Watched Kingdom of Heaven tonight. Thought it was pretty good.

What's the movie about? War in the Holy Land. Only eight hundred years ago. Here's a great site on the Crusades. It's important to note that the time period is actually BETWEEN the second and third crusades - this is the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Background important to the movie begins with Baldwin IV, the movie itself begins with Succession Woes and runs to -- HISTORICAL-STYLE SPOILER ALERT! -- Fall of Jerusalem. A bunch of bits are cut out, like any mention of Baldwin V, and Orlando Bloom plays Balian, so our focus is on his character. But it seems the history is pretty reasonable. Not great, but better than I expected.

What's interesting about the movie is that both Christian and Moslem factions are played pretty even-handedly. Both sides have their fanatics, and on that regard I'd have to say the Moslems come off looking a little better, no doubt due to the strong leader in Saladin and their relative lack of on-screen politicking. Balian is on the side of the Christians, so it is obvious who we're intended to root for. His ultimate goal is to save the people rather than Defend the Holy Land, so we do.

It's gory at times, Orlando Bloom had but one expression the entire movie, and the cursory love story was pretty extraneous, but all-in-all, quite enjoyable.