We are simple creatures.

Yet for simple creatures we have an endless yearning for answers. We wage war, betray those we love, and sell our souls and to what end?

The Kingdom of Heaven
Certainly one of my new all time favorites. Epic in a way that touches the heart more than Hobbits and Wizards and just barely more than Gladiators and Slaves in Rome. Ridley certainly built on the best of Gladiator, unvieling the story of Jersualem embodied in Balian, a man in search of himself, finds himself mired in politics and religion, and stands as just a man for men.

As a sucker for hero movies, this one certainly yanks on my guts. Balian's wife had just committed suicide when she lost her child in birth. A father he had never known that same day comes to ask his forgiveness, and he murders who priest who speaks against his wife. Hell of a day. His father is a Lord, a great man and servant of teh king of Jerusalalem. He dies defending Balian from the bishops men. He makes Balian a night, and Lord in his passing, charges him with doing right, serving the king, the people, and the weak.

Balian earns the respect of his enemies with his spirit, his sword, and his mercy. The Christians and the Muslims have a tenuous relationship, one that politics is soon to unravel. While Balian serves the king, a dying leper played by ed norton, the templars are provoking a war that would soon engulf them all.

At the King's passing, his sister reluctantly and foolishly chooses her husband, a templar, as King. So begins the epic battle. As the King and his templar army are slaughtered by the Muslim horde, Balian prepares to defend the people in the "castle". He knights those able to fight, and when asked if doing so makes them better fighters, he replies. "Yes."

When he holds the muslims back after days of bloody battle, they agree to terms. He would surrender the city for the safe passage of all the people. The honorable muslim king offers these terms, with respect for Balian, his cultures, beliefs, and a distatse for more killing.

Balian is most certainly a man of great character, who finds that those with great power, political or religious, yield it for themselves. Instead Balian, yields his authority, to be a man. His place with God, still in question. And as any movie with religious themes will do, it leaves us with questions too.

Well done, scinematic, epic, beautiful.