17. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Depending on which version you see, Kingdom of Heaven can be either holy or unholy. The theatrical cut of Kingdom of Heaven, a liberally fictionalized chronicle of the Italian noble Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom) who fought in the Crusades, bombed in theaters. Incoherent and oppressive, the film captures the misery of the Crusades, but ultimately falls short. While it contains moments of visual beauty, expected from the director of Gladiator, it feels incomplete. That was because it was. When Kingdom of Heaven hit DVD, Ridley Scott personally supervised an extended director’s cut, adding 40 minutes of restored material originally excised due to studio meddling and audience test screenings. The result transformed a flawed film into a modern masterpiece.
