Great, most of it

Rating: 8/10 (21 September 2003)

I have seen 'Gladiator' a couple of times now and I still think it is a very good movie. But the more you see it, the more you notice little flaws. The story is about a general Maximus (Russell Crowe) who is chosen by emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) to become protector of Rome after his death. Instead he becomes a slave because the son of the emperor, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), kills his father before anybody knows his wish. Maximus is sold as a slave to Proximo (Oliver Reed) and he trains gladiators. Maximus has to make the crowd love him to make it to the Colosseum, to face Commodus who thinks Maximus is dead. Most of the story is fictional.
There are a lot of good things in this movie and they almost make you forget the bad things. The movie opens with a battle between the army of general Maximus and a Germanian army. The set-up is great. We see how the Roman army is preparing for battle, with a lot of little details, and how the Germanian army arrives at the battlefield. After this the actual battle is a disappointment. Where everything looked great right before it all started, you can hardly see anything during the battle. Here the editing, cinematography and even direction or not very good. The only thing that is still great are the costumes. I admired them in every shot of the movie.
After this the real story, the one I told you above, begins. Most of the things from here on are very good. Russell Crowe is great as Maximus, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielsen, who is Commodus' sister Lucilla and an old love of Maximus, are very good as well and veterans as Derek Jacobi (as Senator Gracchus), the late Oliver Reed and the late Richard Harris simply disappear in their characters. The animated Rome looks great and new in one way but therefor a little too perfect, too animated, in another way. The battles in the arenas are pretty good, although the last one is a little too much fiction. You will know what I mean. The ending is the one you expect, a real Hollywood ending, but it doesn't spoil the movie.
Last but not least I want to mention the music by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard. This is one of those scores you will remember. It is perfect in every scene of the movie. This beautiful score, great acting, a fine direction by Ridley Scott and some exciting battles make this movie very entertaining and still one of the best movies of 2000.