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8.7/10
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It’s been a while now since I’ve seen ‘Gladiator’ but I still can’t get over the beautiful soundtrack- ‘Now we are free’ by Hans Zimmer that keeps playing in my mind now and then, reminding me of this beautiful movie. So here I am, finally writing about it.
Gladiator is a magnificent epic directed by Ridley Scott. General Maximus Decimus Meridius played with immense masculinity, strength, and emotion by Russel Crowe intends to return home after he successfully leads the Roman army to victory against the Barbarian Tribes in Germania- one of the best battle scenes I have seen. When Scott learned that the Forestry Commission planned to remove a section of the forest, he persuaded them to allow the battle scene to be shot there and burn it down. Emperor Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus that he wishes Maximus to succeed him and finds his own son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) unfit to rule. When Commodus learns about his father’s decision, in a fit of rage, he murders his own father and claims the throne himself. He gives an order to murder Maximus and his family when Maximus refuses to work for Commodus. Maximus somehow manages to save himself but is not able to save his family.
Maximus collapses on the ground from his injuries and is found by some slavers lying on the ground. He is sold to a gladiator trainer Proximo. Proximo has Maximus and a group of slaves turn into gladiators to fight to the death, in the hope to make a profit. Maximus proves himself to be victorious and rises through the ranks of each gladiator fight until he gets his revenge against Commodus. The events in the film are largely fictional but blend in well with the known facts.
Gladiator manages to do one of the most important things I look at when I criticize a movie. It makes you forget about your own life and pulls you into the roman setting it creates. This happens not because of one particular thing but because of the multiple things the film gets right. The exceptional costume design, impressive set design, visual effects, fascinating direction and how can I forget the stellar cast?
Russel Crowe creates his own aura, giving this gravitational pull to the movie. You just can’t take your eyes off it when he is on the screen. Also, Joaquin Phoenix plays his amoral, power-hungry character with amazing skills. The tension in the relationship between Commodus and Lucilla is played well by both Joaquin and Connie Nielsen. In fact, Gladiator helped establish the careers of the majority of its cast and crew, especially elevating Crowe to leading man status and turning Phoenix into a celebrity.
The subtle glimpses of some of the scenes like the tiger eating the foot of one of the slaves or the hardships of the slaves are small things that create a clear picture of the settings of the movie. Also, the graphic swift scenes of the war and the sound effects of the gladiator fight scenes, gives fighting a tangible realism that crashes out of the screen. The movie in a way beautifully manages those war scenes and gladiator fight scenes which could have easily gone messy. That is my direct compliment to Scott and his editing team. Cinematographer John Mathieson used multiple cameras filming at various frame rates and a 45-degree shutter, creating stop motion effects in the action scenes, similar to the techniques used for the battle sequences of Saving Private Ryan.
For the fight scenes, they used 2000 live actors to create a computer-generated crowd of 35,000 virtual actors that had to look believable and react to fight scenes. While we talk about computer generated stuff, it costed 3.2 million for two minutes additional footage of Reed (Proximo in the film) that had to be created by mapping a three dimensional computer generated imagery mask of Reed’s face after Reed’s death during the filming.
Scott and Franzoni (writer) drew on several influences for Gladiator, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, La Dolce Vita and The Conformist. I am not surprised that the film won five Academy Awards in 2001.
The gorgeous cinematography, larger than life characters and their impressive dialogues keep you entertained all the time. But Gladiator is designed not just to entertain, but to enthrall. Gladiator is simply storytelling in a cinema at its finest. It is a drama that gets immense support from the script and the stellar cast due to which it gets the power of immersing the audience into the world it creates. It never fails to be involving and additionally, the screenplay manages to avoid the trap of predictability.
Favourite Quotes
Commodus: Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard. I don’t think there’s ever been a gladiator to match you. As for this young man, he insists you are Hector reborn. Or was it Hercules? Why doesn’t the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name? You do have a name.
Maximus: My name is Gladiator.
[turns away from Commodus]
Commodus: How dare you show your back to me! Slave, you will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
Maximus: [removes helmet and turns around to face Commodus] My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
Maximus: I knew a man once who said, “Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.”
Juba: Can they hear you?
Maximus: Who?
Juba: Your family. In the afterlife.
Maximus: Oh yes.
Juba: What do you say to them?
Maximus: To my son – I tell him I will see him again soon. To keep his heels down while riding his horse. To my wife… that is not your business.
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