Review: First "GLADIATOR" Film is Still Rockin' the Colosseum

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 of 2024 (No. 1994) by Leroy Douresseaux

Gladiator (2000)

Running time:  155 minutes (2 hours, 35 minutes)

MPAA – R for intense, graphic combat

DIRECTOR:  Ridley Scott

WRITERS:  David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson (from a story by David Franzoni)

PRODUCERS:  David Franzoni, Branko Lustig, and Douglas Wick

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Mathieson

EDITOR:  Pietro Scalia

COMPOSERS:  Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

Academy Award winner

DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring:  Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, David Schofield, John Shrapnel, Tomas Arana, Ralf Moeller, Spencer Treat Clark, David Hemmings, and Tommy Flanagan

Gladiator is a 2000 historical epic film directed by Ridley Scott.  At the 73rd Academy Awards (March 2001), the film won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year 2000.  Gladiator focuses on a Roman general who is reduced to slavery, becomes a gladiator, and takes on a corrupt Roman emperor in order to exact vengeance upon him. 

Gladiator opens in the year 180 AD in the region known as Germania.  Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) prepares to end his 17-year campaign against the barbarian tribes in their final stronghold in the region.  The Roman general, Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe), a Spaniard, intends to return home after he leads the Roman army to victory against the barbarians.  After the battle, Emperor Aurelius tells Maximus that he does not wish to make his own son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the next emperor because he is unfit to rule.  Instead, the emperor wants Maximus, who is like a son to him, to succeed him and act as the regent who will restore the Roman Republic.

After secretly murdering his father, Aurelius, Commodus proclaims himself the new emperor.  After Maximus spurns his request for loyalty, Commodus has Maximus arrested and orders him executed.  Commodus also has the Spaniard's family murdered.  After foiling the attempt to execute him, Maximus, badly wounded, is unable to save his family.  Maximus is later found and sold into slavery and becomes the property of Proximo (Oliver Reed), a man who trains slaves to become gladiators whom he forces into fighting in gladiatorial events.

Meanwhile, in Rome, Commodus decides to stage 150 days of games, including gladiatorial events held at “The Colosseum.”  Seeking newfound wealth, Proximo enters his gladiators, which now include Maximus and Juba (Djimon Hounsou), an African Maximus has befriended.  Fate has brought Maximus to Commodus.  Now, the general who became a slave is now a gladiator who just might save Rome when he exacts his vengeance upon the new emperor for murdering his family.

In anticipation of the upcoming, Gladiator II, I decided to watch the original film in its entirety for the first time since I first saw it in a movie theater with some friends back in May of 2000.  Since then, I have re-watched parts of Gladiator of during cable broadcasts more time than I can remember, but I felt that it was time to watch the entire thing again and commit a review.

Gladiator is a great film because it recalls what Hollywood has always done well, historical epics that are more epic than they are history.  The screenplay is a collection of familiar tropes (sword and sandals); stock characters (the crazy usurper; the put-upon woman; the wronged hero); and beloved settings (the Roman empire).  The script is really nothing to write home about.  The cast and crew and the director and his creative cohorts are the people who turn Gladiator into one of those truly great films that gave the twentieth century a grand Hollywood send-off.

Gladiator is probably director Ridley Scott's slickest and most polished Hollywood film.  The film's narrative heart beats strong because Scott gets the best out of his film editor, film music composers, production designer and set decorator, and cinematographer.  Everyone pulls together to make this film a visually sumptuous masterpiece, the kind that pounds audiences until they stop resisting and give into the bliss of a grand cinematic epic made in a true Hollywood style.

However, I think the actors are the true heart of Gladiator, delivering performances that make even the least famous of them seem like movie stars.  Richard Harris is philosophical and earnest as the doomed Emperor Marcus Aurelius, while Joaquin Phoenix turns what could have been a clownish role into an unpredictable, but alluring reptilian super man-beast, the usurper Emperor Commodus.  Oliver Reed, in his final role, made Proximo real and really lovable.  And it's sad that Djimon Hounsou as Maximus' steady, philosophic friend, Juba, got almost no love from the various movie award-giving organizations.

The king – or emperor, if you will – of Gladiator is Russell Crowe.  Maximus Decimus Meridius is one of Crowe's finest roles, even if it isn't one of his most subtle, graceful, and profound performances.  Crowe carries this movie, and Gladiator defeats its own warts because Crowe is its true and one and only Gladiator.  Crowe is the center and the beating heart of Gladiator, and the passage of a quarter-century has not changed that.  Gladiator remains a great work of Hollywood cinema because it has what the great works of Hollywood must have – a movie star that radiates enough light to blind us to the blemishes of film with ambitions to be great.  

9 of 10

A+

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

NOTES:

2001 Academy Awards, USA:  5 wins: “Best Picture” (Douglas Wick, David Franzoni, and Branko Lustig), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Russell Crowe), and “Best Costume Design” (Janty Yates), “Best Sound” (Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, Ken Weston, and John Nelson), and “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, and Rob Harvey); 7 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Joaquin Phoenix), “Best Director” (Ridley Scott), “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (David Franzoni-screenplay and story, John Logan-screenplay, and William Nicholson-screenplay), “Best Cinematography” (John Mathieson), “Best Film Editing” (Pietro Scalia), “Best Music, Original Score” (Hans Zimmer), and “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Arthur Max-art director and Crispian Sallis-set decorator)

2001 BAFTA Awards:  4 wins:  “Best Film” (Douglas Wick, David Franzoni, and Branko Lustig), “Best Cinematography” (John Mathieson), “Best Production Design” (Arthur Max), “Best Editing” (Pietro Scalia); 10 nominations:  “David Lean Award for Direction” (Ridley Scott), “Best Screenplay-Original” (David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Russell Crowe), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Joaquin Phoenix), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Oliver Reed-posthumously), “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard), “Best Costume Design” (Janty Yates), “Best Sound” (Ken Weston, Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, and Per Hallberg), “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (John Nelson, Tim Burke, Rob Harvey, and Neil Corbould), and “Best Make Up/Hair” (Paul Engelen and Graham Johnston)

2001 Golden Globes, USA:  2 wins: “Best Motion Picture-Drama” and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard); 3 nominations: “Best Director-Motion Picture” (Ridley Scott), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Russell Crowe), and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Joaquin Phoenix)

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

---------------------------

---------------------------