A cracking 'sword and sandals' remake (Gladiator (DVD))

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Gladiator (DVD)
Date:	14/10/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: excellent casting, acting, direction, sets, engaging story, good score

Disadvantages: some ropey cgi on occasion

Loosely based around two Hollywood films from the 1960s (Spartacus and The Fall of the Roman Empire, the latter a flop, incidentally), Ridley Scott's 2000 film Gladiator revolves around Maximus (Russell Crowe), a Roman General of high standing with the ear of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris). Aurelius' son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) seeks to be Emperor, and indeed he is rightful heir, but when Aurelius makes it clear to Commodus that he intends to make Maximus Emperor instead, Commodus kills his father and orders Maximus to be executed, along with his wife and child, who are summarily slaughtered on the family's lush Italian villa. Maximus survives however, only to be captured, exhausted and grief-stricken, by a slave trader, played brilliantly by Oliver Reid, who died halfway through filming, yet not before completing enough of the film for the remaining parts of his role competed with clever use of editing and CGI.

Maximus proves to be more than a match for the various gladiators his is up against, and the film excells in its portrayal of the splendour and brutality of life in the gladiatorial ring, working his way up through the ranks through numerous superb combat scenes in an attempt to get his revenge on Commodus. Commodus learns that he is alive, but as Maximus is the people's hero he dare not have him openly executed for fear of reprisals. Thus the film becomes a tense struggle for superiority between the wronged General and the scheming Emperor, with lots of exhilerating violence and dramatic dialogue along the way.

The acting is excellent all round, as is the photography, and the sets are particularly good, which is unsuprising given that the film is directed by Ridley Scott. Essentially a modern remake of the 'swords and sandals' epics of the 60s, Gladiator gets the formula just right and works brilliantly both as a historical epic and modern action-filled popcorn film. There is the odd bit of ropey looking cgi (in the overhead cityscape shots for example) but this is a very minor point indeed, and Gladiator is a hugely entertaining film that remains engaging from start to finish.

Summary: Widely deserving of its mass appeal