Gladiator
Very few of the current crop of directors have turned out such a large amount of Modern Cinema Classics as the ubiquitous Ridley Scott, but this 2000 release stands alone as his Ultimate Grand Masterpiece, a troubled production at times due to its wayward script that required rewrites all throughout shooting, but somehow and someway was all pulled together by the brilliant efforts of Ridley, and went on to win several Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe, even as Ridley himself was passed over for Best Director in favor of the distinctly less talented but more politically partisan Steven Soderbergh. First conceived as a rebirth of the Roman Times “swords and sandals” epics, but pulled off in such a way that it rose above its cheesy roots and became a work of art with near perfection in every aspect of its production, the film tells the story of Maximus (Crowe), the general of Rome’s armies who has just secured the last remaining region of the Empire in the name of the dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). Afterwards, the frail old man takes him in confidance and reveals to Maximus that he is to be the new Emperor instead of his son whom he has determined must not rule because he is “not a moral man”. When the old man winds up dead at that very son’s hands later that night (without making his decision official), the new Emperor orders Maximus’ death as well as the death of his wife and son back home. Maximus escapes his fate only to come home to his murdered family, and while passed out in grieving exhaustion, is picked up and sold as a slave into gladiator combat, which ultimately leads back to Rome and the Colisseum. Crowe (probably the best, and most masculine actor working today) comes to embody the character like no one else could have, emphasizing the credos of strength and honor while putting on an incredible display of fighting skills during the many bloody and brutal battle scenes, even if the deaths of his loved ones leave him a broken, haunted man for much of the movie. However, he is far from the only amazing acting performance on display, as we also have Joaquin Phoenix as the depraved Emperor Commodus: While it would have been easy to do this character as your typical powerful villain, Phoenix goes above and beyond the call of duty by making Commodus a truly pitiful, tragic figure as we come to realize that despite his power just how awfully ALONE he is in the world, with really no one that either trusts, loves, or even respects him. This enables Phoenix the opportunity to literally bare the soul of someone who, while certainly a twisted individual, is someone we come to both hate AND yet sympathize with as well, an incredibly deft piece of acting that snagged a Supporting Actor Nomination yet also came away empty-handed. Connie Nielsen does her part as Commodus’ sister (and old flame of Maximus), who convinces her brother that she cares about him even as she knows what he is and conspires with his enemies to have him killed. Then there’s Oliver Reed (one of the most legendarily drunken British actors of all time) as the gladiator master Proximo, who tells his charges when he first acquires them that sooner or later they’re gonna be dead anyway but then comes to understand and support what Maximus is ultimately fighting for, albeit in a performance that was cut short when Reed dropped dead from a heart attack in a nearby pub on his day off from shooting with three weeks of filming left, leading to the use of CGI to give his character a quicker exit than intended, but regardless the old scoundrel Reed shines magnificently with his acting here when given the chance in his final role. All this plus Derek Jacobi as the sympathetic Roman Senator Gracchus, Djimon Hounsou and Ralf Moeller as Maximus’ fellow gladiators who come to respect him as his soldiers once did, and Tomas Arana as the tortured Captain Of The Guard who respects Maximus, but feels duty bound when ordered to treat him as a traitor. And as Marcus Aurelius, Richard Harris also gets a couple of nice moments of his own before his demise, as he laments over the widespread corruption of his government which he knows will cause the people to suffer. And that brings us to one of the greater points of the movie and the reason why it remains relevant today, as it turns out that the reason Commodus brings back the gladiator events in The Colisseum is because presumably all the entertainment and bloodshed will distract the masses from the fact that they are starving to death and dying from plague, which in a sense can be correlated to our modern day pop culture and preoccupation with social media which takes many people’s attention’s away from those who are suffering and struggling to survive in today’s climate. But in the end, it’s the raw, brutal, almost primal concept of gladiator combat on display, along with a majestic score, amazing cinematography, Oscar winning costume design and special effects, as well as peerless, untouchable acting leading up to its touching final scenes that combine to make this one of the last true classics of the new millennium…
10/10