Corrected entry: In the scene where Balian of Ibelin is preparing the defense of Jerusalem and he sets white markers at a distance from the city walls, he measures this distance in meters. The meter was established in 1875 A.D, almost 700 years later.
Tailkinker
11th Jul 2005
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
20th Jun 2008
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie, Saladin and his army arrive at Jerusalem around sunset. When night falls, they begin an offensive on the walls of Jerusalem with perhaps hundreds of trebuchets. This continues all night, and the next morning they assault the walls directly with siege towers and a ram. There are several things wrong with this set of events. Firstly, there is no way the army could have constructed so many siege towers overnight, even if they had the wood. Remember that they are situated in a barren and apparently treeless desert. Pushing the siege towers with them to Jerusalem isn't a plausible idea either, because they entered through the mountains-very unwieldy terrain to push something such as a siege tower. Secondly, if we are to assume they constructed siege towers on site, it would have taken weeks, perhaps months. There would be near-constant attacks on the walls with the trebuchets and the affected area would most likely be destroyed save the walls. This is why sieges were typically year-long affairs, and dramatic siege battles did not happen within days of the siege being laid. Also, it would not be logical or common for the besiegers to risk everything in a final struggle for a single breach in the walls. A sensible army would simply resume the bombardment and spend another few months building siege towers. The city might run out of food and starve, and the besiegers could take the city without further fighting. The developers most likely sped up the siege length for the sake of the movie, because it would be jarring to the viewer to skip forward months at a time.
Correction: According to historical accounts, Saladin and his army arrived at the city on September 20th 1187 and the surrender of Jerusalem was negotiated on October 2nd, thirteen days later. The accounts also mention the repeated use of siege engines of many varieties. So they either brought the siege engines with them, or were able to create them speedily on-site. While, yes, the filmmakers have compressed events to a small degree, this is simply artistic licence - the film is not intended as a documentary and thus is entitled to take liberties with the precise timeframe. Certainly the historical references do not support your assertation that the creation of numerous such machines should take weeks or even months. Your suggestion that the besiegers of the city would not concentrate all their force on a small area also fails to conform with the historical accounts. There are references to Saladin moving his army to a specific tactically-advantageous location near the Mount of Olives and opening a breach in the walls, much as depicted in the film, with an inconclusive battle being fought at that point. While the film-makers have taken some liberties, which is entirely allowable as artistic licence, the film sticks reasonably close to the true events.
13th Jul 2005
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Corrected entry: In the film, the dome on the Dome of the Rock is gilded with gold. However, the gold plating was not added to the shrine until the 1920s courtesy of a donation on behalf of the Turkish government.
Correction: While restoration has been necessary over the years, including the one in the 1920's, the dome has always had a gilt colouring.
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Correction: Standard practice in historically set films is to use present-day language and terms, to allow modern audiences to understand - this is a standard movie convention and is not considered an error (the metre was actually first defined in about 1790). Regardless, in this particular film, the unit of measurement is never stated - they only ever mention numbers.
Tailkinker ★