Are you not entertained?

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2008)

Some people claim that Braveheart is the best epic movie ever made: they are really wrong, and is one of the worst films ever made. Gladiator one the other hand is a very good movie, showing that Ridley Scott is a master film-making, showing that he can do any genre and helped make Russell Crowe into a true A-lister.
Gladiator tells the story of Maximus Meridius (Russell Crowe), a Roman General who fought in the war against Germanian tribes. After a massive victory for the Roman, Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) and his children Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) arrive at the frontline. Marcus Aurelius doubts Commodus abilities to become Emperor and asks Maximus to protect Rome by bringing back the Republic and make the Senate powerful again. However before Maximus could do anything Commodus murders his father and arrests Maximus, planning to kill him. When Maximus he returns to his farm and finds his wife and son were murder and he gets captured by Commodus forces. He is sold into slavery and then a gladiator in a backwater in North Africa. In Rome Commodus decides to reintroduce gladiatorial contests in honour of his father who had banned them. Because of Maximus and his comrades success in North Africa they get a chance to fight in Rome. Maximus becomes so success that the people of Rome love him and becomes a challenge to the Emperor.
What Gladiator does well is fight and battle scene. Scott brings in realistic violence which wasn't allowed during the golden age of sword and scandal epics. It's a gore fest, but its a good gore fest. The fights were brilliant. The battle scene at the beginning of film is one of the best ever in cinema, must better then anything in Braveheart. The battle was realistic, showing how the Roman army would have fought against a Barbarian army. Compare it to anything in Braveheart which was a farce in all respects. The acting in the film is top-notch. Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix were on the top of their game and this film is an example of why they became a-listers. Oliver Reed offered the audience his swansong and even Omid Djalili offered a little light relief. As well Ridley Scott tries to show Commodus as a more human character, that he did have some redeemable features like his love for his nepthew. The characters are not completely good or completely evil. It doesn't try to moralise the issues. Compare to the God-awful Braveheart where they is no attempt to show the characters as human or realistic, and that all English characters were pure evil and all Scots were goodness and like. The film also had a solid script behind it, which is very quotable and has a good, classical story behind it. It has a old fashion feel to it, and Ridley Scott said that he was influenced by films like Ben-hur and Spartacus. This is one of my brother's favourite films.
However, one of the big problems with the film is that one of the best scenes was right at the beginning of the film, similar to Saving Private Ryan, which means that nothing each can in the film can compare to it. As well, whilst most of the film is realist, they are some aspects which are not so realist, like when Tigris of Gaul enters into the Colosseum, but those thinks are minor and doesn't affect the enjoyment.
I criticise Braveheart for its historical inaccuracies, but don't do the same with Gladiator. That's because Braveheart was pretending to be a historical film and telling the facts (it doesn't), Gladiator also set itself out to be a fictional story and nothing a rewrite of history.
Whether Gladiator deserved to win all the Oscars it got is debatable, but it is a very entertaining film.