10 Best Movies Actors Did After The Lord Of The Rings
6. Orlando Bloom - Kingdom Of Heaven (2005)
Orlando Bloom might not have been the most accomplished actor in the cast of Lord of the Rings, indeed the Fellowship of the Ring was only his third appearance in a major motion picture, but he went on to feature in some huge movies. Although the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise ended up becoming a laborious exercise in rock star pirate tropes, the first movie was great. But perhaps one of his best and most under appreciated roles was in Kingdom Of Heaven.
It was a movie that garnered a lot of criticism at the time, but it definitely isn't to be snubbed. Releasing a movie that centred around the historical conflict of the Islamic and Christian worlds at a time when Islamist extremism was at the forefront of the western zeitgeist, was a bold move for director Ridley Scott.
Most of the criticism revolved around Scott's oversimplification of Muslim and Christian relations, with critics lambasting Scott for making the Christians brutish bad guys and the Muslims spiritually superior, good guys. But for anyone who actually watched the movie this was a lazy oversimplification.
The grand themes of theology and the misinterpretation of scripture are difficult subjects to tackle but Scott did it surprisingly well. On the surface this looked like an action pact depiction of a violent time, but it's real subject matter dealt with the inexplicable difficulty in trying to act in a just way when faith or religion are at odds with your own moral compass.