A highly engaging film where acting supercedes SFX

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2000)

Most people have based their judgment on this film by the quality and nature of its battle scenes. While they are surely integral parts of the movie I believe its real strength lies elsewhere - principally in the high caliber of acting in a film that has no real "star" appeal. Crowe is becoming globally renowned as a class actor (this I knew before his previous work) and he portrays the rugged single-motived determination of a vengeful man that has lost everything perfectly. The real stand out in this film for me was Joaquin Phoenix - an actor who has been lampooned by many for no other imaginable reasons than his famous family name and youth. The way in which the character of Commodus was played defines this movie. He could so easily have been summed up as a simple one dimensional purely villainous antiseptic anti-hero like all those homogeneous characters infesting countless "die-hard" type movies. Or, he could have been an essentially camp figure played as so inept a leader though endless emotional manifestations of his inferiority complex. If it had been the first the movie could well have been demoted from welcome epic to traditional gung-ho flick by-numbers where everyone secretly wants the "bad guy" to win. Joaquin brilliantly finds a type of middle-ground between the two extremes and plays a character equally insane, intelligent, evil and ashamed. There are times when he seems a purely pathetic little spoilt boy (something I think critics believe Joaquin himself is - denting their abilities to truly judge his performance) with, intentionally funny, lines such as "I'm vexed, really vexed". Other times, his own self hatred and sense of inadequacy make him seem more sinister than any type-faced bad guy with the latest nuclear weapon (particularly in scenes with his sister - Connie Nielson, in effectively a bit-part role). By being a 3D character whose motives we feel we can almost understand somehow makes him more evil than otherwise possible - we don't love to hate him we just hate him and pity him in equal measures. He also has the perfect look for the role. I heard Jude Law was auditioned for the part - unsurprising, both have a similar look as pretty boys not destined for battle but capable of displaying a thousand emotions beneath one single expression.
Much about the rest of the movie has been said many times so I shall be brief. The battle scenes are very well done and not enough credit is given to Scott for them (I sadly expected the usual unimaginitive "he copied Spielberg" jibes). Oliver Reed is indeed a commanding and vibrant character on the screen - all the more surprising given that he can be seen to be stumbling through some scenes, guess that Roman vinum was a little too tempting. Yes, the ending is a little annoying - such a face-off is wearingly familiar from those tiresome wrestling fests but the whole movie is not in this vein (many have called it WCW Colliseum Style - a disgraceful simplification). The lack of tension in this final scene, while disappointing in a dramatic sense, links well to the theme of ultimate destiny that underlies this and most Roman epics. Also, the flashy "dream" sequences interspersed throughout are far too pop-culture for such a film and dampen the general flow of realism. Special effects are generally excellent, although occasionally certain Rome shots tend to look a little to CGI'd. Any flaws are merely nit-picks and the problem with mentioning them is that often one feels obligated to do so yet takes up half his critique saying so. This should not be the case - Gladiator is an excellent film that hopefully heralds a return for more epics that triumph in their characterisation at least as much as their technical showmanship.