Gladiator
Gladiator (2000)
"Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear."
As I mentioned earlier, I loved this film when I first saw it; however, upon my most recent viewing, I became more aware of its faults, particularly in the story. While the plot moves along at a good pace and the story itself isn't particularly convoluted or anything, something seemed off to me. The story seemed to have an almost disjointed feel that I couldn't place my finger on. It's odd because there's nothing glaringly wrong with the story itself. Then I remembered one of the documentaries included on the DVD, in which several of the filmmakers noted that the script was being written on the fly during shooting. This was likely due to the tragic death of Oliver Reed during production. Like I said, I didn't have any specific issue with the film's story. In fact, I quite like it overall, but there's just a feel to it that I had trouble getting past.
I want to take a moment to talk about Ridley Scott as a director and why he's one of my favorites. Scott has such a distinct visual style, which likely comes from his background introduction design. All his movies are shot beautifully, and everything from sets to costumes to locations all look terrific. I also love how Ridley populates his movies with real people. What I mean by that is that even his background characters seem fleshed out, and you feel as though they have lives outside the goings-on of the film. I like to be immersed in a movie, and this approach really lends itself to that. So, despite my misgivings surrounding the story, Ridley's directorial style just jives with me, so I'm willing to overlook those flaws a bit more.
Acting/Characters:
This movie was fined and released during the height of Russell Crowe's popularity, and he was the perfect actor to lead this film. Crowe plays Maximus as a no-nonsense commander that falls into a spiral of depression after his family dies. Even though his lust for vengeance is driving him, you see flashes of the family man he once was in his conversations with Juba (Hounsou) and Marcus. I've heard people speak somewhat mockingly about the scene where he discovers his wife and son's bodies because he goes full-on "snot cry," but I think that was done very well and was a courageous move for a character that's supposed to be a badass. Besides, I defy anyone who says that they wouldn't do the same if they found their family dead and hung up like a piece of meat. Great performance.
Likewise, Joaquin Phoenix does an admirable job with Commodus, who has one of the better arcs in the film. Early in the movie, the character is played as a bit of a spoiled and selfish rich kid who craves his father's approval, despite doing nothing to earn it. As the story progresses, though, he begins a descent into paranoia and madness, driven at first by his feeling of inadequacy and fueled even further by his hatred and jealousy of Maximus. It's a good performance that didn't go too hammy.
The rest of the film was well cast, with the always terrific Connie Nielsen as Lucila Commodus' conniving sister. Djimon Hounsou is also great as Maximus' fellow slave Juba and, of course, Richard Harris is great in just about everything. There's even a brief appearance by frequent Schwarzenegger collaborator Sven-Ole Thorsen, which is always a treat.
Visual/Special Effects:
This is definitely a mixed bag. As I mentioned earlier, Ridley Scott films are always shot beautifully, and this film is no exception. The costumes look great, and the effects in the opening battle scene are done well. This film falters its use of CGI, which was still in its infancy at this point. There's not a ton of CGI used except in long shots of Rome itself. The crew needed to portray the city as it was two thousand years ago, and they opted to use CGI. This was a mistake, in my opinion, as the technology wasn't quite there yet, and viewers can obviously tell. It really took me out of the movie because the background, the place this is all supposed to be set in, just looked...fake. Conversely, just a few years after this movie was released, HBO released its Rome series, which took the opposite approach and built much of the old city from scratch, a better, if not more expensive, way to go.
Score/Soundtrack:
Hans Zimmer is responsible for the score in this film and hits it out of the park, in my view. Normally, I find Zimmer's scores to be fairly hit or miss. I loved the Black Hawk Down and The Last Samurai scores, but I didn't really get what the big deal was about the score for The Dark Knight. However, the music for this film is perfect; whether it's the bombastic and percussive backdrop to the battle scenes or the quiet moments in between, it all fits very well. In particular, I loved the music played over the movie's final scene, which really punctuates the bitter-sweet ending.
Action:
This film treats us to a fair amount of action, all of which is done very well. The sword fighting is well choreographed but doesn't look too choreographed. The opening battle sequence is chaotic and satisfying, and the various arena matches are good bloody fun. I'd say the best action sequence in the movie would be the first arena battle in the Coliseum, which reenacted the Battle of Carthage. The scene gives us chariots racing everywhere, arrows flying and lots of suspense. Overall, top marks for the action.
Final Verdict:
I still really dig this movie, despite my unexplainable squirelliness with its story. Not my favorite Ridley Scott or Russel Crowe outing, but definitely enjoyable. Definitely worth a look for fans of Scott, Crowe or just historical epics in general.
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