The Kingdom of Heaven Page #23

PATRIARCH:

For God’s sake, talk terms.

BALIAN:

There are none.

(moving along the “line”,

checking machines, men)

Keep your heads down. Take cover

when the barrage begins...

PATRIARCH:

One may convert to Islam, and

repent later. It can be done. There

is dispensation in these cases...

(CONTINUED)

116.

CONTINUED:
(2)

Balian looks at the cross on the Patriarch’s breast. Then so

does the Patriarch.

BALIAN:

You have taught me a great deal

about religion.

We hear tinkling bells, and laughter. GUY, tied backwards on

a tiny donkey, with a conical dunce cap on his head, is

driven on display along the front of the Muslim Army, below

the walls of Jerusalem. He keeps his dignity as much as

possible. SIBYLLA watches.

BALIAN now with ALMARIC watches from the walls as SALADIN

rides alone onto a hill, with his guard. He looks towards the

city. Almaric crosses himself as one cry of Allahu Akhbar

rings out.

BALIAN (CONT’D)

Here it comes.

The enormous BOMBARDMENT commences. DEFENDERS, as Balian

instructed, take cover on the walls. SARACEN ENGINES execute

one of the largest bombardments of the day.

INT. SIBYLLA’S ROOMS. MOMENTS LATER

SIBYLLA has seen it all. She removes her jewels. Then begins

to remove her fine, complicated, clothes. She puts on a gray

shift, staring into nothingness.

EXT. BEFORE JERUSALEM. DAY

MUSLIM INFANTRY (with LADDERMEN) moves forward, slowly, and

then at a run. CROSSBOWMEN slaughter the men below.

ENGINES FIRE and as the MUSLIM ARMY screams and Saracen drums

beat, a SIEGE TOWER, ARCHES firing from its platform, is

pushed towards the wall. It has caught fire in two or three

places. LADDERMEN run alongside the tower. SPRAYS OF STONE

from Mangonels tear through the Saracens and rock the tower.

EXT. THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. LATER

DEFENDERS wait. CROSSBOWMEN fire and FLAMING ARROWS are

fired. BALIAN watches. The SIEGE TOWER comes within ten feet

of the wall and as a great RAMP descends, hundreds of MUSLIMS

charge forward into PIKEMEN. They are staved off, Balian at

the center of the repulse catches an arrow through the left

wrist.

(CONTINUED)

117.

CONTINUED:

BALIAN:

(clutching the arm)

Now!

From a TOWER to the side, two GRAPNELS are thrown. Were it

not Balian the artificer managing things, this may or may not

have been effective, but the instant the grapnels catch (and

are hand-tightened), BALIAN waves his arm. The two lines run

to a DERRICK which is holding up a stone the size of a small

cottage. A line is cut (killing, as it snaps, the man who cut

it), and the weight of the stone jerks the SIEGE TOWER to

pieces. It literally explodes. Debris, burning beams, knock

MUSLIM LADDERMEN off the walls. The wreckage collapses back

on the infantry tightly packed behind the tower, killing

scores. BALIAN watches: and nods at Almaric.

INT. CATACOMBS. NIGHT

BALIAN moves through the rows of wounded and dead. A

PHYSICIAN cuts the jugular of a smashed man and the blood is

caught in a basin. BALIAN sits to have his hand bound. The

FINGER is parted from the hand, and put in a basin. The hand

is washed, and wrapped. A CLOAKED WOMAN does the bandaging.

She raises her eyes. Sibylla. BALIAN looks at her evenly.

Then wordlessly he embraces her, staring past her bent head,

SIBYLLA weeping.

EXT. THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. DAY

SPEARMEN knock over the ladders that have been gotten up. A

melee along the walls. BALIAN, moving through smoke, waves

his arm, and GREEK FIRE is flung straight down into the

infantry. As hundreds of Saracens burn...CROSSBOWMEN en masse

come forward to crowd the walls and begin to slaughter the

Saracens.

EXT. ANOTHER WALL OF JERUSALEM. LATER

As MUSLIMS in the thousands mass with ladders beneath another

wall....GREAT WOODEN TRAYS running the length of the wall are

levered up by a hundred men, and pour stones down, smashing

thousands of tightly-massed men (the lumber follows, tumbling

down). As a SECOND WAVE of Saracens presses forward over the

smashed men, GREEK FIRE jets from pipes fixed to the walls,

igniting men as well as the smashed wooden trays. Men on fire

run everywhere, and fall burning.

EXT. A LESSER GATE OF JERUSALEM. CONTINUOUS

As MUSLIMS advance, tens, scores, fall into concealed killing

pits of sharpened stakes, and even as they are surprised by

them...begin to reconsider the assault, an arches fires a

flaming arrow into...A FIELD OF PITCH.

(CONTINUED)

118.

CONTINUED:

An area of about an acre has been covered with pitch and

straw and dirt. It goes up like an oil-rig fire, fierce

enough to drive defenders back from the walls. This part of

the Muslim army is entirely incinerated.

EXT. JERUSALEM. NIGHT

CATAPULTS are being worked non-stop by the Saracens, and the

walls are being struck, hard. The walls are coming down.

EXT. JERUSALEM. DAY

Concentrated catapult fire is collapsing a wall. It suddenly

shivers down, from the bottom, the stone pouring out into a

great apron. And the MUSLIM ARMY is ready. SALADIN rides

along the front of his force.

SALADIN:

Not one alive. Not one.

EXT. INSIDE THE BROKEN WALL. CONTINUOUS

A SHIELD WALL forms, BALIAN directing it. Defenders (all the

knights there are, including the first BOY made Knight) go

shield to shield.

ARCHES and CROSSBOWMEN take elevated positions behind. As the

Muslim army of thousands advances at a run, ready to kill the

Christians at a single rush, BALIAN looks to his left in the

shield wall and sees: THE GRAVEDIGGER. They nod at each

other. The SARACEN ARCHES fire a volley of arrows and the

INFANTRY charges. This is their chance: they will take

Jerusalem at this rush and are not afraid of martyrdom. No

arrows oppose them: merely the waiting knights in the broken

wall. But they break on the line, hacked down, man after man,

by the heavily armored knights. There is no need to scream

keep the line:
the line is kept, by the knights and the “made

knights” with them. Dissolve in the fighting to:

EXT. THE BREACH IN THE WALL. DAWN

BALIAN, blood-covered and thirsty, wakes from a doze. KNIGHTS

are leaning on their swords, or lying on the ground,

coughing. We see that the line of defense is marked by

immense piles of dead. Saracens tangled with Europeans inside

the breech in the wall. Hundreds of dead: thousands perhaps.

The defense of the breach has nearly killed the Saladin’s

infantry. BALIAN wanders, stumbling, among the bodies. The

GRAVEDIGGER lies dead, hacked across the face.

BALIAN:

Remember me in France.

(CONTINUED)

119.

CONTINUED:

ON SOUND (as Balian looks at the butchery by daylight): The

MUSLIM ARMY is called to prayer. From the walls of Jerusalem

we see the whole army praying.

ALMARIC:

(covered with blood)

They will ask for terms. They will

ask for terms.

EXT. BEFORE SALADIN’S TENT. DAY

Saladin waits mildly as BALIAN comes through the crowd,

escorted. As he comes through: the Arabs look at him with

interest, many salaaming.

BALIAN, awkwardly, returns the salaam. GUY, no longer tied to

the donkey, is being treated as Saladin’s guest. Rubbing his

wrists and staring at Balian with a strange look of hatred

and admiration mixed.

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