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Night at the Movies - Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut


Scrivener
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Holy freakin' crap, it's an entirely different movie. In the original theatrical release I was sort of getting that whole Legolas vibe from Orlando Bloom and it's totally gone in this version. Also - remember at the end when Balian has everyone marking distances and you're like "WTF is this?"... well, you can thank Fox for all those problems because they just aint in the Directors Cut.

There is a TON of character development at the beginning that helps explain who Balian is and why he does the things he does. The medieval politics and clash of religions is also played up in this version, so that the characters all have actual motives. There are a couple MAJOR characters in this version that I honestly don't think were even in the studio cut (havn't seen it since it's opening week).

This makes the theatrical release of Kingdom of Heaven perhaps the most profoundly staggering butchery of a movie that I have ever seen. Remember the difference between The Abyss theatrical and the Directors Cut? Or The Fellowship of the Ring theatrical and Extended Edition? This is several times more shocking a difference than either of those... and had this version been released in theatres from the outset, not only would people have flocked to it, but it would have been grade A Oscar bait.

I'm simultaneously overjoyed that I'm one of the few people who got to see Ridley Scott's original vision on the big screen and angry that we didn't get it the first time (even more angry that almost noone will ever get to see this marvelous film on the big screen - I mean, 1 theatre globally? Talk about limited freakin' releases).

I'll have to grab a few more friends and make them go see this before it's limited run ends this week. The theatre is a tiny little place, but it's not as bad as I was expecting at all. Definately worth the trip.

11/10

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