Gladiator (2000)

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russell Crowe

In trying to find a fault in a movie like Gladiator I caught myself recognizing more and more good qualities of the film.

I've had nothing but fond recollections of the movie's quality but in my recent attempts to form an opinion of Ridley Scott, I revisited the film and found that it was all I remembered and more.

I remembered first and foremost the amazing performances by both Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. With Phoenix being an actor I've never really cared for, I'm even more impressed with his performance as the emperor Commodus. While Crowe is brilliant and most likely deserving of the Oscar he received, I did feel, strange as it may seem, that he was out acted in a number of scenes. He does, without a doubt carry the film and I suggest this with no intention of discrediting such a performance but when Commodus and Maximus are face to face and a challenge is made to fight, Phoenix is brilliant, Crowe is good. Twice when Lucilla, played by Connie Neilsen in the most unrecognized performance of the film, confronts Maximus in prison, she is brilliant while Crowe is good.

The film does well in mixing a realistic, balanced and compelling storyline with the amazingly entertaining battle scenes. While I remember watching this film and fast forwarding to the battle scenes, I found myself anxious to follow the story more closely this time around.

The one major fault, if it even is a fault, is that the film looked too good. I found myself taken out of the era in which Scott was recreating because the look of the film was so crisp and clear. Its almost as if movies like Spartacus, Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia benefited from the lack of technology. Because the films look older, I feel like they take place longer ago. Gladiator feels like a re-enactment a lot of the time, which is hard to get past.

Overall, its hard to find anything to dislike about Gladiator. The performances, the story, the set design is amazing. All in all, a great, great movie.

****