Shared with you
- King Baldwin IV: A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.
- King Baldwin IV: Come forward. I am glad to meet Godfrey's son. He was one of my greatest teachers. He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut. It was he, not my father's physicians, who noticed that I felt no pain. He wept when he gave my father the news... that I am a leper. The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengence against the vanity of our kingdom. As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell is far more severe and lasting. If that's true, I call it unfair. Come. Sit.
- [they sit down on opposite sides of a chessboard]
- King Baldwin IV: Do you play?
- Balian of Ibelin: No.
- King Baldwin IV: The whole world is in chess. Any move can be the death of you. Do anything except remain where you started, and you can't be sure of your end. Were you sure of your end once?
- Balian of Ibelin: I was.
- King Baldwin IV: What was it?
- Balian of Ibelin: To be buried a hundred yards from where I was born.
- King Baldwin IV: And now?
- Balian of Ibelin: Now I sit in Jerusalem, and look upon a king.
- King Baldwin IV: [Baldwin chuckles] When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus," or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.
- Balian of Ibelin: I will.
- Hospitaller: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here
- [points to head]
- Hospitaller: and here
- [points to heart]
- Hospitaller: and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man - or not.
- Balian of Ibelin: [Saladin has just offered safe conduct in his terms] When the Christians captured Jerusalem, they massacred every Muslim in the city walls...
- Saladin: I am not those men. I am Salahudin.
- [with more emphasis]
- Saladin: Sala-hu-din!
- King Baldwin IV: A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.
- Saladin: Who defends?
- Imad: Balian of Ibelin, the son of Godfrey.
- Saladin: Godfrey? Godfrey nearly killed me in the Lebanon. Truly, I did not know he had a son.
- Imad: It was his son at Kerak.
- Saladin: The one you let live?
- Imad: Yes.
- Saladin: Perhaps you should not have.
- Imad: Perhaps I should have had a different teacher.
- Balian of Ibelin: God will understand, my lord. And if he doesn't, then he is not God and we need not worry.
- Saladin: [to Guy de Lusignan] A king does not kill a king. Were you not close enough to a great king to learn by his example?
- Godfrey of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.
- Godfrey of Ibelin: [cuffs Balian with the back of his hand] And that's so you remember it.
- Hospitaller: Arise a knight and Baron of Ibelin.
- Saladin: Will you yield the city?
- Balian of Ibelin: Before I lose it, I will burn it to the ground. Your holy places - ours. Every last thing in Jerusalem that drives men mad.
- Saladin: I wonder if it would not be better if you did.
- English Sergeant: [walking along the waterfront at Messina] When we took the Holy Land, we took the Saracen trading ports. The Italian ships carry silks and spices... and pilgrims, if they have money. And Italy becomes rich, as the Savior intended.
- Balian of Ibelin: [Balian sees a group of men praying on the beach] Who are those men?
- English Sergeant: Muslims. Saracens.
- Balian of Ibelin: And they are allowed their prayers?
- English Sergeant: If they pay the tax. "Subhana Rabbi'l Adhim."
- [he turns to Balian]
- English Sergeant: "Praise be to God. It is proper to praise him."
- Balian of Ibelin: Sounds like our prayers.
- Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Convert to Islam... repent later!
- Balian of Ibelin: You've taught me a lot about religion, your Eminence.
- Balian of Ibelin: You go with the army?
- Hospitaller: My order is with the army.
- Balian of Ibelin: You go to certain death.
- Hospitaller: All death is certain. I shall tell your father what I've seen you become.
- [rides away]
- Jerusalem: Who do you think you are? Will you alter the world? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?
- Balian of Ibelin: [pause, turn slowly to face Bishop] Yes.
- Balian of Ibelin: [to the people of Jerusalem] It has fallen to us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?
- [pause]
- Balian of Ibelin: The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim.
- [raises his voice]
- Balian of Ibelin: All have claim!
- Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: That is blasphemy!
- Almaric: [to the Patriarch] Be quiet.
- Balian of Ibelin: We defend this city, not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls.
- Tiberias: But Saladin and the king between them would make a better world.
- Hospitaller: If it lives only for a while, Tiberias, it still has lived.
- Richard's Knight: We crusade to recover the kingdom of Jerusalem
- Balian of Ibelin: Go till the men speak Italian and continue until they speak something else
- Richard Coeur de Lion: We come along this road to find Balian of Ibelin, who defended Jerusalem against the Saracens.
- Balian of Ibelin: I am a blacksmith
- Richard Coeur de Lion: And I am the king of England
- Balian of Ibelin: [pauses] I am a blacksmith.
- Hospitaller: Are you sorry for all your sins?
- Godfrey of Ibelin: [looking at Balian, his illegitimate son] For all but one.
- Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: The things that we have left undone plague us as death comes. That is why to the dying there is no comfort but the Lord.
- King Baldwin IV: Spare me your sermon. Go and prepare your people for the coronation of my nephew.
- Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Your confession, my lord.
- King Baldwin IV: I shall confess to God when I see him... not to you. Now, leave me.
- Balian of Ibelin: What could a king ask of a man like me?
- Godfrey of Ibelin: A better world than has ever been seen. A kingdom of conscience. A kingdom of heaven.
- Odo: Have you been at war?
- Balian of Ibelin: On horse. And as an engineer also.
- Odo: Against whom and for whom did you fight?
- Balian of Ibelin: For one lord against another, on a point which cannot be remembered.
- Odo: There's better game now: one God against another. The pay is proportionate.
- [chuckles]
- Hospitaller: One may stare into the light, until one becomes the light. I've done it many times.
- Balian of Ibelin: [throws a rock at a bush that catches fire by the spark] There's your religion. One spark, a creosote bush. There's your Moses. I did not hear it speak.
- Hospitaller: That does not mean that there is no God. Do you love her?
- Balian of Ibelin: Yes.
- Hospitaller: The heart will mend. Your duty is to the people of the city. I go to pray.
- Balian of Ibelin: For what?
- Hospitaller: For the strength to endure what is to come.
- Balian of Ibelin: And what is to come?
- Hospitaller: The reckoning is to come for what was done one hundred years before. The Muslims will never forget. Nor should they.
- [the Hospitaler slowly walks away as a second bush several yards from the burning one catches fire. The Hospitaler is nowhere to be seen in the clear and open desert]
- Bishop: A law can go too far... it can go too far. I ask myself, 'would Jesus do thusly?' There is so much done in Christendom of which Christ would be incapable.
- Hospitaller: Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves.
- Patriarch of Jerusalem: When a body is burnt, it cannot be resurrected until Judgment Day.
- Balian of Ibelin: If we do not burn these bodies, we will all be dead of disease in three days. God will understand, my lord. And if he doesn't... then he is not God, and we need not worry.
- Godfrey of Ibelin: Do you know what lies in the Holy Land? A new world. A man who, in France, had not a house, is, in the Holy Land, the master of a city. He who was the master of a city begs in the gutter. There, at the end of the world, you are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.
- Balian of Ibelin: I have to find forgiveness. That's all I know.
- Godfrey of Ibelin: Whatever your position, you are of my house, and that means you will serve the King of Jerusalem.
- Balian of Ibelin: What could a king ask of a man like me?
- Godfrey of Ibelin: A better world than has ever been seen. A kingdom of conscience. A kingdom of heaven. There is peace between Christian and Muslim. We live together, or between Saladin and the king, we try. Did you think that lay at the end of a Crusade?
- [Balian shakes his head]
- Godfrey of Ibelin: It does. My son, you are all that survives me. Do not disappoint me.
- Saladin: I pray you pull back your cavalry and leave this matter to me.
- King Baldwin IV: I pray you retire unharmed to Damascus. Reynald of Chatillon will be punished. I swear it. Withdraw or we will all die here.
- Mullah: [the mullah pays a visit to Saladin in his tent after the battle at Kerak] Why did we retire? Why? God did not favor them. God alone determines the results of battles.
- Saladin: The results of battles ARE determined by God, but also by preparation, numbers, the absence of disease, and the availability of water. One cannot maintain a siege with the enemy behind. How many battles did God win for the Muslims before I came... that is, before God determined that I should come?
- Mullah: Few enough. That's because we were sinful.
- Saladin: It is because you were unprepared.
- Mullah: If you think that way, you shall not be king for long.
- Saladin: [Saladin rises to his feet] When I'm not king, I quake for Islam. Thank you for your visit.
- [the mullah does not budge; Saladin takes a step forward and extends his hand]
- Saladin: Thank you for your visit.
- [the mullah takes his meaning and grasps the offered hand]
- Mullah: You promised. You promised to return Jerusalem. Don't forget.
- [he leaves]
- Saladin: If I do not deliver war, I have no peace.
- Imad: The King of Jerusalem will die soon. When he is dead, the boy will become king of a kingdom he cannot control. The Christians will make the war you need.
- Tiberias: That I would rather live with men than kill them is certainly why you are alive.
- Guy de Lusignan: [Chuckles] That sort of Christianity has its uses, I suppose...
- Hospitaller: [while tending to Godfrey's wounds] When shall we stop this madness?
- Godfrey of Ibelin: It will soon be beyond my concern.
- [Guy de Lusignan and his knights walk over to the campsite]
- Guy de Lusignan: [pointing at Balian] Who is this?
- Godfrey of Ibelin: My son.
- Guy de Lusignan: Would I had fought you when you were still capable of making bastards.
- [he laughs]
- Godfrey of Ibelin: I knew your mother when she was making hers. Fortunately, you're too old to be one of mine.
- Guy de Lusignan: [Guy laughs again] All will be settled.
- Reynald de Chatillon: [at a hearing in Tiberias' chambers] Who says I raid?
- Tiberias: That witness... all of Jerusalem... Holy God... and me.
- Reynald de Chatillon: That "witness," if you call him that, is a Saracen. He lies.
- Tiberias: There will come a day, Reynald de Chatillon, when you are not protected by your title.
- Reynald de Chatillon: Oh? When will that be? Alert me, Tiberias, when men are equal and the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived.
- Tiberias: Those Templars have been hung for a raid that I KNOW you commanded!
- Reynald de Chatillon: Prove it. I will wait at Kerak until you do.
- Tiberias: The king will take your castle of Kerak, Reynald.
- Reynald de Chatillon: Try to take it, Tiberias. I'll be there.
- [he walks out with a dirty look at the Saracen witness]
- Muslim Grandee: [in Arabic] You're letting him go? Why are you letting him go?
- Tiberias: I cannot protect your caravans unless you agree to be escorted by our soldiers.
- Muslim Grandee: [in English] I trade to make money, not to offend God by associating with Christians.
- Tiberias: [hefting a sack of money] But you will take Christian gold.
- Muslim Grandee: Gold is gold.
- [Tiberias tosses it to him]
- Tiberias: Of course.
- Tiberias: There is a rumour. We must condemn it immediately.
- Sybilla: Call it treason. And kill those who whisper it.
- Tiberias: The rumour will die if we show the boy as active...
- Sybilla: [bursts out] How long before he wears a mask? Will you have one made for him? How did my boy deserve it? Jerusalem is dead, Tiberias. No kingdom is worth my son alive in hell. I will go to hell instead.
- [Tiberias steps forth and hugs Sibylla]
- Mullah: [just before the final assault on Jerusalem] Brothers! Brothers! God has sent you this day! You will take no prisoners! As they did, so shall it be done! Allahu akbar!
- Muslim Soldiers: Allahu akbar!
- Mullah: Allahu akbar!
- Muslim Soldiers: Allahu akbar!
- Mullah: Allahu akbar!
- Muslim Soldiers: Allahu akbar!
- [last title card]
- Title card: The King, Richard the Lionheart, went on to the Holy Land and crusaded for three years. His struggle to regain Jerusalem ended in an uneasy truce with Saladin. Nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive.
- King Baldwin IV: [to Sibylla] My beautiful sister. So beautiful. I'm sorry if I've caused you any pain. Remember me as I was.
- Godfrey of Ibelin: It was not that they had no right to take you, it was the way they asked.
- Balian of Ibelin: They had the right to take me.
- Godfrey of Ibelin: So do I.
- Nasir: [to Balian] ... and if God does not love you, how could you have done the things you have done?
- Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: [almost crying] Who do you think you are? Will you alter the world? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?
- Balian of Ibelin: Yes
- Imad: [a Saracen knight yells at Balian in Arabic] He says, that is his horse.
- Balian of Ibelin: Why would it be his horse?
- Imad: Because it is on his land.
- Balian of Ibelin: I took this horse from the sea.
- Imad: [Imad translates, the knight yells again] He says you are a great liar and he will fight you because you are a liar.
- Balian of Ibelin: I have no desire to fight.
- Imad: Then you must give him the horse.
- [Balian draws his sword]
- King Baldwin IV: I felt in that moment that I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty.