Kingdom of Heaven Quotes

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.

Guy de Lusignan: [approaching a Muslim caravan] This caravan is armed, Reynald.

Reynald: Good. No sport otherwise.

Guy de Lusignan: They've seen us. Go after them. The rider is getting away.

Reynald: It's broad desert. Nothing will come of it, nothing.

Guy de Lusignan: I'd prefer not to be hanged before my wife is queen.

Reynald: Don't worry. "Who but Reynald", they'll say. It's always me. They'll believe it in Jerusalem, I assure you. You were at Nazareth, praying.

Guy de Lusignan: You're a dangerous man, Reynald.

Reynald: If the war's to be now or later, I would have it now. How long can the leper last?

Templar Master: God wills it. God wills it!

Templars: God wills it!

Reynald: Jerusalem!

[all charge towards the Muslim caravan]

Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Convert to Islam... repent later!

Balian of Ibelin: You've taught me a lot about religion, your Eminence.

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.

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]

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]

Sybilla: [walking] Do you fear being with me?

Balian of Ibelin: No.

[stops]

Balian of Ibelin: And yes.

Sybilla: [laughs] A woman in my place has two faces; one for the world, and one which she wears in private. With you I'll be only Sibylla.

Sybilla: [hears a noise and turns her head. A servant hides behind a wall] Tiberias thinks me unpredictable. I am unpredictable.

Balian of Ibelin: This army will be destroyed, and the city left defenseless.

Guy de Lusignan: When I wish a blacksmith to advise me in war, I will tell him.

Balian of Ibelin: Saladin wants you to come out. He is waiting for you to make that mistake.

Balian of Ibelin: [a single horsemen is seen in the distance standing on top of a hill] They are here.

Almaric: It is only one man.

Balian of Ibelin: No, they are here.

[the camera zooms out and makes the whole Saracen army visible behind the hill]

Balian of Ibelin: What is Jerusalem worth?

Saladin: Nothing.

[walks away]

Saladin: Everything!

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.

Saracen Messenger: The Sultan asks for his sister's body, the heads of those responsible and the surrender of Jerusalem.

Guy de Lusignan: Does he?

Saracen Messenger: What is you reply?

Guy de Lusignan: This.

[Decapitates the messenger]

Hospitaller: Are you sorry for all your sins?

Godfrey of Ibelin: [looking at Balian, his illegitimate son] For all but one.

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]

King Baldwin IV: Saladin has crossed the Jordan with 200,000 men.

Tiberias: He will make first for Kerak and Reynald de Chatillon.

Tiberias: [tries to help the King stand up] My lord.

King Baldwin IV: [rejects the help and stands up by himself] We must meet him before he reaches Kerak. I will lead the army.

Tiberias: My lord, if you travel, you'll die.

King Baldwin IV: Send word to Balian to protect the villagers.

King Baldwin IV: Assemble the army.

[the Templars cheer]

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

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.

King Baldwin IV: On your knees... lower. I am... Jerusalem. And you, Reynald, will give me the kiss of peace.

[takes off glove]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Almaric: They will ask for terms. We *must* ask for terms.

Jerusalem: Convert to Islam, repent later.

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: 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.

[first lines]

Gravedigger: Crusaders.

Squire: Clear the road, if you will.

[first title cards]

Title card: It is almost 100 years since Christian armies from Europe seized Jerusalem.

Title card: Europe suffers in the grip of repression and poverty. Peasant and lord alike flee to the Holy Land in search of fortune or salvation.

Title card: One Knight returns home in search of his son.

Title card: France 1184

[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.

Hospitaller: [Approaching the village where Balian lives] You know this place, my lord?

Godfrey of Ibelin: Know it? I know all of it.

Hospitaller: The blacksmith is the man you seek. His name is Balian. But know that he mourns. The burial that we passed at the crossroads was for his wife. Their child died. She was overcome by grief and killed herself.

Godfrey of Ibelin: Do you still advise what you advised upon the road?

Hospitaller: I do, my lord.

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.

Reynald: I drink water for what it is.

Saladin: I did not give the cup to you.

Reynald: No, my Lord.

Saladin: A king does not kill a king.

Guy de Lusignan: Give me a war.

Reynald: That is what I do.

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.

Bishop, Patriarch of Jerusalem: Who are you? Do you think you can change the World? Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?

Balian of Ibelin: [pause, turn slowly to face Bishop] Yes.

[last lines]

Richard Coeur de Lion: We come by this road to find Balian, who was defender of Jerusalem.

Balian of Ibelin: I am the blacksmith.

Richard Coeur de Lion: And I am the king of England.

Balian of Ibelin: [pauses] I am the blacksmith.

Saladin: As-Salaam-Alaikum

Balian of Ibelin: And peace be with you.

Sybilla: What becomes of us?

Balian of Ibelin: The world will decide. The world always decides.

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...

Tiberias: There will be a day, Reynald de Chatillon, when you will no longer be protected by your title.

Reynald: Oh? And when will that be?

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.

Balian of Ibelin: Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Safeguard the helpless. Never lie, even if it leads to your death; that is your oath.

[slap]

Balian of Ibelin: And that is so you don't forget it. Rise a knight... rise a knight!

Guy de Lusignan: [about Sibylla] My wife does not lament my absences. And is either the best of wives... or the very, very worst.

[leaves]

Tiberias: [to Sibylla as a toast] To the very best of wives.

Hospitaller: [to Balian] You sail now for Jerusalem as your father wished. If God has purpose for you there, he'll keep you safe in his hands.

[pauses]

Hospitaller: If not, God bless you.

King Baldwin IV: If you continue like this, I shall have to find some use for you. If God can spare you, that is.

Balian of Ibelin: God does not know me.

King Baldwin IV: Yes, but I do.

Reynald: Who says I raid?

Tiberias: That witness, all of Jerusalem, Holy God! - and me.

Templar Master: We should meet the enemies of God!

Guy de Lusignan: And so we shall.

Tiberias: Then you do so without my knights.

Guy de Lusignan: Then I will have the glory, Tiberias. You had yours, years ago. It's time for mine.

Imad: This is not a very good horse... I will not keep him.

[he hands the reins to Balian]

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]

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.

Richard's Knight: We crusade to recover the city of Jerusalem.

Balian of Ibelin: You go to where the men speak Italian, and then continue until they speak something else.

Hospitaller: [while watching the public execution of some Templars in Jerusalem] The king has made a peace with Saladin these past six years. He holds Jerusalem as a place of prayer for all faiths, as the Muslims did before we came. These men are Templars. They killed Arabs.

Balian of Ibelin: So they are dying for what the Pope would command them to do.

Hospitaller: Yes... but not Christ, I think. Nor this king.

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.

Reynald de Chatillon: Do you really think the king wants you head of the army once he's gone? Hm? Think your wife does?

Guy de Lusignan: I have a problem.

Reynald de Chatillon: Ah, yes. Balian. I saw him at Kerak. Celebrated.

[he leans in close to Guy]

Reynald de Chatillon: You must beware a popular man. Kill him.

Gravedigger: [Sybilla has cut her hair and disguised herself as a common nurse] You are not a sister.

Sybilla: We are what we do.

Gravedigger: Then I'm a man who's traveled a long way to die for nothing. What would you say to that?

[Balian walks by and Sybilla turns away]

Sybilla: I would say that I'm sorry.

Gravedigger: And I'm sorry for you... Queen of Jerusalem.

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.

Son of Roger de Cormier: I am the son of Roger de...

Godfrey of Ibelin: Take your helmet off while addressing me.

Son of Roger de Cormier: [the knight takes off his helmet and clears his throat] I am the son of Roger de Cormier.

[Godfrey stares at him]

Son of Roger de Cormier: I am accorded the privilege of ransom.

Godfrey of Ibelin: This is true.

[he walks away while the English sergeant drives a pickaxe through the knight's skull]

Hospitaller: Where do you go?

Old Pilgram: To Jerusalem, brother.

Hospitaller: By which road?

Old Pilgram: Someone knows... God knows.

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.

Godfrey of Ibelin: [Balian catches up with Godfrey's group after killing the village priest] If you've come to kill me... even these days, it is not easy. Well?

Balian of Ibelin: I have done... murder.

Godfrey of Ibelin: Haven't we all.

Balian of Ibelin: Is it true that in Jerusalem I can erase my sins... and those of my wife? Is it true?

Godfrey of Ibelin: We can find out together.

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.

Imad: [discussing how to break Jerusalem's defenses] The wall where the Christopher Gate used to be has been weakened.

Saracen Engineer: Yes, usually when a gate is blocked in, it is weaker than the wall around it.

Mullah: Or stronger.

Imad: It is weaker, Rashid has seen it. This will be our door into Jerusalem.

Almaric: You must have known him.

Balian of Ibelin: What?

Almaric: Since you carry Godfrey's sword, you must have known him.

Balian of Ibelin: I did.

Almaric: A man my size?

Balian of Ibelin: Yes.

Almaric: And green eyes?

Balian of Ibelin: [Balian hesitates for a moment before he realizes what is going on] Blue.

Almaric: [pause] Come with us... my lord.

[Almaric and his men bow to Balian]

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!

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.

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!

Sibylla: This is from France. I've never been there. This from my brother. This to remind us of death. And this... I put the day I saw you.

Balian de Ibelin: You lie.

Sibylla: Why do you think I'm here?

Balian de Ibelin: I know that Ibelin is not on the way to Cana.

Sibylla: What else do you know, my lord?

Balian de Ibelin: I know that you are a princess and I am no lord.

Sibylla: You're a knight.

Balian de Ibelin: Neither earned nor proved.

Sibylla: I'm not here with you because I'm, I'm bored or wicked. I'm here because... because in the East between one person and another there is only light.