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THRILL SCALE 1-10
7.5
HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?
Yes, but not since the early 2000s
BEST SEQUENCE
It's too hard to pick one over the others, so I won't. Every scene of gladiatorial combat is exciting and unique in a way that makes each sequence individually memorable instead of just blending together with the rest of the action
BEST LINE
"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE
80%
ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS
"While not everyone will be entertained by Gladiator's glum revenge story, Russell Crowe thunderously wins the crowd with a star-making turn that provides Ridley Scott's opulent resurrection of Rome its bruised heart"
IMDB SYNOPSIS
"A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery."
DIRECTOR
Ridley Scott
MAIN CAST
Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris
THOUGHTS
- Would we call this an action movie? I think I'd call it an action movie. It has more on its mind than just the action, and Wikipedia considers it an epic historical drama film, other genres which are also applicable, but so much of the focus is on the action and fight scenes that that's how I'm going to categorize it
- Which I bring up because it's interesting how much Oscar love this movie got at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2001. Nominated for 12 (the most nominations that year) and winning 5 (the most wins that year), it won Best Picture and Russell Crowe won Best Actor as Maximus, but this is not the style of movie or the style of performance which usually get recognized by the Academy. Out of all of my reviews so far I've only talked about three other Best Picture winners - Rebecca, Platoon and Braveheart (but there will be more). Gladiator hews closest to Braveheart, just as Braveheart resembled Spartacus before it, and they do share the sweeping grandeur of a historical epic, but especially in the early 2000s Gladiator stood out as a bit of an anomaly
- And, as the saying goes that the acting Oscars often go to the people who are doing the most acting if not the best acting, it was also a fairly restrained performance from Crowe to win, at least emotionally. Physically he was selling all the action 100%, and maybe not even having to act too hard to do so if his list of injuries are any indication (according to IMDB, Crowe lost all feeling in his right forefinger for two years after a sword fight, aggravated an Achilles tendon injury, broke a foot bone, cracked a hip bone, and popped a few bicep tendons out of their sockets)
- Gladiator came smack dab in the middle of a three-year nomination streak for Russell Crowe. He was nominated for The Insider the year before and A Beautiful Mind the year after, noteworthy considering A Beautiful Mind also won Best Picture, and man, when's the last time anyone ever thought of that movie?
- I would consider there to be three big rip-roaring action set pieces in this movie, and as I mentioned above, I like that they each have a unique quality to them. In fact, I could describe each of them with one word and if you've seen the movie you'll probably know exactly what I'm talking about: chains, chariots, and tigers (but I wish they had been cheetahs just for the sake of alliteration)
- The action is filmed quite effectively in the blazing sun, although there are a few instances of slow motion which I found a little distracting
- Gladiator and Spartacus both feature a Roman senator character named Gracchus. Due to the difference between the years each movie is set I know he can't be the same guy, but I also can't really be bothered to figure out if one movie is more accurate than the other when it comes to this Gracchus fellow, or even if there were just two important Gracchuses (Gracchi?) back in ancient Rome
- Finally, an anatomy lesson. There's a moment in the tiger fight scene when Maximus's opponent, Tigris of Gaul, gets stabbed right through the top of his foot and then we immediately see blood coming out of the mouth hole in his face mask. Now, my takeaway from this was always that these things must be directly related due to, I don't know, blood pressure or something. I went for years believing that being stabbed in the foot would cause you to spit blood, despite this making very little sense according to my (admittedly limited) understanding of anatomy. But, on rewatch, here's the little detail that my brain decided to completely omit: right before the foot stabbing, Tigris of Gaul gets beaned in the face mask pretty damn hard with a shield. This might be one of the most unlikely shared experiences I could ever imagine, but just in case there's anyone else out there who thinks a foot stab leads to mouth blood, I'm glad I could set the record straight (as could probably anyone else with the most basic understanding of the human circulatory system)
Up next: A new one for me, and I'm excited to see it! Cape Fear from 1962. I also haven't seen Scorsese's remake from '91, so I might even watch both and see how they compare
