A beautiful, intense and dramatic film

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2013)

Gladiator is one of those masterpieces of the past decade. This film contains everything that a film needs. It creates emotion, suspense, drama and most importantly a brilliant story that is mixed with real events and great characters.
What Ridley Scott did so well, in what is probably his finest film, is that unlike many directors who may get carried away by the action, Scott remains in complete control of the story the whole way. There is not a second of pointless action that is put into the film. In fact, altogether, this film had very little action and a lot of substance into the story.
Even though the theme "Revenge" has been done to death in films such as Kill Bill, Man on Fire and all the other films, no film truly captures its meaning like Gladiator does.
The acting in this film is just brilliant. Russel Crowe does a splendid job with his character Maximum, whom during the film we really see as a real person and his tragedy. It was interesting to see the final fate of Maximum from a brave general into a slave and then into a gladiator who still remains a leader until his death. The other character I really enjoyed was Juba, and the friendship between the two was so beautifully done that I, after watching the Extended Edition, wished there was more of that.
Something that really masterminds the film is Hans Zimmer's breathtaking musical score which just further perfects every scene. Even the character Commodus, is someone that I felt pity for, but at the same time found just filled with evil desire. He was brilliantly portrayed in the film and the final stand off between the two was just well put together.
***SPOILERS***
When Commodus stabs Maximum just before their duel, you really see how pathetic of a person Commodus has become and his death was brilliantly portrayed. Even though I've cried when some characters die in movies, I really didn't cry when Maximum fell down and died because I knew that Ridley Scott only knew too well that Maximum's death meant that he could live a happier life with his family in the afterlife.
I also liked Richard Harris' character of the Emperor. Seeing him getting killed by his only son was just depressing but also made only more sense. When Marcus Aurelius said to Maximus that he wished he had become Marcus' son, that continues to remind we of when Denethor from Lord of the Rings said that he wished Boromir had lived and Faramir had died.
This film, much like Lord of the Rings, beautifully captures my interest in the film even without the fight scenes. Everything about this film was brilliant and so I loved it!