A traditional matrix + the highest level of performance = An excellent motion picture.

Rating: 10/10 (29 May 2000)

I have to admit that I entered my local multiplex with an endless dose of scepsis about `Gladiator' convinced that it's going to be just another popcorn entertainment project of modern Hollywood postoriginality, and it is in some way, except it's, in my opinion and my experience, a lot more. And that makes him more than just worth seeing.
The creators took a traditional matrix of old Hollywood spectacles and then did one of the hardest screenwriting jobs today and that's to lay a modern superstructure on top of it, balance the pieces well, measure the chill, the drama and the romance correctly and finally construct the visual performance in a manner which stories of this magnitude deserve. The creators did all that amazingly powerful, convincing and emotinally hammering bringing todays artistic conscience and computer techinque abilities to the borders of possible never going over the line or overdoing the performance to make it in discrepancy with the given plot. HOWEVER ...
... They did a crucial job to the film's final quality by rewriting the original draft which, among other differences, had a happy end, and that's something that proves that they knew what they were doing. I was very afraid, to say at least, that it will be a conventional happy-end-movie, and was prepared for that conclusion already seeing Russell Crowe and Connie Nielsen kissing in front of the sundown in the closing shot of the film, and if the original draft wa kept in the final version of the movie I would be even more disappointed than I was preparing to be, because the film was constantly promising a lot more than that kind of conclusion. I can't express how relieved, satisfied, moved and touched I was when that didn't happen.
I have to say that the intro battle in Germania and the fight between Maximus and Tiger are two of five most spectacular action sequences I've ever seen in movies, the `big fight' at the end one of the strongest finales in history, and the end altogather delivers one of the most moving conclusions in recent times, and one of the most important in history of the world, too.
All actors give strong performances, I myself was especially impressed by young Joaquin Phoenix and his magnificent portrayal of Commodus - one of the most repulsive, and yet believable bad guys I have ever seen - and also by his unique ease in snapping from character in one style of performance and film to another completely different, diametrically opposite one. The performance by young actor who playes Lucius will be the unsung one, although I hold that the kid was so good and convincing in his behaviour for the period his character's in, that he deserved a lot more screen time.
I was sincerely moved by the film in a lot of ways a film can get to you, and think it's a proof, more than welcome one, that Hollywood can still make great, full-blooded movies which get under your skin even without much originality or genuine artistic idealism that always heads for the development of new approaches to storytelling. Or maybe `A traditional matrix + the highest level of performance' is a way to go if a lot of new Hollywood products will have the final quality of this one. In another words: Be excellent motion pictures. Because this one certainly is.