Watched on Blu-Ray (Director's Cut, the only legitimate version to enjoy the grandeur and depth of "Kingdom of Heaven". The nearly 50-minute shorter theatrical version is just a jumpy, barely organically told rump version of Ridley Scott's actual vision).

No, "Kingdom of Heaven" does not strive for historical accuracy. The English historian Jonathan Riley-Smith, in particular, never tired of mentioning at the time that the plot of the film was not only factually wrong, but also completely nonsensical in view of the actual facts. That may well be true, but Ridley Scott does not want to deliver a cautionary history lesson here that relies solely on his lexical knowledge. He is much more concerned with making history tangible and thus giving the viewer a feeling for the time of the Crusades. Similar to "Gladiator" from 2000, the script picks up from various historical facts and traditions and creates its own story from them. Of course, this can be criticised.

But that would be denying oneself access to one of the most impressive monumental films of the new millennium, because that is exactly what "Kingdom of Heaven" (of course exclusively in the Director's Cut) has become: A masterpiece of its genre. After a few panels of text informing us that the peasants and nobles of Europe flee to the Holy Land in search of wealth and salvation, we meet Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom), the protagonist of the narrative. A simple blacksmith, he is in mourning over the suicide of his wife and shortly afterwards learns that the great Templar knight Godfrey (Liam Neeson) is his father. He offers to take Balian to Jerusalem, where he can absolve himself and his wife of all their sins.

Even though Balian refuses at first, he eventually ends up in Jerusalem - not least because fate is more than kind to him on more than one occasion. Not only does he survive an ambush, the consequences of which Godfrey ultimately succumbs to, but he also survives a shipwreck and a sword fight with a Saracen: He proves himself worthy to enter the holy land. Or even more, he proves himself worthy of leading the holy land into a kingdom of conscience. The character of Balian may seem a little too clean and, with Orlando Bloom, he has been given an actor whose acting repertoire is not without reason considered extremely limited, but in "Kingdom of Heaven" this character becomes the moral yardstick and anchor point of a world in which princes are no longer at war, but where a war of the gods has been raging for over a hundred years.

Balian, however, does not come to Jerusalem to fight, but to mediate and create peace between the religions. He advocates peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in order to protect the people of Jerusalem. The foresight inherent in "Kingdom of Heaven" germinates from the fact that the leaders of both parties, both King Balduin (Edward Norton), who suffers from leprosy, and Sultan Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), also strive to resolve differences through dialogue. The fact that this plan does not succeed is not due to the two leaders, but to their fanatical, power-hungry subordinates. A gigantic battle ensues, crowds clash with crowds, the surges of war illustrate their immense power. The Crusades were a miserable mass death.

This archaic battle rage, which erupts in the last third of "Kingdom of Heaven", is simply outstandingly staged. Ridley Scott, however, does not feast on this virtuoso visual violence, he does not recognise anything heroic in the act of killing, but looks again and again with disgust and horror at the bestial goings-on that take place in and around the fortress of Kerak. As impressive and immersive as the effect of the detailed set, the costumes and the production effort may be, "Kingdom of Heaven" does not engage in showmanship, but formulates a clear concern: Holiness lies in righteous action, not in the delusions of fanatics of any denomination who claim bloodshed to be the will of God. Too many religions have flashed and continue to flash in the eyes of too many murderers. That is why Saladin may speak the wise words that Jerusalem means nothing and everything at the same time.

No one has a claim to this holy land because we all have a claim to it. To the Wailing Wall, the tomb of Christ, the mosques. Particularly bitter, but ultimately only logical, is the realisation that the Crusades are ultimately no longer about going to war for God. It is about economic and political interests, about wealth and land. Has anything changed in that regard? The Crusades may be over, the religious conflicts still claim countless lives - and peace has still not come to Jerusalem. Even though "Kingdom of Heaven" tells a fictional story against a historical background, its motivation is a timeless, stirring appeal to man's mind, heart and soul. Balian will return to France at the end, the crusades continued. Did he change anything? Not permanently. But he tried.