What the film lacks in intellect, historical fact, or common sense, it more than makes up for in action, spectacle, and grandeur.
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"We who are about to die salute you."
It's deja vu all over again: "Quo Vadis," "Demetrius and the Gladiators," "Ben Hur," "Spartacus." I thought we'd left the sword-and-scandal epics behind us forty years ago, but director Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner," "Alien," "Legend," "Black Rain") has resurrected the genre and produced a rousing if less-than-cerebral version of the species for the new millennium. What the film lacks in intellect, historical fact, or common sense, it more than makes up for in action, spectacle, and grandeur. Appropriately, DreamWorks Home Entertainment present it in a grand, Special Edition, two-DVD set that's loaded with more extras than would fit in a Roman coliseum.
The story begins in 180 A.D. at the end of a twelve-year campaign by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) against some upstart barbarian tribes in Germania. The Emperor's main man, his general, is Maximus (Russell Crowe), a strong, silent type who wins the war for him. The Romans triumph the way they always did--with superior numbers, superior cavalry, and superior strategy. Thank Maximus for this last turn. Now, Marcus is old and knows he's coming to the end of his reign, and back in Rome the Empire is divided on whether an emperor should continue to rule or the senate should take over. The old Emperor doesn't want his son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), to inherit his title because he recognizes Commodus for what he is, a weak, selfish, immature tyrant. In consequence, Marcus tries to hand over his authority to Maximus, naming him in private "Protector of Rome." But Commodus beats the old man to the punch. Before Maximus can tell anyone about the old Emperor's plans, Commodus murders his father, assumes the emperorship, and orders Maximus executed. Maximus escapes, only to find that Commodus has had his wife and son murdered and his villa torched.
The next thing we know, and don't ask how or why, Maximus is captured by slave traders and sold to a gladiatorial school. From there he returns to Rome and confronts the new, young Emperor. Thus, the plot. Connie Nielsen is also in the cast, as Lucilla, Commodus's sister, for whom he continually lusts in a "Caligula" kind of way. Derek Jacobi (remember him from "I, Claudius"?) is Senator Gracchus, an ally of Maximus. And Oliver Reed is the slave owner, Proximo, a role he was unable to finish because he died before the film wrapped and had to have some of his work completed digitally.
Basically, then, "Gladiator" works as a tried-and-true revenge plot. The bad guy kills the hero's family, and the hero tries to get even. DreamWorks' tagline for the film is, "The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an empire." That's about the size of things as the story unfolds over the course of two-and-a-half hours. The movie's primary claim to fame is its fight scenes, both in and out of the arena. Director Ridley Scott gets a lot of work from his participants, the warfare often reminding one in their energy and violence of the down-and-dirty conflicts on the football fields in Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday." No doubt, the comparison between the bloody Roman games of the past and the brutal sports of today is apt. In both cases, the combat is hot and heavy, with, naturally, the Romans coming out ahead in the blood-and-gore department. The film is not rated R for nothing. Indeed, the film glorifies the very thing the Romans so loved and we are supposed to deplore--the spectacle of death and destruction as entertainment. I guess times haven't changed that much, after all.
Those viewers looking to find another "Spartacus" will be slightly disappointed. Russell Crowe is a fine actor and does his best with the title role, but he is almost never called upon to do more than look good in a breastplate. In fact, he makes Kirk Douglas, always an underrated actor, seem like Laurence Olivier. But, then, Douglas had more to work with, including a script that allowed him some personal feelings to show through. Crowe, on the other hand, appears always to be at a distance, always a degree removed from any real human emotion, which, I suppose, is part and parcel of his character's personality. "Gladiator" is an action movie above all, and in between the battle sequences the intensity slows down considerably.
In addition to its action, where "Gladiator" scores heavily is in its special digital effects, which come off awesomely. It's clear that a studio does not have to produce an outer-space, sci-fi adventure anymore to benefit from the marvels of a computer. Here, the glories of the city of Rome are represented in extravagant detail, with all of its multitude of people, grand, imperial buildings, the central Forum, and spectacular architecture on vivid display. The Roman coliseum is magnificent and persuasive to behold, yet it was three-quarters constructed on a monitor screen.
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