The David Thewlis character is my favorite in the movie. We are never told he is a Hospitaller but given the historical-period in question he can be nothing but (the way he deftly extracts arrows from flesh is a clue). He turns up now and again to deliver wise homilies and to shake his head ruefully (but good-naturedly) at the madness around him. He is one of the good guys and we can't help but like him. We are meant to see him and his order as the wise and noble face of Crusade - as opposed to the nasty, boorish and bigoted Templars - but in reality the Knights Hospitallers and the Knights Templars were very similar orders with similar aims. Neither was much better nor much worse than the other. They were simply rivals and that rivalry occasionally erupted into violence. That was the way of the Holy Land at the time of the Crusades.
But does it really matter if moviemakers play fast and loose with history? No, ordinarily it doesn't; they always have done and always will do. But in Kingdom of Heaven there is clearly a political agenda being played out. Again, that is fair enough; political points can be made just as effectively in movies as in any other medium. The problem comes when a political ideal or point is contradicted by history and instead of altering the point or ideal the moviemaker alters the history. That is overstepping the mark; and it is also counterproductive because it betrays the weakness of the original point being made. The infantile political-ideal being pushed (West bad; let's all loath ourselves) has not much going for it if we need to invent our demons in order to exorcise them.
Kingdom of Heaven could have been a truly great movie. It still is an enjoyable one but it is spoiled by its ham-fisted moralizing and ludicrous (and very one-sided) villainy. The second half of the 12th century was the seminal period in the clash between Crusaders and Saracens. If the movie had simply dealt with the drama of that fascinating period without trying to superimpose modern-day sensibilities (and prejudices) onto it then it would have been a whole lot more satisfying for every viewer whatever their religion or political beliefs. Instead the movie is a beautiful, occasionally-moving but disingenuous mess; and that's a shame.
