One of the Best

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2000)

I think the critics have entirely missed the reason that people want to see this movie more than once and why some call it the best picture they have ever seen. It isn't because of the action scenes or the digitized recreations, both of which are tremendously well done. Nor is it because of the wonderful acting by several members of the cast or Ridley Scott's incomparable cinematography. The fact is, none of these elements is independent; all are choreographed to work toward one theme in the movie. Scott has an exceptional talent for doing this, as shown by his other films such as Alien, where sound and action and acting were so seamlessly integrated to produce a sense of impending doom and terror.
But in Gladiator the theme is entirely different and it is all embedded in the character of Maximus. As in all the epic historical movies this is a study of virtue combined with strength. Maximus is at ease with himself, as are we, and the lack of internal conflict would normally cause us to loose interest, but he is such an admirable person that we become only more involved as the movie progresses. The artifice and cruelty of Roman society, and of course the character of Commodus, are provided to enhance the sense of Maximus nobility. But there is something in Maximus' which represents a fundamental link between nature and man, life and death, which is presented with such direct simplicity and appealing honesty that we must be attracted by it.
Maximus is a man of the earth, a fact repeatedly illustrated in the movie, from his stated love of the land to the close-ups where he dusts his hands in the soil before battle. More than this, he shows us a man whose strength comes from this devotion to the earth. If Ben-Hur gave us a man to admire for his devotion to faith, and Spartacus a man with noble conviction about human value and dignity, then Gladiator does equally well in showing a man whose attunement with nature is both shield and sword, for whom death and life are part of one experience, and who has taken unshakable faith from those beliefs.
A character in TV's presentation of Arabian Nights said that fairy tales show us how to win. I think that drama and acting, at its best, shows us how to be, and the portrayal of Maximus has reached that height. We are all carried along by this earth. The inevitable forces it imposes on us finally transcend the society we create to shut it out. Seeing this illustrated in a film can be a moving experience.
If you don't see this, then all you see is a thin plot pumped up by fight scenes and computer graphics, which, however well done, will never be in a class with the great films of the past.