A huge project with Ridley Scott’s revival of the Sword & Sandal genre with Gladiator. This was Ridley Scott at the start of the digital age and his first huge success since Thelma and Louise, and even then it managed to top that; it carried expectations with its overall marketing, one of the biggest stars in the world at that point Russell Crowe and would be the first of a handful of collaborations between Crowe and Scott and it pretty much put Scott back on form after several financial misfires.
At the height of the Roman Empire under the rule of Marcus Aurelius, his general Maximus, (played by Crowe), leads his army to conquer and secure the nation of Germania with great success. Emperor Aurelius, who is coming near to the end of his life, believes the political state of Rome has been corrupted by morally backwards senators and by his own son and heir to be, Commodus (played by Joaquin Phoenix). Aurelius entrusts Maximus with leading the city of Rome because of his loyalty but Maximus instead seeks to return to his family after time in battle. Commodus gets wind of this and in his madness becomes upset and kills Aurelius in an embrace and frames Maximus for the crime – sentencing him to be executed. Maximus escapes with his life and rides to find his family brutally murdered by Commodus’s men. Left bereft, his wounded self is captured by slave traders, who sell him to a head gladiator trainer, Proximus (played by Oliver Reed) who reluctantly trains him to survive in the Gladiator arena. Proving himself popular with the crowd, they move to the colosseum in Rome where the now Commodus reins emperor to little appeal amongst the senators. Maximus confronts Commodus in the arena and declares he will use what he can to avenge his family, no matter what.
Even with the first scene of the battle to conquer Germania you can get a true feeling of what you’re in for, the sequence alone has plenty of sword cleaving, heads rolling, plenty of Braveheart-esque spectacle that it’s hard to look away. All the battle sequences whether here or in the arena are particularly brutal and are choreographed in a way that they clearly have gone out of their way to be authentic and true of the period. Backed by the spectacle on screen is a barnstorming central performance from Russell Crowe who really made his name across the world with this film and clearly seeks to take central stage amongst the rest of the cast and the drama unfolding. With Joaquin Phoenix playing the central antagonist as effectively fool hardy, he plays him as the greatest combination of mad and pathetic that I ever seen and for that, it’s entertaining. The film went through several re-writes and production problems and because of that the film is far from perfect.
There is dialogue in this film such as the trailer line from earlier like, “Father to a murdered son, Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my revenge, in this life or the next” or “There was a dream that was Rome. It shall be released” that I can’t tell if they’re genius or plain silly – so I’m settling for both. There are notably CGI inputs within the film that are added due to time or unfortunate circumstances that occurred during the production such as Oliver Reed’s untimely death halfway through shooting or the remodelling of the Coliseum. With that, and Reed’s computer generated death scene, it stands out as jarring. There is a lot of political Roman discussions behind the scenes and does get bogged down with the major plot with Maximus and his revenge. There is a subplot involving Derek Jacobi’s senator Gracchus who wants to overthrow Commodus to restore order but it largely takes a step back and is used to move the plot forward through its three hour running time.
while there are noticeable flaws that do question its best picture win at the Oscars, Gladiator has enough spectacle, breathtaking scenes of brutal pathos, battle choreography and style that recalls the most influential films of the classic Sword & Sandal genre. It has performers that either act to the point of camp and those that give the film a really epic and dramatic scope. I really enjoyed this film and while there is enough to take issue with it, the film is so grand on many feats with Russell Crowe happily taking the challenge of center stage and leading the proceedings under Ridley Scott’s firm direction.
4/5
Filmlife 