Gladiator
by Cheeto
Posted on 7 November 2021
Rating -
Gladiator is a 2000 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson.
Commodus takes over power and demotes Maximus, one of the preferred generals of his father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius. As a result, Maximus is relegated to fighting till death as a gladiator.
Gladiator is a film that took me a long time to review, because where do you start? I decided to finally bite the bullet and finally get down to business.
First off; the cast is brilliant. Russell Crowe was the perfect choice for the lead ‘Maximus Decimus Meridius’, he bosses the screen and you truly do believe that Crowe is the character he is portraying. Russell Crowe, hot off of brilliant roles in L.A. Confidential and The Insider, puts in a generational performance as the military leader, and he fully deserved his lead acting Oscar he won the next year. I think that Joaquin Phoenix puts in a fantastic performance as the main antagonist; Commodus. The fact that his performance as the Roman Emperor managed to evoke real human hatred in me, that’s when you know his performance was special. His man baby ways, and the fact he’s into his own sister, yeah that’s all I’ve got to say really. In my opinion he was robbed of the supporting acting Oscar that year, at least this helped put him on the map and he is know regarded as one of the best actors around today. I also think that Oliver Reed and Connie Nielsen put in great performances in supporting roles.
This movie glides from scene to scene, that’s the brilliance of Ridley Scott, he somehow gets the pacing right. This movie jumps from tight action scenes, to long scenes of brilliant dialogue between characters, and it just works. Like I said, Ridley Scott truly shows the master director he is. Of course this is also somewhat due to a brilliant script from David Franzoni.
Gladiator has one of the best soundtracks in film, Hans Zimmer was certainly on his a-game and it only helps heighten this movie. ‘The Battle’ and ‘Now we are free’ are personal favourites of mine. Lisa Gerrard provides the beautiful vocals from a language she made up, it was fate that she did this; as it suits the music so very well.
I think the first act is brilliant and just what this film needs, an action packed battle scene you’d expect to see from a 50’s epic. It shows you the tone of the film pretty much straight away, a brutal bloodbath of a fight. We also get to see a bit of what the character of Maximus is like, a veteran of fighting, he has a smirk on his face as he is slashing through the Germanic tribes people. We also see how respected he is by not only his fellow soldiers, but also the Emperor Marcus Aurelius himself.
SPOILERS: The scene in which we see Commodus kill his father Marcus Aurelius out of spite and jealousy, it’s truly gut wrenching. The fact he also lies how his father dies, it only helps to add to this. This is when we truly see the real character of Commodus, a spoilt little man baby who wants to be liked. The scenes in which Maximus is betrayed and his family are killed are truly tragical. I must warn you, the sight of Maximus cowered over, while breaking down once he sees his dead wife and son, they really will make you shed a couple of tears.
As we move into the second act of the film, I think we truly see the character of Maximus. He’s a slave, but all he cares about is getting revenge for the slaying of his family. Here we see what the life of a slave is truly like, the conditions poor, the food non-existent, and the stadium, laughable. Despite all of this, Maximus only has his eye on one person; Commodus.
We see Maximus out battle every opponent in his way, we even get the famous ‘are you not entertained?!’ line, until he makes his way to Rome to be a true Gladiator. Once he’s in Rome, the movie does begin to fire on all cylinders.
In the first fight in Rome we get Maximus using the knowledge he picked up as a General to work together with the other Gladiators, to beat their opponents. Commodus wants to meet Maximus, of course he doesn’t know it is him due to Maximus wearing a Roman helmet. As he approaches Maximus, Maximus turns his back, an insulting move. Commodus demands he remove his helmet and face him, we then get one of the most iconic speeches in movie history; the ‘My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius’ speech which even thinking about it gives me the chills. Commodus chooses to spare him due to the crowd, he wants to be liked by said crowd.
We get a couple more fight scenes in which we see Maximus out-whit his opponents, in doing this, his popularity skyrockets, much to Commodus’ dismay. As Maximus and the other Gladiators plan an escape, they are ratted out and it turns into this huge fight scene in which we see multiple supporting characters die. We are then shown Maximus chained up and Commodus challenges him to a fight. Commodus stabs Gladiator in the side and orders for him to be covered up. He of course does this to have an advantage over the former General. In beating Maximus, Commodus hopes to finally win the respect from the public. As I was watching this happen, I couldn’t think Commodus could stoop to new levels, well he certainly proved me wrong.
In the third act we get a brilliant emotional fight in which we see Maximus, who is injured, still for the most part; get the better of Commodus. As Commodus loses his sword, he asks Quintus for his, he then begs the other soldiers around, Quintas orders the soldiers to sheath their swords. Commodus whips out a dagger and Maximus over powers him and we get the most satisfying death in movie history.
After Commodus’ death, Maximus orders Quintus to release all of the slaves and we then get flashes of Maximus going through a field, opening a door and we see his wife and son. Maximus falls to the floor and Lucilla says ‘go to them’. We then see the death of Maximus, Lucilla then gives a beautiful speech and we see the people of Rome, carry Maximus out of the stadium. We then get a lovely line, ‘Now we are free’, from Juba, and the film ends.
Like I said, the third act, is emotional and it will have you crying buckets. It’s the perfect ending for this film in my opinion and it’s another reason why this film is an absolute classic.
Overall, this film is one of the greatest in history, an emotional film that will stay with you. You don’t watch this film, you experience it, and I can’t recommend it enough, watch this one guys.
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