Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Gladiator is the seventy-third film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. “Are you not entertained?” Maximus (Russell Crowe) bellows out to the crowd of bloodthirsty Roman citizens. The violent death he has just bestowed upon fellow enslaved gladiators registers with the masses as nothing more than spectacle. Similarly, it is the agony visited on Maximus that Ridley Scott turns into a rousing tale of action and revenge with Gladiator. The road ahead was finally looking clear for Maximus. After nearly 3 years leading the Roman army in campaigns across Europe, he was set to return home to his wife and son. Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) had just one more request of the Spanish born general: take over as Emperor and usher in a new era in which Rome was returned to the people and ruled by the Senate. It’s a proposal Maximus is leery of, as he desperately wants to return home, but Aurelius’s son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix at his most weasely) cannot let it happen. He devises a plan to kill his father as well as Maximus and his family. Maximus escapes death but is captured into slavery and must work his way through the gladiatorial ranks to get revenge on the tyrannical new emperor. Gladiator is an absolute riot of an action movie, specifically because Scott paces it in a way that accentuates the drama. The spectacle it depicts in the Colosseum is a distraction from Commodus and his cruelty, but as a filmmaking element the big action set pieces exist only to undergird the tension between characters. Maximus is fighting other gladiators but really it is a battle for the affection of the mob. Much of why it all works so well can be attributed to the performances. Russell Crowe is dynamic as the title character, suffusing his violence and rage with just enough sorrow to believe in his pain and get on his side. Opposite him is a career best Joaquin Phoenix in exactly the type of role he excels at. Phoenix is so good at playing pathetic saps, desperate for affection and here he gets to couple that instinct with the absolute power of a Roman Emperor. The two are electric opposite one another. Some elements have dulled with age. There’s a significant amount of slow motion employed and the CGI views of Rome are a touch corny now. Both are frequent reminders that this is a film from the turn of the century. None of the scheming by characters in the background can live up to the central showdown between Maximus and Commodus. But despite these peripheral issues, the film is just so propulsive. Indeed we are entertained by Gladiator and not just for its violent tendencies. Scott’s film blends its action with compellingly built and well performed characters to add emotion to the intensity. It’s a film paced slower than many modern action pictures, and it’s better for that. 9/10
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