kingdom of heaven directors cut

[B. Patricius]

I've been looking into both Ironclad and Arn myself. 

Sir Ulrich, I certainly hope in your history class there were discussions about the inaccuracies of Kingdom of Heaven, not just that it was a good source for history.  Don't get me wrong, I love that movie, but in some ways it can be as historically accurate as "Season of the Witch" or "Knight's Tale."  Both of which I own and love too! 

[Ian]

Both Arn (the shorter version, which is still quite long) and Ironclad are available on Netflix streaming last I checked if you have the service.  Haha, I will admit to liking Season of the Witch, and of course I love Knight's Tale, even though it's total fantasy, it's still awesome and I watch it every time I run across it on TV.

[Sir James A]

Yes, Ironclad and Arn are both on Netflix streaming. Season of the Witch as well.

I enjoy all of them, and A Knight's Tale, too. A Knight's Tale is my favorite. As a movie, I want the feel and the story - historical accuracy is for documentaries. Not that I wouldn't like more accuracy, but I neither expect nor demand it from Hollyweird.

[Ian]

Not that I wouldn't like more accuracy, but I neither expect nor demand it from Hollyweird.

Agreed.  It's fun to point out random inaccuracies here and there, but I think it's an effort in futility and quite silly to look down your nose at every historical drama that hollywood puts out as garbage based solely on the fact that it's not historically accurate.  It can still be a great piece of entertainment.

Now what does bother me, is that documentaries are often just as flawed as hollywood productions, and the people believe what they see as historical fact, not by any fault of their own, but because they simply don't know any better.  If you're making a documentary, you better get your facts right, or go make a drama instead.

[Sir Wolf]

ya, even i like all of the movies stated. although i often pull a "Nelson" going "AHA!" when i see something wrong in them

[Sir William]

Both Arn (the shorter version, which is still quite long) and Ironclad are available on Netflix streaming last I checked if you have the service.  Haha, I will admit to liking Season of the Witch, and of course I love Knight's Tale, even though it's total fantasy, it's still awesome and I watch it every time I run across it on TV.

Took me a couple times to like SotW, but I grudgingly do.  lol

I do still like Black Death...it's grim tho, real grim. 

If you want one to watch that'll just have you in tears (be it due to laughter or frustration), In the Name of the King is a good one for that.  From the horrid dialog, to the wooden acting, to the crappy costumes or the shockingly beautiful set locations...and Gimli and Henry Hill and Burt Reynolds are principals.  Its all so horrible its almost a hoot to watch.  I'm waiting for the MST3K version to come out. 

[B. Patricius]

In one of my 400 level classes, we had a discussion about "anthropologically correct" versus "historical accuracy."  It was really cool because one student in the class was a history major that took the class to get a more "objective perspective" as he put it.  We ended up watching "Knight's Tale" after a discussion ensued, and I of course, having owned it.   

Is it remotely historically accurate?  Kind of  there were tournaments, Geoffrey Chaucer and Prince Edward did in fact exist, the Battle of Poitiers did happen, and the armour in one century or another was accurate to the archaeological record.  But looking into that movie, with its music, the choice of name for William, his alter-ego "Sir Ulrich," etc, etc, is awesome.  It's a contemporary film for a contemporary audience.  It's easy for anyone to understand the gist of what's going on, and in fact has made my family better understand why I do what I do as a hobby.  So, as a study of the "human condition" as us Anthropologists like to put it, it's a very very good movie.

Sorry, I could go on and on about that film. 

[Sir Edward]

I'm on the intermission right now between disc 1 and 2, of the directors cut. Heh, I did something stupid and ordered the 4-disc DVD set, instead of the blue-ray. The DVD version has the movie split over two discs, and cost double what the blue-ray does. Doh!

So I ordered the blue-ray too. Now I'm going to have 3 copies of this movie.

[Sir William]

It won't hurt Sir Edward, I promise.  lol  I've got two versions, the theatrical version is still buried somewhere in an obscure box that has yet to be unpacked.  The dc is on a mantle of sorts with all the rest of my medieval movies.

[Sir Edward]

The director's cut is actually pretty good. It's interesting to see what was changed. It's a shame the theatrical version lost the entire conversation about Balian's war experience, and knowledge of siege engines. This makes everything make more sense later, that he just needs refinement, not 100% training to be a knight from being just a simple blacksmith.

Everything else that was cut, I can see why they did (from the movie studio's perspective), in that removal of it just reduces the film to the core plot. Re-adding those scenes makes it into a broader, more artistic piece.

[Ian]

**DIRECTOR's CUT SPOILER**

I thought one of the key pieces was the inclusion of Eva Green's (can't think of the character's name of the top of my head) son.  In the theatrical release her loyalties and motivations seem so arbitrary since her son isn't in the movie at all, but in the director's cut it makes a lot more sense why she behaves the way she does.

[Lord Dane]

Historically, isn't her son Baldwin V but too young to rule and dies?

[Sir Wolf]

i thought there would be more to the Odo part. he pretty much says hi i'm Odo and then he dies in the next scene.

[Sir William]

The scenes that were removed were probably done to keep the overall run time from being too long; but they went far in explaining some of the character motivations that I didn't get when I first saw it.  Why does Isabella do what she does?  How did Balian know anything about siege machines, where'd he learn to fight with a sword so well?  My thinking at the time was, if all it took were two lessons from Liam Neeson, where do I sign up?