Gladiator (2000)

 

The sword and sandals genre of action movies is rarely seen today. But right at the turn of the 21^st Century, the genre was revived in the most unlikeliest of ways. And the film that started this new revival was the 2000 film “Gladiator”, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russel Crowe. When it was released, it got rave reviews and even won the Oscar for Best Picture. Now that the film has seen the passage of time, we can clearly see that the movie has aged by just a little bit. While not absolutely perfect, “Gladiator” is one of those movies that definitely takes its time, but revels in its own visual style.

The story follows a Roman soldier by the name of Maximus (Crowe), who just won an impressive battle for the current emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). All Maximus wants to do now is go home to see his wife and son. Unfortunately, Marcus Aurelius wants to appoint Maximus as the next successor to Rome; this displeases his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who proceeds to murder his father, and forcibly becomes the new emperor of Rome. Maximus does not take kindly to this, and betrays the new emperor, and is put under slavery from a former gladiator Antonius Proximo (Oliver Reed in his final film role). Now, Maximus must please not only the crowds of Rome, but also trying to get some revenge on Commodus who initiated the murder of his wife and son.

“Gladiator” is a unique film, to say the least. It's not good, but it's not bad either. It's somewhere down the middle of it all.

The good stuff is that the movie has a distinctive style that audiences had not seen up until this time. And even to this day, it's still impressive to look at. The expansive shots of ancient Rome are massive and quite stunning to say the least. Yes, it's all done with CGI, but it looks very good. The main highlight being the Coliseum. With its notorious architecture, hundreds of digital artists, tried their hardest to recreate this magnificent building structure.

This can also be attributed towards the action scenes. With sword fighting, and gratuitous amounts of violence, it is fairly clear that the movie holds no bars with its content. On top of this, everything moves at a fast and smooth pace, making the action all the more engaging, and definitely a feast for the eyes.

The music by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard is also a key highlight for the movie. It compliments the action being portrayed very well, and makes the movie convey a task of simplicity.

As for the acting, most of the actors and actresses do a good job with what they are given. Reed is substantially good in his final film role, and does it best with utmost sincerity. Supporting roles like Connie Nelson and Djimon Hounsou also give the film credibility as well as turning out great performances. But the main focus is on Crowe, who does a great job as well. Crowe delivers a fascinating performance that is both recognizable and memorable at the same time. All of this being under and supervised by Ridley Scott's direction.

However, that doesn't mean “Gladiator” has any problems in the slightest. There are quite a number of fallacies that this picture delivers.

First and foremost, Joaquin Phoenix, while doing a good job, just doesn't do it for me, personally. I mean, he's playing the bad guy here, but he's not threatening enough, or evil enough to be seen as a threat to our hero. By playing Commodus, Phoenix just basically portrays him as this whiny and almost narcissistic person who only wants to be noticed by the general public by being the emperor. I just don't see Phoenix as this emperor who only wants to become more popular than Maximus.

Another problem, as is the case with most historical films, is the lack of inconsistency towards its subject and historical material. There are a lot of things wrong with the history being presented here. For instance, the death of Marcus Aurelius wasn't done by his son, but more so through a plague of some sort. Commodus reigned for a much longer time than what is presented in the film. These, and many more make you wish to research the actual events that happened during ancient Rome.

But the biggest issue with the movie is with the story itself. Written by John Logan and William Nicholson, the story is your average underdog scenario, just set in ancient Rome. Plus, along with the editing, it seems as if the story goes on forever. At two and a half hours, and with an extended cut running nearly three, one wishes it were over sooner than expected.

In conclusion, while “Gladiator” is far from perfect, the movie does have its own uniqueness to itself, and brought back the swords and sandals genre to a more modern audience.