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Gladiator Movie Review

Gladiator is a 2000 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe. It’s a flawed, but mostly very effective and wonderfully made spectacle.

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“Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome“

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Crowe portrays Roman general Maximus, who is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to slavery, Maximus becomes a gladiator and rises through the ranks of the arena, determined to avenge the murders of his family and the emperor. This movie has a rather straightforward plot for better and for worse. On the one hand, it felt classical and universal that way, but on the other hand, its simplicity definitely made me yearn for more sophistication in themes and dialogue.

Shades of ‘Hamlet’ are present here and the movie overall is quite Shakespearean in its characters and dialogue. My issue with said dialogue is that it was overly inspirational, triumphant and at times even cringe-worthy. It’s one of those movies made for men, especially younger men and teens, and it is far from perfect for other viewers.

With that being said, I still really enjoy this film and it deserves respect as it was the last epic movie to win Best Picture. It still remains one of the last historical epics that really did well both critically and commercially. There is so much to love here from the technical aspects to the acting that is uniformly excellent. Joaquin Phoenix was wonderfully villainous and so well cast in the role of Commodus, the antagonist of the story. Everybody else did a great job too with the standouts being Connie Nielsen and Djimon Hounsou in small, but effective roles.

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There is a discussion to be had about the Best Actor Oscar this year as Tom Hanks was truly terrific and moving in ‘Cast Away’, but I am ultimately glad that Russell Crowe won his Oscar as this is by far his most iconic role. Maximus is a somewhat standard hero, but one that was still solidly developed and elevated by Crowe’s remarkably emotional, wonderful performance. He humanized him so effectively, eventually making us care for him and really feel sad when he dies. That final scene was elegant, poetic and very touching.

Gladiator is at its best during the action set pieces. This is where Ridley Scott’s directorial and technical mastery is on full display. He directed the movie with a lot of confidence and style. Although it’s not my favorite historical movie of his (that would probably be his debut ‘The Duellists’), it’s still among his best efforts in that genre to date. He just missed on a directing Oscar this year, which was a real shame.

Gladiator looks and sounds superb. The cinematography is excellent, the visual effects terrific for the time, the sound is absolutely fantastic and of course that score is amazing. It is rousing and just immensely moving at times. It lost an Oscar to ‘Crouching Tiger’, which is unfortunate. In most other years, it would have easily won. The film is also surprisingly well edited and paced for such a long runtime. I watched the extended version on my second viewing and I wasn’t bored once, which is a testament to how engaging the story is and how well paced and executed this entire affair was. I just wished it had more on its mind besides the standard hero’s arc narrative.

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