Where was Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson???...Russell Crowe's gaze could melt an iceberg...

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2001)

While viewing GLADIATOR and seeing how the "revenge" theme was carried to the fullest, I kept expecting to see Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson riding in on their horses to avenge the killing of Russell Crowe's family as they did in so many westerns.
I have to give the film itself a mixed review--and mostly for technical reasons. First, I thought the performances were all splendid. Russell Crowe's intent gaze could melt an iceberg and he uses this intensity to add power to his portrayal. Believe me, it works. Joaquin Phoenix is so good that he should have won the Supporting Role Oscar for his work. He was spine-chilling as the villainous Commodus, pitted against his arch enemy Maximus. Great acting by both men. The battle scenes were excessively gory with buckets of blood gushing everywhere--on a grand scale befitting an epic but perhaps an indication that today's sensibilities are more than blurred.
On the technical side, I don't understand all these comments about the photography. The color took on a distinctly murky look for much of the film, both interiors and exteriors. It made me wonder what kind of color stock was being used to get this muddy effect. Was it intentional? Take a look at the technicolor epics of the '40s and '50s where there was such great color contrast and brilliance in the color. I was very disappointed in the color photography. No need for it to be so dark. Perhaps on a large theater screen this wasn't as much a fault.
Another thing--much of the dialog was muttered in soft tones that could not overcome the background music. A good dialog director should have coached the players to enunciate words more clearly. This is a fault that occurs throughout the film and is very distracting--and no, I'm not hard of hearing at all, thank you.
Aside from those two quibbles, length was another factor that should have been solved with better editing. There are dull stretches where the dialog goes on much too long to make a point about character development.
Definitely not a perfect film and not particularly Oscar worthy although I'm impressed by the performances. While SPARTACUS was a much more interesting look at gladiators, perhaps GLADIATOR was meant to be the thinking man's film about Ancient Rome. It just misses the mark.
Russell Crowe's intense style of acting and Joaquin Phoenix's strikingly vivid villain made GLADIATOR work for me.