The Greatest Scene In All Of Cinema – Kingdom Of Heaven
If you have not already seen the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven, please go watch it because it is honestly one of my favorite movies of all time. That being said, this specific scene is just absolute cinema. Let’s get into it. Sali. The first thing that occurs before either of them even say a word is a greeting.
They wave to each other despite the fact that they are enemies. They decide to acknowledge the other. That may not have looked like much, but the fact that they decide to wait for the other to speak first can also be seen as a sign of courtesy. I pray you pull back your cavalry and leave this matter to me. Wait, what did Saladine just say? I pray you pull back your cavalry and leave this matter to me.
Saladine is praying, hoping, politely asking Baldwin to withdraw his army back to Jerusalem. This is not a threat. This is a request. And how does the king of Jerusalem respond? I pray you retire on harm to Damascus. The first two words are repeated. I pray. Baldwin is not only matching Saladine’s energy, but he also wishes him a safe return to Damascus.
Ronaldo Chatalon will be punished. I swear it. Withdrawal. We will all die here. Here, Baldwin tells Saladine to withdraw, but the words he chooses to use show that he is not making threats. What stands out is not necessarily what Baldwin chooses to say, but instead what he chooses to not say.
Baldwin doesn’t tell Saladine that if he does not withdraw, he will die here. He is saying that all of us, the hundreds of thousands of Muslim and Christian knights, will die for nothing. [Music] Do we have terms? [Music] We have terms. I will send you my physicians. Everyone knows that the king of Jerusalem is a leper.
Yet, Saladine decides to lower his gaze as a sign of empathy and even goes so far as to send Baldwin his very own physicians. And how does Baldwin respond? Baldwin decides to thank him by speaking Arabic, the language of Saladine, the language of the Muslim people. and the language of his enemy. And how does Saladine respond? Saladine answers Baldwin’s salam despite the fact that he is not a Muslim, despite the fact that he is a Christian, despite the fact that he is the enemy.
[Music] [Music] And then we just see Baldwin’s sister, Princess Sabilla, just in awe of what she just witnessed. She just watched her brother cause Saladine and his entire army to withdraw using nothing but words. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Why is this scene the greatest scene in all of cinema?” Well, because on the surface, nothing happened.
There was no giant epic fight, no big reveal. It was kind of anticlimactic. But if you dig deeper, so much happened. It shows us how to solve a problem. Respect and communication. That’s it. If there’s anything I missed, please feel free to comment down below and feel free to check out my other videos. Thanks for watching.
