The Director's Cut of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" offers several new scenes that enhance the plot and re-integrates violent scenes that were not in the Theatrical Cut. Therefore, the running time of the DC is more than 3 hours.

Even before the Final Cut of Blade Runner, which Ridley Scott made to commemorate the 25th anniversary of this Sci-Fi classic, he was given the opportunity to re-cut the Crusader's epic "Kingdom of heaven". As Scott explains in the introductory commentary on the DVD he was pretty dissappointed with the Theatrical Cut. In order to appeal to a broader audience, the producers had about 50 minutes of material cut out. Whole sequences and sub-plots were not included in the Theatrical Cut. This changes with the Director's Cut, which is also closer to the history the movie is based on.

Among the new scenes, the re-integration of Sybilla's son into the plot is the most important one. After King Baldwin IV's death, he becomes king and contracts leprosy. He is then killed by his mother, who does not want him to have the same fate as her brother, who suffered from leprosy as well.
In the Theatrical Cut, the child wasn't even mentioned because the producers had tried to crop down the movie to the ideal running time of 135 minutes. Ridely Scott, however, has always been of the opinion that the removal of that scene was a mistake. The scene is just too important for a deeper understanding of why Sybilla decided to support her husband although she hated him so much.

The scene in France from the beginning of the movie has also been enhanced significantly. Bailan's motives to follow his father Godfrey to the holy land are explained in more detail in the Director's Cut. The viewers now learn that the priest from the funeral of Bailan's wife is in fact Bailan's brother. Godfrey's kinship with the lord of the manor makes his relationship with Bailan's mother appear in a different light, too. Together with Bailan's enhanced conversation, which give important background information about his past, these extended scenes from the first act help to understand the development of the story. This was one of the main problems of the Theatrical Cut, which very often seemed unlogical. Especially, Bailan's talent for dealing with the council of war is not a mystery anymore.

Other new scenes deal with the relationship of Bailan and Sybilla and focus more on her husband Guy and her brother.

Moreover, the movie had to be cropped to get an R-rating. Some scenes were too violent and had to be shortened. In other scenes the blood had to be retouched. The censorship was similar to the one in "King Arthur". But unlike "King Arthur", "Kingdom of Heaven" did not get a PG-13 rating.

about the censorship report
With this censorship report I want to break new ground. I will combine several cuts to one block each.I hope that this will make reading the report easier. (Especially, when it comes to alternative cuts and scenes.) Nobody has to worry, though. The total length of all changes will be as precise as always. Less important cuts will be mentioned without pictures and in a smaller type size. The "real" censorship, i.e. the violence that was cropped for the R-rating, will be documented as thoroughly as readers of movie-censorship.com would expect. The changes were made because I had to face the challenge to combine about 150 differences to a coherent and enjoyable read.

The Director's Cut is 46:08 minutes (with intermissions 50:31 minutes) longer. The differences can be devided into 150 different and additional scenes.

In France

Since the movie is shown as a road show, an overture is shown before the opening logo. Here, the screen is black and music is played.
103 seconds

The opening sequence, in which the woman that commited suicide, is haphazardly buried at a crossing is longer in the Director's Cut.
This scene hardly contains any dialog in the Theatrical Cut, wheras the Director's Cut offers more information.
One of the grave diggers, whom one can later also see in Jerusalem, says to the priest, "She denied the cross for suicide and is buried at the center of a crossroad. Show me the logic. Father?". The priest does not leave any doubt that he does not like grave diggers and ends the conversation at its very beginning.
After Geoffrey's Crusaders have passed, Geoffrey's squire comes back and gives the priest some money in the name of his master. The money is for the funeral and a mass in honor of the dead. When the priest orders the grave diggers to behead the woman who comitted suicide, the viewers learn from one of the men that the woman is the wife of the priest's sister; but the priest does not care.

In total, the Director's Cut is 55 seconds longer.

long plot extension 6:53 minutes

Godfrey and his men ride on their horses toward the castle and see the wretched village in front of it. In the meantime, the priest is talking to the bishop in front of the castle. The scene with Godfrey is shown a bit later in the Theatrical Cut, shortly before they meet Bailan. The priest asks whether the bishop has talked with his brother and wants him to be released from prison. The priest is against it because he thinks his brother is possessed by the devil. The bishop also asks about the funeral of his sister in law and whether she was mutilated as it is normally done to people who commit suicide. He seems to feel akward asking that question. The priest lies and therefore, the bishop is releaved but also disappointed with the law and that Christanity does things Christ would have never done. At the end the widower is released because the bishop needs him for the construction of his church. Then the priest gets some money for his brother and is told to tell him that he is the focus of the bishop's prayers. The priest smiles hypocritically, leaves and keeps the money for himself. He doesn't seem to care about his brother at all. Bailan is in his house and watches his pregnant wife in the garden. This bright scenery is followed by a shot of the sad widower in the prison. Between the two, the cut is hardly visible. We now learn that Bailan is the brother of the priest and that his wife is the woman that commited suicide and was beheaded on the street as the result. Bailan is released from prison but his brother is not happy about it. Godfrey eats dinner with his brother, who is the lord of the castle. They talk about muslims, the war lord Saladin and the role of knights and the clergy. Both agree that those roles are better not to be mixed up and refer to the hospitaler, who follows Godfrey, as a bad example. When they change the topic to Bailan and his dead wife, who lost a child, Bailan's brother, who sits in the background, takes notice. When Godfrey leaves the table, we learn that he is a baron from Jerusalem, who apparently does not have heirs. His brother and the brother's son could benefit from that. Bailan prays at the crossing where his wife was buried. His brother comes and lies again by telling him that he wouldn't know the exact place of the grave under the snow because he was not present at the burial. Bailan stays calm even after his brother asks him to call him a lier. Bailan just does not respond. The priest slabs his face but Bailan remains calm. Back in his house and the blacksmith's shop he continues his work the next morning. But before that he burns the clothes of the baby, which were still in his house.

In the Director's Cut, the hospitaler offers his condolences to Bailan in some re-cut and new scenes. Then we learn more about Bailan's past. He is also a war veteran. During the war he worked as an engineer. Furthermore, Bailan's brother seems a bit clumsy in front of the Crusaders and not as strong as in front of his brother alone.
An interesting scene from the Director's Cut is the one where Godfrey looks down a hillside and reminisces about Bailan's mother. Eventually, there is also a scene that is shorter in the Director's Cut. When Godfrey gets to know from the hospitaler what happened to Balian's wife, this scene is shorter because at that point the information is already known in the Director's Cut.

Including the re-cut, the Director's Cut is 97 seconds longer.

When Godfrey talks to Bailan, he says that God created his men to make them suffer the most, whereas he offers his condolences in the Theatrical Cut. After that, Godfrey's confession is different in each version. In the Theatrical Cut he says he loved Bailan's mother, in his way, but in a real way. He, furthermore, stresses again that he is Bailan's father. In the Director's Cut, however, love is not mentioned. Godfrey says that he did not have a choice because he was the brother of the lord of the manor. In both versions he adds that he did not force either of them to do anything.

Including the re-cut, the Director's Cut is only 1 seconds longer.

After Godfrey has left, the Director's Cut shows how Bailan's brother walks toward him and then runs away. The Theatrical Cut shows Bailan longer. The Director's Cut is 14 seconds longer

The conversation between Bailan and his brother is longer in the Director's Cut. In the Theatrical Cut the scene in which it is revealed that the priest is Bailan's father is missing. Therefore, he will take over the blacksmith's job as soon as Bailan has disappeared, although he names the church as its future owner. Moreover, his brother puts more pressure on him by not only saying that the village does not want him anymore but also that he won't have a future there after the lord of the manor and the bishop have died.

Including the re-cut, the Director's Cut is only 25 seconds longer.

When the group takes a rest in the woods, the hospitaler is shown how he brushes his teeth at the river, while another man is peeing further up the river. The black man intervenes and shouts at him. Furthermore, a short cut scene in which one of the men prepares washing lotion, with which he will later clean his armor, is shown.

The Director's Cut is 30 seconds longer.

Three inter-cuts during the swordplay training show that one of the men walks away from the group and then how he is killed by an enemy shortly before Godfrey's nephew arrives to fetch Bailan. Because of that, the intentions of Godfrey's nephew are revealed at the very beginning. He does not only want to fetch Bailan, he comes in order to secure his title and the land of Palestine by killing everybody. In the Director's Cut he had already talked about that with his father in one of the previous scenes.

The Director's Cut is 16 seconds longer.

When Godfrey demands the release of Bailan, all evidence that both could be related as well as the remark that the dead priest is Bailan's brother are missing from the Theatrical Cut. The Director's Cut is about 3 seconds longer, due to some short re-cuts.

Censored violence during the battle in the woods

Concerning the retouched scenes. The Director's Cut is on left side and the Theatrical Cut is on the right side. retouch Godfrey strikes one of the enemies with his sword and the one falls off his horse because of that. Two frames of the scene are missing from the Theatrical Cut. A couple of CGI-arrows are not in the Theatrical Cut. How Godfrey gets the next enemy off the horse is shown from a different angle in the Director's Cut. Moreover, blood is shown in the Director's Cut. Balian is pushed against the tree in a different shot. At the beginning of the shot that is longer in the Director's Cut, he hits the throat of the enemy with his sword one more time. The enemy sinks to the ground. This is not shown in the Theatrical Cut, instead Balian is shown longer. Here the Director's Cut is 1,5 seconds longer. The black man slays an enemy. 2 sec retouch When the black man defends himself for the last time and is subsequently killed, the blood has been removed. The same is the case for the scene in which Balian slays one of the enemies. One of the men who survived the battle kneels down in front of Godfrey and says that he has the privilege to be worth a ransom but Godfrey does not care about that. 28 seconds Godfrey turns away - in both versions Then one of his men walks behind the captive and smashes a hole into his head. 6,5 second Instead, the Theatrical Cut shows a different shot of one of Godfrey's men.

The monk who is on the mountain in Messina is shown longer at the beginning. 3 seconds

The hospitaler asks a very old man what he is doing. The man replies that God is guiding him to Jerusalem. Then the troop prepares their night camp. Godfrey lies on the ground shivering. The hospitaler comes to him and says that the madness of the crusades has to be stopped. Godfrey answers that soon this will not be his problem anymore.
31 seconds

Bailan walks down the pier with one of his companions. He learns that Italian ships usually trade with muslims but that they also take pilgrims to the holy land for money.
11 seconds

In the holy land

After Balian has slayed Nasir's servant, the servant's blood splashes against the horse of Nasir in several different shot.

Bailan und Nasir ride on their horses to Jerusalem longer. 14 Sekunden

The next morning Bailan takes a bath in his apartment. A muslim servant and several women stand around him and want to dry him with a towel but Bailan wants the towel in order to cover himself. The women giggle and dry him. Then Bailan tries to walk away with as much dignity as possible.
29 seconds

Bailan sneaks around the house and sees the chain mail and the weapons of his father. At the same time he hears his father speak. Then the hospitaler arrives.
32 Sekunden

At two points Sybilla's visit has been re-cut because in the Director's Cut the hospitaler is visible in the background. 2 seconds

The hospitaler talks to Bailan about the religious fanatics longer. 4,5 seconds

Renaud de Chatillon leaves the office of Tiberius. The leader of the caravan is left behind angry. Tiberius tells him that it's not surprising that his caravan is attacked often since he wouldn't want Tiberius' men to protect his caravan. The man cannot accept Christian soldiers because that would insult his God. However, the Christian gold he gets as compensation from Tiberius does not seem to be a problem.
23 seconds

Before the dinner at Sybilla's and Guy's place, a shot of Jerusalem at night is shown.
6 seconds

When Bailan talks with King Baldwin IV. at the chess board, the beginning was re-cut because in the Director's Cut the introduction is longer. By giving a metaphor about chess, the king asks Bailan whether he'd know where he would be at the end of his life. Bailan says he once did and that he would be buried not more than 100m away from his home. However, at that time he is together with King Balduin in Jerusalem. Only then does the king reveal that he is about to die Furthermore, the two talk about fornifications and their walls. Bailan suggests a starlike arrangement because it would make it more difficult for attackers to reach the walls. When Balian is brought out of the palace at the end of the scene, he notices a toy horseman on the floor. He then sees Sybilla's son for the first time. The Director's Cut is 131 seconds longer.

Bailan is riding into Ibalin longer. 9 seconds

ditto. 9,5 seconds Bailan walks through his house and looks around longer.
39 Sekunden

Bailan comes home from working on the fields and, still completely dirty, walks into the guesthouse to meet Sybilla. She washes his face and one feels that it's more than a guesture. At the beginning he is a little stiff because he is afraid of indecencies but then he smiles.
89 seconds

At the end of the evening, she tells Bailan about her son from her first marriage. Due to that, the Director's Cut had to be slightly altered and is 5,5 seconds longer.

Bailan strolls through his land and sees a small toy boat in the irrigation system. He takes the boat and sends it onto a journey. At the same time, the fields start thriving.
45,5 seconds

Sybilla notices Bailan while she has her hands painted. 3 seconds

Standing in the door, Sybilla says that she could stay forever. 6 seconds

Sybilla pulls his robe down longer. 3 seconds

Their kiss is longer. 1 second

ditto. 2 seconds

In the Director's Cut their sexual intercourse is longer
The Director's Cut is 32,5 seconds longer.

In order to remove two violent shots, the Theatrical Cut had to be slightly re-cut. Renauld cuts an enemy into two halfs. In the Theatrical Cut this scene has been replaced with a non-violent one. Moreover, Guy slays one more enemy with his speer.
The Director's Cut is 4,5 seconds longer.

The next morning, Sybilla wakes up with Bailan lying next to her. They flirt for a little while before Tiberius is indicted for his attack on the caravan.
93 seconds

During the fight between the two horsemen, some blood had to be removed.

After Tiberius has left the castle, Bailan's and Sybilla's eyes meet. Guy notices that.
24,5 seconds

Intermission and Entr'Acte.
160 seconds

After the Imam has left Saladin's tent, Saladin says that he would need a war to achieve peace. Nasir responds by saying that the king of Jerusalm would die soon and that his succesor would not be able to control the country anymore. Therefore, the Christians would start the war Saladin wants, anyway. 25,5 seconds

When Guido leaves, the Theatrical Cut shows one more shot of the crusaders 4 seconds

Long plot extensions

Saladin's doctors enter the chamber of King Baldwin IV., while Guy is playing angrily with his sword outside the room.br> The angry and screaming Renaud is shown in his prison cell in an inter-cut. Inside, the doctors treat Baldwin's lepra-affected and dissolving skin. The bishop of Jerusalem is in the room, too. Baldwin tells him to prepare the coronation ceremony for his nephew. The bishop then asks whether Baldwin wants to confess his sin's but Baldwin answers that he wants to do it before God alone. After that, the bishop leaves the room. In front of the door, he sees Guy. Guy has a sword in his hand and puts it to the throat of the bishop because both cannot stand each other. The bishop does not seem to care and walks on. Guido then enters the room of the maid of his wife. He tells her that she, who always dreamt of being like Sybilla, should take over Sybilla's duties. The maid then pulls up her skirt submissively and Guy walks toward her. At that time, Sybilla is together with Bailan. They talk about the power structure after Baldwin's death and when Sybilla's son has become king. Bailan is especially worried about Guy. Sybilla returns to Jerusalem and meets her husband Guy, who is together with his son. Guy thinks that the new king would first of all need a strong army to survive the power struggle and that the 100 men that follow her lover Bailan would not be enough. Guy also emphasizes that they must reach an agreement of how to distribute power after his son has become king.

When the king and Tiberius offer Bailan the army and ask him to marry Sybilla, the moment in which Sybilla mentions that her son would become king is missing from the Director's Cut.4,5 seconds

Shortly after that, the meeting between Sybilla and Bailan was re-cut. In the Director's Cut we learn how her grandfather had conquered Jerusalem with a lot of bloodshed and that Sybilla would be willing, if necessary, to defend the city. Bailan stays indifferent. At the end he turns her down because he wouldn't want to face any responsibility for Guy's death. He then turns around one more time and asks whether doing evil wouldn't be justified if it helped to achieve good.
Here, the Director's Cut is 22 seconds longer

The Guards and Renaud are shown in the prison before Guy arrives. 6,5 seconds

Renaud is given food by Guy longer. In a later shot, he grabs the food fast but then gives back some food to Guy as well. The food is then eaten by Guy. At the end of the scene, Renaud tries to convince Guy to kill Bailan. This is shown longer.
22 seconds
in total

When Tiberius comes to ask Sybilla to go to her brother, Sybilla is teaching her son geography. Sybilla does not want to go because she cannot stand her brother's disfigured face. However, she stresses that this wouldn't mean that she doesn't love him anymore. Nervertheless, Tiberius demands her to go and so Sybilla leaves.
Her son stays in the room, still looking at the European map. Then he notices the flame of the oil lamp. Curiously, he holds his hand above the flame and, although he burns himself, he doesn't seem to feel any pain.
79 seconds

The last scene in which Baldwin is in bed and his sister is present is longer. Some shots are longer but no new content is provided. 38 seconds

After her brother's death, Sybilla meets her husband Guy in front of her brother's bedroom. Due to the re-cut, she does not ask for his knights but for her son in the Director's Cut. She does that by emphazising her role as an obedient wife. At the end, she is shown longer with tears in her eyes.
In total 8 seconds longer.

After she has seen the disfigured face of her brother, she puts on his mask again. This is only shown in the Director's Cut. 13,5 seconds

The king is dead

Due to the earlier coronation of Sybilla's son, the following sequencing of the scenes had to be altered in the Director's Cut. In the Theatrical Cut the attack on Bailan in the desert and the rescue of Reynard is shown after Sybilla's coronation. In the Director's Cut this is shown between the coronation of her son and her own.

Long plot enhancement 6:59 minutes

Sybilla's son is crowned king and given the title Baldwin V. Bailan sits in the desert and thinks about the existance of God. The hospitaler comes and Bailan tries to prove to him that God does not exist. He takes stones and throws them in front of a bush. When they hit the ground sparks fly and finally those sparks set the bush on fire. However, this example, which disproves Moses' story, does not seem to convince the hospitaler. Bailan is still disappointed with the world.br> Sybilla teaches the young king his duties, while he is signing some important documents. After that he puts wax for a seal onto the document. While doing that, some of the wax drops onto his hand but he doesn't seem to notice. His mother and the bishop see it and unlike Sybilla's son, they seem to feel the pain. Later that evening,doctors come to examine the boy. While one of them is distracting the boy with a doll, another one inserts a needle into his foot. The boy does not feel anything but Sybilla is shocked. Later Tiberius tells her about the rumor that her son has the desease. Sybilla replies that anyone who spreads that rumor would have to face the death penalty because of high treason. Nevertheless, Tiberius demands they show her son to the public as long as possible. After hearing that, Sybilla loses her head and bursts out in tears. She asks herself how much time will be left before her son will have to wear the same mask as his brother. In her opinion he just does not deserve such a fate and she cannot accept that her son will have to suffer and go through hell on earth. She would rather take the fate herself. Therefore, she decides to spare him the suffering. They spend one last day together in the garden. She tells him a story, sings a song and then lets a deadly poison trickle down his ear.

When Guy gets Renaud out of the prison, the Director's Cut is longer and the cut is slightly different because Renaud refers to the dead boy and not to the king. 7,5 seconds longer.

The injured Baldwin is found by the hospitaler.
17 seconds

When the ambassador of the muslims asks King Guy to hand over Saladin's dead sister, Guy puts a dagger right through his head. Here, the sequencing is different in each version. The reason for this is the fact that in the Director's Cut Guy continues by taking a sword and beheading the ambassador. This and the shots of the shocked audience and the blood that is splashing onto Tiberius are missing from the Theatrical Cut.
The Director's Cut is 8 seconds longer.

In the Theatrical Cut, part of the conversation in which Tiberius tells Bailan about the death of the boy is missing from the scene where the troups move out. 15 seconds

The withdrawal of the army is longer and Bailan appears earlier in the next scene. 4 seconds

The battlefield is shown longer after the Christians have been defeated.7 seconds

After Saladin has slit open Renaud's throat, Renaud collapses while blood is coming out of his throat.
4 seconds

Renaud is held by Saladin's guards longer. There is still blood coming out of his throat.1 seconds

Now Saladin takes a sword, walks over to Renaud. He is still alive. Both look into each other's eyes. Renaud is choking. After that Saladin beheads him. Guy does not dare to look at Renaud, whereas the Imam seems to be pleased.
27 seconds

Saladin walks briskly back to Guy. In the background one can see Renaud's head. 5 seconds

Vultures enjoy eating the corpses. 4,5 seconds

Renaud's head, which is displayed on a stake, is shown in a close up when Bailan and Tiberius visit the battlefields. In the Theatrical Cut this scene is missing because the beheading was not shown.
2,5 seconds

During the preparations for the defense of Jerusalem, Bailan recognises the grave digger from the beginning.
14,5 seconds

The shot that pans down from the defensive wall to Bailan, who is in front of the gate, is slightly longer at the beginning. 3 seconds

Bailan promises Ibalin to Marek if he survives the next battle. Then Bailan dubs Marek knight.
40 seconds

In the Theatrical Cut, one can see people in the catacombs during the bombardment.
- 3,5 seconds

In the next scene the close up of Sybilla is longer in the Theatrical Cut, whereas the Director Cut shows her holding the toy horse of her dead son. 1,5 seconds

After the siege towers have collapsed, Sybilla bandages the hand of the grave digger. In the Theatrical Cut, the character of the grave digger isn't given any attention and the two don't talk with each other. Whereas in the Director's Cut the grave digger says to Sybilla that she doesn't look like a nurse. Then the grave diggers questions whether there is a cause behind the fighting and Sybilla apologizes for that. At the end, he confesses that he knows that Sybilla is the queen.
Several re-cuts add up to 22,5 seconds more in the Director's Cut.

After the battle at the wall, the victims are shown. 48,5 seconds

Saladin hands over King Guy to Bailan during the negotiation of the terms of surrender.
8,5 seconds

The conversation between Bailan and Sybilla, in which she asks what she is supposed to do,is longer in the Director's Cut. No new information is added though. 2,5 Sekunden

Bailan strolls through the alleys of Jerusalem. He stops for a moment and drinks some water from a well. Guy appears, points his sword at Bailan and challenges him to a duel. After that, the two fight in the alley. Bailan wins the fight and injures Guy. Due to the injury Guy sinks to the ground and asks Bailan to kill him but Bailan says that Guy should stand up as a knight. Then he walks away.
2 minutes, 18 seconds

Saladin walks through the palace longer. He sees blood stained cloth. re-cut, 11 seconds

Saladin enters the palace and kneels down.
54 seconds

Back in France, Bailan walks through the houses longer. 13 seconds

In the Director's Cut Bailan looks down the mountain and notices that a new plant has grown. In the Threatical Cut only Bailan himself is shown. Der Director's Cut is 2 seconds longer.