"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and 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."
So I've been trying to come up with a cool way to start off this review for a while now, and it's proving to be quite a challenge, which is pissing me off. Then again, it could be worse. As long as my family doesn't get molested and crucified and I don't get sold as a slave to get killed by lions in an arena, I guess I've got nothing to complain about.
Gladiator is a movie about a roman general played by the academy award winning actor Russell Crowe, who gets betrayed, and thus becomes a slave. He has to fight as a gladiator in order to secure his freedom and avenge his family, and after his first few fights, his slaver realises how great a gladiator he is, beeing a former army general and such. Because of his talents in the arena, Maximus is taken to Rome to fight in the Colosseum, and thus begins a legendary tale of love, revenge, betrayal, death, honor and bravery. A story of a general who became a slave. A slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor.
The way I see it, there are two main themes in this movie, the first one being revenge. Maximus was cast aside by Commodus, the new emperor, because he refused his offer to become high general of the Roman army, in favour of going back to live with his family. As punishment, Commodus kills Maximus' wife and young son, leaving Maximus with an incredible thirst for revenge. There are certain points in this movie where you can just see his lust for retaliation seething from his eyes, and it makes you root the shit out of Russell Crowe's character, because he's so incredible at expressing just what a man in Maximus' situation must be feeling. Some of his lines are incredibly memorable, and Crowe delivers them with an authority and a confidence that I've seldom seen before.
The second, and quite possibly the most important theme also, is love. Maximus loved his family deeply, which is why he wants revenge for them being killed so badly. He's come to the point where he actually wants to die, because he believes he's going to see his them in the afterlife, he just has to get to his revenge first. Commodus, the emperor played incredibly well by Joaquin Phoenix, is also a family man, but in an entirely different way than Maximus. He's a self absorbed, greedy and unstable, sometimes even psychotic young man, who takes his fathers seat by murdering him and staging it to look like a natural death. His father and Maximus had a very close relationship, something that had been torturing Commodus for many years. Therefore, when Maximus finds out about this murder, it only adds to their already hateful relationship. Commodus also loves his sister very much, witch is quite ironic, because she's in love with Maximus. Feeling as though everyone in his family likes Maximus better than himself, Commodus becomes a very angry, frustrated and sad man, and his character is one of my favourite villains of all time, because you hate him just as much as you feel bad for him.
Hans Zimmer composed the official Gladiator theme song called Now We Are Free, and by God, it's one of the most beautiful and sad songs ever created. The movie is very sad in itself, seeing as it's centered around death and betrayal, and this song reminds me of just how emotional I get when watching this film. Listening to it for just a few seconds literally gets me all emotional and it almost puts tears in my eyes, it's that striking. A good example of how much I adore this soundtrack is the fact that I've taken an entire part of this review and dedicated it just to praising the living hell out of a score. Here's a link to the soundtrack, please take a few minutes out of your day to sit down and listen to it through a pair of good headphones, and trust me, you wont regret it.
One of the the many thing i adore about this movie, is how strongly attached i get to Crowe's character. He's been through so many things in his life, sacrificed most of it to fight for the roman army and serving the Cesar, and seeing him get screwed over as royally as he does is just gut wrenching. You just want this guy to become happy so badly. I almost felt as though my world got connected to the universe of the Roman Empire when I watched Gladiator for the first time, and I was completely sucked into the world of gladiators, emperors and slaves, which is largely due to the incredible cinematography and directing that went into this movie, done by the legendary Ridley Scott. Some of the shots are beautiful beyond explanation, and especially one scene sends chills down my back every time I watch it. It's the scene where Maximus is walking through a field, his hand brushing lightly on top of the swaying corn, with Now We Are Free playing in the background. I can't explain much about the situation or the symbolism of this scene without spoiling too much of the plot, but ladies and gentleman, I promise you, it's B-E-A-utiful.
Now, I know that there are many people who think that gladiator is tad bit too long and too drawn out, but too me, it's too short. I've bought the BluRay version, and with it comes an extended cut version witch is a whopping 3,5 hours long, and i still think that's too short as well. The more i watch this movie, the more I fall in love with it, and I'm always sad when it's over. I want it to go on forever, never come to an end, just keeping on going. When all is said and done however, there is a few things about Gladiator that I think could have been done better, and one of them is the colour of the buildings in Rome. They seem a little grey and cold to me, and I've always thought of Rome as a big shining city. Some sand colour or yellow/redish would have fit better in my opinion, but it's not too big a problem when everything going on inside those walls are as epic as they are. The other thing I didn't like about this movie. is the trailer. It's one of the more shitty trailers I've seen, and you should not decide whether you want to see Gladiator based on the contents of it. Just trust me on my word and go see it, whether you liked the trailer or not.
This movie is grand, spectacular and epic. It revolutionised the world of cinema sword fighting, took emotional investment to a level never seen before, and has cemented itself as one of the best historical movies of all time. It's acted perfectly, the script is filled to the rim with memorable quotes, everything from the costumes to the scenery is done perfectly, it has an incredible soundtrack, and leaves you feeling as though you've just witnessed something incredible and special. Gladiator is very close to being my favourite movie of all time, and I would be doing the art of movie making a great dishonour by giving it anything but my best rating. Gladiator is, without a shadow of a doubt, movie magic. (6/6)
Gladiator IMDb page here
Gladiator trailer link here
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