
*Watched the Director's Cut*
An incredibly striking epic, and one that could've only come from the hands of Ridley Scott. I had forgotten just how visually impressive this film is. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, and if there's one thing Ridley knows how to do, it's direct a battle scene. The story is level in its portrayal of sides and is engaging throughout the 3 hour runtime. All the acting is very good (probably a best from Orlando Bloom which,… more
comrade_yui (5★) · 745 likes
one of the greatest movies of this century, the high-watermark of historical epics; makes gladiator look like a TV pilot. ridley's such a pro that all of this enormous scale and production never threatens to drown out the essential poe-faced skeptical existentialism at its heart, it's the closest he's made to a kurosawa film, two cultures portrayed with equal nuance, regrettably forced into conflict, with the hope that some shared understanding can be achieved through the integrity of one's actions;… more one of the greatest movies of this century, the high-watermark of historical epics; makes gladiator look like a TV pilot. ridley's such a pro that all of this enormous scale and production never threatens to drown out the essential poe-faced skeptical existentialism at its heart, it's the closest he's made to a kurosawa film, two cultures portrayed with equal nuance, regrettably forced into conflict, with the hope that some shared understanding can be achieved through the integrity of one's actions;… more
Chris Cabin (4★) · 735 likes
The rumors are true: the director's cut of this rips.
2000 · Action, Drama, Adventure · 2h 35m · R · Curator 8.4/10 (3.8M ratings) · Where to watch: Hulu, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Kanopy, AMC, Philo
Another Ridley Scott historical spectacle with a fallen man navigating power, vengeance, and empire, but with a more streamlined emotional engine.
1981 · Adventure, Fantasy · 2h 21m · R · Curator 5.6/10 (132.2K ratings)
A stylized, operatic take on medieval legend that values atmosphere, ritual, and visual grandeur.
Topics
historical epic, crusades, medieval warfare, religious conflict, political intrigue, siege, desert spectacle, moral idealism, war drama, period adventure