Gladiador

Gladiator is the best bread and circus. A moving and very entertaining action epic with Russel Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix at the top of their game.

I absolutely love Joaquin Phoenix in this movie. He's the kind of villain you love to hate. So pathetic and childish. So ruthless and creepy. Just right amount of cartoonish. I wanted to punch him in the face.

It can be corny and it drags a bit during the escape plan part of the plot, but it has enough emotion and brutal violence to keep the audience entertained, and that's what a good gladiator match should be.

"Are you not entertained?!?!"

One of the most perfect movies ever made. The pacing, the characterization & development. Hans Zimmer's score. John Mathieson's cinematography. Career-making acting from Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, & Djimon Hounsou. Everything is on point.

This movie is an integral part of Ridley Scott's holy trinity, along with Blade Runner & Alien. Endlessly rewatchable. Endlessly quotable. An epic tragedy on the level of Shakespeare & Ancient Greece.

This movie will be just as popular a hundred years from now, and no movie about Ancient Rome will have topped it.

I love history, and to me, Gladiator is a masterpiece. It is the most accurate picture of the Roman Empire Hollywood has ever put out. People declare Spartacus a masterpiece, but Gladiator far outdoes Spartacus in quality. The costuming, the acting, the screenplay, the scenery, and the fighting styles made me think that I had traveled back to 180 A.D. Russell Crowe is a true Hollywood tough guy, and he is superb in this movie. Joaquin Phoenix is outstanding as a villain, one of the best in movie history. He played his character as if it were a psychologist's dream case. Connie Nielsen plays one of the strongest female characters that I have ever seen. The choreographer of the action sequences was brilliant. Ridley Scott did an outstanding job in recreating the Empire, including the multitude of ethnic groups within the Empire and accurately depicting everyday life. If you're looking for insight into what the Roman Empire was like, this is a perfect depiction.

The epic blockbuster returns with the 21st Century's answer to Cecil B DeMille, Ridley Scott and his dramatic tale of courage and revenge, GLADIATOR - "the general who became a slave, the slave who became a gladiator, the gladiator who defied an emperor".

Once a great roman General, and as good as adopted son of Marcus Aurelius Caesar (Harris), Maximus (Crowe) is forced into exile by Commodus (Phoenix), heir to the throne, after the death of Marcus. Saved from death by slavers, he is purchased for use as a gladiator by Proximo (Reed) and ends up in the arena of all arena's, the Colloseum, where he proves unbeatable under his guise as "The Spaniard".

And with a budget of over $100m, Scott certainly delivers the goods. GLADIATOR transcends the notion of 'blockbuster' that we have become accustomed to in the age of electronic and special effects wizardry and instead offers a good old fashioned action film along the lines of Spartacus and and Ben Hur. Not only are we drawn into an archetypal story that contains all the classic elements a filmgoer could dream of (love, loss, courage, despair, good triumphing over evil etc etc) - also on offer is a visual feast of cinematic painting after painting - a rich tapestry of images that are breathtaking and ultimately visually satisfying. From the plains of Germania, to the desert stronghold of Zuchobar, and finally to great Rome herself, John Mathiesion, the cinematographer is to be commended highly for his general inventiveness and ability to capture so much on film. The opening battle scene is superb as a cast of thousands erupt across the screen and provide an indication that we are about to see a film that pays incredible attention to detail throughout its entirety. In every way, Scott has created a world for us that scuttles films of similar epic undertakings (and budgets!) and sends them to their dooms at the bottom of the murky depths of film history where they belong.

The cast is generally very strong. Crowe proves himself very suitable to the task with a great emotional range and depth of character. His accent ocassionally bugged me (as did the mish mash of accents on offer - but that is I guess a legacy of 'internationally casted films'), but this aside, he was well and truly up to the task. Phoenix is also excellent as the disturbed Commodus, as is Nielson as Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus who "should have been a son" and finds herself torn between loyalty to her brother and doing what is 'right'. The old guard thesps of Harris, Reed and Jacobi (Grachus) are uniformly strong as supporting characters, and Spencer Treat Clark (Lucius) does a fine job as the young heir to the throne.

Add to this great cast excellent editing and post production work, and an intricate soundscape (including a magnificent Hans Zimmer score), and you have a film that, despite its length, was highly palatable and had me in there from beginning to end. A must see.

20 years on, the first DVD I bought is still a barnstorming, thrilling ride. There's so much to recommend this - Lisa Gerrard & Hans Zimmer's iconic score, the canny casting of Joaquin Phoenix as a foil for Crowe; the realisation that I quote this film in everyday conversation far more than I thought I did. If it should have won the Oscars is a moot point - this is another of Ridley Scott's superb worldbuilding - one of his primary film-making skills, giving us a Rome that feels recognisable yet still a break from the cliché's that had seeped in to popular culture before this. That the film's status was boosted by the DVD boom as it made its way to home release is undeniable, but this remains a film that thrills, absorbs and grips.