"There was a dream that was Rome"

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2012)

Historical epics set in the classical antiquity were a cinematic staple for a long period in the post war era. The genre died a death in the mid-60s, and even though big historical pictures did crop up from time to time, the Sword-and-Sandal format of Ben Hur and Spartacus seemed vanished. That is, until Gladiator. All at once, the vast ancient-world movie was back. Hollywood and the cinema-going public welcomed it with open arms.
Of course, movies don't quite look the same now as they once did. One of the biggest changes in cinema since then is not one of style but one of logistics. Back in the 1950s you could put out a call for a few thousand men, give them all a free meal and a tin hat, and hey presto, you had an army. Now, every extra must be paid properly and you just can't afford masses of them. That extras are getting their due is a good thing, but it has changed the way we make movies. It's one of the reasons why CGI became so widespread – it's essentially a cheap option. However with Gladiator, Ridley Scott has done something Cecil B. DeMille used to do during The Great Depression, back when he was the only person mad enough to make epics in that cash-strapped era. He employs a mix of rapid editing and obscure cinematography to make it look like there's a lot more in the frame than there really is*. It's a neat trick and it works fairly well in battle and crowd scenes. The only trouble is the style is used for much of the picture, and it is somewhat tiresome to see a simple dialogue scene chopped up into a bewildering mess of shaky close-ups.
Back in the Sword-and-Sandal heyday there were certain actors who were associated with the genre. Now that the format was being revived, it would be a gamble finding their modern equivalents. Luckily, I can't think of any contemporary player better than Russell Crowe for this job. He has that rugged tough-guy look, but with a quiet dignity that is absolutely in tune with the notion of Romans as civilized warriors. While his performance does not have any exceptional moments, its strength is in his overall embodiment of the character of Maximus, convincing us that he is every inch a general who leads from the front. Also very good is Oliver Reed, bringing a bit of old-style presence to the proceedings, and a slightly pervy Joaquin Phoenix.
There is one final big difference between Gladiator and its predecessors. The older epics were almost always religious movies, with stories taken from the bible or the days of the early Christians. However, where those '50s pictures were religious, Gladiator is spiritual. There are no miracles or grandiose sermons here, just one man's very fervent belief in an afterlife. And while this is still just a piece of mythology, its context here – the hope of reunion with his murdered family – is incredibly touching, and is effectively what binds the whole movie together. In fact, Gladiator is arguably the first epic to achieve what so many of the earlier examples strove so hard to be – an epic that is also intimate.
*Note that there is some CGI in Gladiator, but it's relatively minimal and is even comparable to the use of matt paintings in those '50s epics.