My name is Gladiator!

Gladiator - A Blu-Ray Film Review

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. 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."

Ridley Scott delivered one hell of a crowd-pleasing masterpiece in the year 2000 with a little "revenge flick" called simply, Gladiator. Starring Russel Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, the late great Oliver Reed, and the late great Richard Harris, and featuring a bevy of still impressive ancient vistas and battles, Gladiator seemed to singlehandedly revive audience interest in a thought dead sub-genre, the historical, or "sword and sandal", epic. The story is as basic as they come in terms of plot and the progression of said plot from point A to point B, but within this simple frame of a story lie characters that are all deeply realized individuals, for the most part anyway, with inner lives and demons that serve to make them relatable and likable, again for the most part, to the audience. 

In the year 180 A.D. Caesar Marcus Aurelius' long campaign against the Germanic "barbarians" is coming to an end. The armies of the great Caesar are led by a valiant and honorable man named Maximus Decimus Meridius, played by Russel Crowe, who is much beloved by the men he leads because he fights with them and treats them as men. When Aurelius makes known to his son Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix, that he intends to leave the throne of the Roman Empire to Maximus after his death in order that Maximus might then cede the rule of Rome back to her people through the Senate, Commodus murders his father in a fit of hurt and jealous rage. To ensure that his father's last wish remain unknown Commodus orders the immediate execution of Maximus, as well as Maximus' wife and son in far away Spain. Escaping his execution Maximus rides for his home, but arrives to find that his beloved wife and son, whom he had not seen for almost three years, have been brutally crucified and burned alive at Commodus' orders. Near death himself he is picked up by a band of slavers and finds himself sold into the service of Proximo, played by the late Oliver Reed, along with a Numidian named Juba, played by Djimon Hounsou. Under the ownership of Proximo Maximus becomes a gladiator and rather quickly gains the fervent appreciation of the crowds who come to watch these men fight to the death. His climb in the arena eventually leads him to Rome and a collision course with Commodus that can only end one way for either of them. 

So, Gladiator is essentially a time honored tale of revenge by a noble man who was wronged by a wicked other. However, the story takes on some deeper political and moral themes that ensure it doesn't stay that way entirely. More shades are allowed to form as the film progresses over its rather extensive 2 and 1/2 hour runtime, with an added 15 minutes for the Extended Cut that I watched. Maximus, under the keen guidance of actor Russel Crowe and director Ridley Scott, goes from a good and honorable General who is a simple man and farmer at heart, to a man consumed with grief and rage and bent on eventual revenge, and finally almost full circle back to a man who realizes that there is far more at stake than his revenge against Commodus for his family's murder. Rome herself hangs in the balance and however Maximus' journey ends, the outcome will seal her fate for good or ill. Russel Crowe is outstanding as Maximus Decimus Meridius, the role that launched him into the mainstream spotlight. He digs deep into his character and ensures that Maximus' noble heart is always visible, even when the overwhelming pain of his loss and the blood and filth of the gladiatorial arenas seems to have almost snuffed it out. Maximus remains a man that we as an audience can invest in and root for to find his way, not only to his retribution, but back to the man we know him to be at his core. Crowe is simply magnificent and it is no wonder he won the Oscar for Best Leading Actor at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards in early 2001. 

The rest of the cast is equally up to the challenges presented by their roles. Joaquin Phoenix makes for a legitimately frightening psychopath in the role of Commodus. Highly volatile and paranoid to an unfathomable degree, not to mention harboring incestuous lust for his own sister Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen, Commodus is a terrifying tyrant worth rooting against, but Phoenix also brings shades of fear and genuine pain to Commodus that also make him rather pitiable. His desire for his father's approval and eventually his explosive jealous rage when he feels he has been usurped by Maximus is all brought to vivid life by Phoenix who never flinches from the darkest corners of his character's shredded soul. As Commodus' sister, Lucilla, Connie Nielsen makes a stunning portrait of a woman who knows how monstrous her brother is, but must walk a fine line for the sake of her own son Lucius, played by then newcomer Spencer Treat Clark, who would appear later in the same year as Bruce Willis' son in the M. Night Shyamalan superhero thriller Unbreakable. Knowing she must do what she can to get her insane brother out of the seat of power, but knowing still yet that doing so puts her and her son in mortal peril, Lucilla is a woman whose motivations are at first murky to the audience, but as the film moves along they become clearer and clearer and her deep love for her son and desire for his safety even above her own life make her a compelling character to watch. A strong woman who is quickly growing tired of being strong as she lives every day in fear that her brother may snap and turn on her and her son, Lucilla is really the secondary protagonist after Maximus himself when you think about it because her stakes are the highest of almost anyone else. As Juba, a wrongfully captured Numidian who is sold into slavery to Proximo along with Maximus, Djimon Hounsou is a warm and soulful presence. His innate friendly nature and growing friendship with Maximus puts him in danger as well, but his courage is formidable as he has his own family he yearns to return home to. Hounsou is fantastic and his final line in the film never ceases to bring this grown man of thirty years to huge baby tears. I mean balling. Derek Jacobi plays Gracchus, a Roman Senator who is firmly against Commodus' rule and whose alliance with Lucilla, as well as some other Senators who know they have a madman on the throne, brings him into Maximus' path. Jacobi is another outstanding piece in a highly esteemed ensemble and in his character's own words he knows he is "not a man of the people", but he does try to be "for the people". As Proximo, a former gladiator himself who was once freed by Marcus Aurelius, the late Oliver Reed plays a man who knows all too well that his time in the arena has left him cold and seemingly without any sense of decency, but once Maximus enters his estate he too begins to learn what it really means to fight for something greater than oneself or ones own profit. Reed is a cantankerous scene stealer and his final scene in the film is a powerful one because of the conviction that Reed brings to Proximo's every twist and turn as a character. Oliver Reed tragically passed away before filming on Gladiator was finished. As a result, the final few scenes his character appears in had to be meticulously retooled using stand in body doubles and digital face and voice recreation. He could not have given a better final performance. And finally, the late Richard Harris appears all too briefly in the film's earliest part as ailing Caesar Marcus Aurelius. Harris brings a warmth and spry humor, but also an undercurrent of sadness and regret as Aurelius comes to recognize the many failures in his life, especially in regards to his son, and this makes the fragile Monarch someone we can feel for and his demise at the hands of his own son the stuff Greek Tragedies are made of. Richard Harris would pass only two years later after giving his final performance as Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, in the hugely successful film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 2001 and Chamber of Secrets in 2002. Richard's work in these last three films will ensure he is never forgotten. 

Gladiator is indeed impeccably cast and performed as close to perfectly as is possible, but what about the those aesthetic virtues? Production Design, Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Music. In short, all of them are exemplary. Now, the cinematography goes for a very gritty, grimy, and shaky style in the fighting sequences, but has moments of true grandeur and beauty interspersed throughout. The color palette of the film varies depending on location and mood. In the opening battle and its aftermath, set during the winter, the colors are muted and cold to reflect the chill of the environment. When the battle is raging the camerawork and editing take on a shaky, kind of blurry, and grimy approach that are meant to convey the chaos of a huge battle, with mud and blood sometimes flying right into the camera lens. It's a bold and striking style that not everyone will appreciate for sure, but I applaud Ridley Scott and cinematographer John Mathieson for taking such a risk in their work. For me personally, it pays off. There are scenes in Gladiator that are not meant to be pretty and Scott and Mathieson make certain that they are not. However, there are some truly beautiful shots and scenes throughout the film, especially the establishing shots of Rome and the grandeur of Colosseum. Several dream sequences, or "visions" as they may well be within the story, portraying Maximus walking through a field of wheat towards his home and grazing his hand through the stalks are suffused with an otherworldly lighting and color scheme that make them truly stand out. The set design by Arthur Max is grand in scale, but of course there are tons of digital enhancements to really set them off. What is on the screen is epic and the work it took to get it up there must have been strenuous to say the least. And the music by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, who also provides some heart stirring vocals, is magnificent and consistently supports and helps propel the action on the screen along. The closing musical theme of the movie, once again, brings this thirty year old man to tears. EVERY... SINGLE... TIME!

Gladiator is one for the ages. And just now reading on ye olde Wikipedia about the script troubles (The script wasn't even finished when filming began and was constantly changing and reshaping throughout the shoot.) on set, which Russel Crowe was reportedly, and admittedly, upset by. He even told one of the writers "your lines are garbage, but I'm the greatest actor in the world and I can make even garbage sound good". Wow! It is truly remarkable then that the final result is as good as it is and holds such staggering emotional power. This is nothing less than the commitment of a cast of fine actors and a director still in his prime who delivered on every conceivable level in spite of, and maybe in some cases even because of, the constant struggles and challenges on the set. Gladiator is a masterwork of crowd-pleasing storytelling. And crowd-pleasing is no bad thing to be, especially when it is done with this much flair and passion. Gladiator still makes me weep openly when its staggering conclusion is reached. Whatever the problems on set, including the untimely loss of one of its key actors in Oliver Reed, the film still comes together as close to perfectly as possible and tells a story that is simple in structure and form, but holds much deeper and more meaningful ideas at its heart when one takes time to peer beneath the surface. Gladiator is a great film. One of its director's finest, and it really probably is my personal favorite of Ridley Scott's extensive filmography that I personally have seen, and I have not and may never see all of his films. It is, in a word, a masterpiece. 

"Are you not entertained?" 

5/5

Eric Spearman 1/04/2016