Kingdom of Heaven

Kingdom of Heaven, staring Orlando Bloom as Bailan de Ibelin, had a very unique cinematic style. In the beginning of the film, Bailan's dad, Godfrey de Ibelan, goes to Bailan to ask him for forgiveness and to see if Bailan will go to Jerusalem with him to fight for the king. After Bailian rejects the offer, you see a medium shot of Bailan's back and an extreme longshot of Godfrey. Ridley Scott from here on uses a crane or stedicam shot to follow Bailan. It gives you the feel that you're with Bailan watching his every move. When Bailan is resting in the middle of the desert after his boat sank and washed ashore, you see this again when the servant fights him. You have a couple subjective shots (from Bailan's point of view) and then when the servant charges it goes back to a stedicam shot behind Bailan. Throughout the movie you have that type of shot of Bailan during the fight scenes, which personally I like. I like seeing Bailan defend himself and then seeing him attack and kill someone very quickly.

When Bailan is brought to his father when he is dying, Scott uses another unique cinematic technique. When there's close ups on Bailan and Godfrey Scott has short cuts between the two and even films the priests and guards while you hear Godfrey giving Bailan's oath and while he's dying. This technique made this slow and dramatic scene more intense ad interesting. It caught my attention and I was on the edge of my seat, whereas if he just filmed Bailan and Godfrey with long takes and close ups the scene would of been pretty boring.

The most notable technique in the film is the slow motion. The first time you see the movie in slow motion is when Godfrey and his men, along with Bailan, get attacked by the army from Bailan's village/city. Not only does the slow motion make for a dramatic effect, but it also is accurate to what Bailan is seeing. He never has been in a serious fight like that and I think time would really slow down at first because he would be so shocked. Then with the rush of adrenaline he springs into combat with his sword killing the crossbowmen who are attacking them. Each time there's slow motion I feel like Bailan grows as a soldier and becomes braver. Whenever there's slow motion it is usually of him charging into battle or trying to connect with Jesus Christ.

After I was done viewing the movie I thought he broke his word when the King of England asked him if he was Bailan de Ibeman. He said he is a blacksmith. I thought after he said that it was going against his oath. "Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Speak the truth, always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong". I thought he was lying when he didn't tell him he was Bailan, but now I realized he simply avoided telling the king his name by saying he was a blacksmith. I assume Bailan didn't want to go because he decided Jerusalem isn't worth fighting over and he was happy with Sibylla.