Oh Happy Day!
Oh the joy! Kingdom of Heaven (KoH) - the Director's Cut is finally out in stores! I decided to go grocery shopping with wifey yesterday out of the want and desire to finally do something proper on a saturday and spent most of my time in an electronics shop browsing the DVD section when my eyes caught onto it. I've been waiting for this DVD for such a long time ever since it was announced almost half a year ago, at least.
Normally, I'd use the english version of the DVD version, since I usually buy it from Amazon.co.uk instead of Amazon.de. There's something about dubbed names and dubbed movies that takes away the originality of the movie to me. But after looking at the drab cover that is the UK version of this DVD, I decided to go with the german cover. You can check out the UK cover here. I don't think there was any contest which box I was going to pick to put on the blog.
This DVD adds more footage - 47 mins - that was edited out for fear of the theatrical movie release being too long, which would hurt sales, given that long winded movies. albeit with a shallow plot line, had suffered during that time. For critics of KoH, as I refer to it, the extended version adds more dimension to the existing characters and ties up some loose ends which were questioned in the theatrical release.
What is especially poignant is the interaction between Eva Green (Sibylla) and her young son, who is never seen in the theatres, or between Balian (Orlando Bloom) and the priest who's actually his half-brother, or the scene between Balian and his wife in a flashback scene taken out of the movie. There's more of Edward Norton as the leper king - I swear, his voice sounds so full and hollow it's there but not there - disconnected to the world yet a part of it. It's these little touches that add more life, more significance, more nuance to the film and puts in the justification that this should have been the released version, not the edited 140 version. Oh, I never mentioned this version's length, it's 190 mins. Lord of the Rings long, but the lucious sets and captivating costumes of the thespians make it well worth it.
I'm a middle age buff and anything that's good and has to do with the middle, medieval and renaissance ages, I look forward to seeing. I don't know which einstein marketed this in america as a love story, but obviously he should get his head examined - preferably with an axe meeting his neck. No wonder this movie bombed in america. It's not a love story, per se. Love is a sub plot like the many other threads woven into this fine tapestry of a film.
I know this isn't really a long write up of the DVD, but there's so much added that I can't be bothered to write about all of them. Get the DVD, see the movie, love the atmosphere, and feel for the characters. It's excellent stuff. Ridley Scott did Gladiator, and I liked that movie, but this blows Gladiator out of the water.
My next target : the KoH sound track. Some of the songs are just hauntingly beautiful.
My moo meter would put this at 10/10. If I could go higher, I would. It's that good. ^^
Normally, I'd use the english version of the DVD version, since I usually buy it from Amazon.co.uk instead of Amazon.de. There's something about dubbed names and dubbed movies that takes away the originality of the movie to me. But after looking at the drab cover that is the UK version of this DVD, I decided to go with the german cover. You can check out the UK cover here. I don't think there was any contest which box I was going to pick to put on the blog.
This DVD adds more footage - 47 mins - that was edited out for fear of the theatrical movie release being too long, which would hurt sales, given that long winded movies. albeit with a shallow plot line, had suffered during that time. For critics of KoH, as I refer to it, the extended version adds more dimension to the existing characters and ties up some loose ends which were questioned in the theatrical release.
What is especially poignant is the interaction between Eva Green (Sibylla) and her young son, who is never seen in the theatres, or between Balian (Orlando Bloom) and the priest who's actually his half-brother, or the scene between Balian and his wife in a flashback scene taken out of the movie. There's more of Edward Norton as the leper king - I swear, his voice sounds so full and hollow it's there but not there - disconnected to the world yet a part of it. It's these little touches that add more life, more significance, more nuance to the film and puts in the justification that this should have been the released version, not the edited 140 version. Oh, I never mentioned this version's length, it's 190 mins. Lord of the Rings long, but the lucious sets and captivating costumes of the thespians make it well worth it.
I'm a middle age buff and anything that's good and has to do with the middle, medieval and renaissance ages, I look forward to seeing. I don't know which einstein marketed this in america as a love story, but obviously he should get his head examined - preferably with an axe meeting his neck. No wonder this movie bombed in america. It's not a love story, per se. Love is a sub plot like the many other threads woven into this fine tapestry of a film.
I know this isn't really a long write up of the DVD, but there's so much added that I can't be bothered to write about all of them. Get the DVD, see the movie, love the atmosphere, and feel for the characters. It's excellent stuff. Ridley Scott did Gladiator, and I liked that movie, but this blows Gladiator out of the water.
My next target : the KoH sound track. Some of the songs are just hauntingly beautiful.
My moo meter would put this at 10/10. If I could go higher, I would. It's that good. ^^
posted by Dippers at 2:42 PM
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