The movie is quite daring in its own way: it is a spectacle set in Ancient Rome
in 180 AD, a time when humans (being the inane creatures they are) more openly
compensated for their inadequacies by watching other humans kill each other
brutally. A time when tyrant emperors ruled and few would dare challenge them.
The film is about one such person, Maximus (Russell Crowe), a General from Spain
who fought and bled for Rome with much passion but is now a slave as a reward
for his patriotism. This is a film that has been done several times and belongs
to a kind, in my mind, that is fairly easy to do successfully. Everyone loves to
watch the downtrodden good guy kick the smug and powerful bad guy's arse against
all odds.
The story begins with an opening scene that reminded me of the one in Saving
Private Ryan. As I mentioned before, I am desensitised to watching fictional
violence (yet completely sensitive to any real-world account) and was bored with
the initial scene in Saving Private Ryan. While I experienced the same boredom
here to a degree, the reason Gladiator succeeds where the other movie fails is
that it provides an ulterior motivation for the battle. In the first ten
minutes, we see how Maximus holds himself, how the ruling Caesar, Marcus
Aurelius (Richard Harris), views him, and how it illustrates the cowardice of
Caesar's son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). (Not to mention some amazingly violent
and destructive scenes that puts the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan to
shame, and all director Ridley Scott has at his disposal is "primitive"
weaponry.) The Emperor is so pleased that he decides to crown Maximus the next
Caesar. Commodus does not take this news kindly and orchestrates events such
that in a short order, Maximus' wife and son are killed brutally and Maximus
himself is broken and shackled as a slave. He is bought by Proximo (the late
Oliver Reed who died about a year ago) and trained to fight as a gladiator.
Slowly, Maximus uses his warring skills to win the popularity of those who come
to cheer for his death, until he gains an appearance in the Colosseum before
Commodus who has made himself the new Caesar. Instead of having Maximus killed
off right away, Commodus slowly lets him woo the crowd of Rome as well, until
the final battle between them. In the end, Maximus triumphs against
unsurmountable odds, aided in part by Commodus' sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen)
and the Roman Senator Gracchus (Derek Jacobi).
The set design and the cinematography are extravagant. The spectacles being
staged, from the initial opening sequence to the gladiator fights, are
grandiose. Scott, who gave us Alien and Blade Runner, has created a Rome that is
to be marvelled at. The story itself is okay, but I had a hard time with most of
the characters who simply seemed to be tacked on at the last minute to fill up
an expansive set. There's nothing wrong with this (in fact, I almost prefer it
given the black-and-white story line), but one should keep in mind that in
Gladiator, the spectacle is more important the characters (which is ironic given
how Maximus rises to fame).
The acting is generally very good, with Crowe doing an excellent job. A while
ago, in my review Go, I was pondering the question of who would take over for
the great action actors like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. Crowe is definitely
a strong contender. Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, and Richard Harris present
solid performances. I was terribly unimpressed with Joaquin Phoenix's
performance as a whiny Emperor.
Truth be told, Gladiator is not my kind of a film, the primary reason being that
I didn't derive very much (pseudo) intellectual value from it (and I generally
do in the dumbest of movies). I still recommend checking it out on the big
screen, for the dazzling epic that it is.
