two movies for the price of one

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2000)

There is the drama, very Shakespearean in nature, with the complexities of power, betrayal, loyalty, love of king, family and country; and then there is the action. The movie has the feel of a committee behind it. The screenplay probably didn't specify too much about the battles, both military and gladiatorial, and somebody along the way probably decided that that the movie was too sophisticated and dramatic to sell without a lot of violence. The battles and fights are not particularly ingenious. I was never grossed out to the degree I had hoped for; I was rarely in suspense, and I didn't find the action to be specific enough. I wasn't always sure what specifically was happening in a fight. The violence didn't measure up to the politics in the drama. That said, the drama was fine, and Joaquin Phoenix held his own as the evil Commodus, and Mr. Crowe will get another crack at an Oscar. The story, by the way, is a flight-of-fancy, taking off from the more boring history, which is that Marcus Aurelius chose Maximus over his own son, Commodus, to rule Rome, but Commodus had Maximus (and his brother Condianus) assassinated after an early attempt was made on his life, orchestrated by his jealous sister Lucilla. Lucilla was exiled (later killed) and many suspected enemies (Maximus among them) were also assassinated. That wouldn't have made a very good movie, so we start by having Maximus show disrespect for Commodus on his first day in office, which causes Commodus to have him assassinated, the attempt of which he escapes miraculously. Lucilla remains in the story as a weak, sniveling (possibly incestuous) hanger on, and the historical fact that she was a power hungry conniver herself is conveniently excluded so that she can stay in the story till the end. In real life, Commodus was finally poisoned by a favorite concubine (Marcia) with the assistance of the palace staff, who were all afraid that they might be next in Commodus's paranoid rampage of executions. In addition, Gibbon (Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire) tells us that Commodus was much like Caligula in his taste both for assassinating his potential enemies and for orgies with both boys and women. That sexual side was not in the movie. I sorely longed for Bob Guccione's presence. Finally, only a small reference is made to the fact that Commodus fancied himself a great gladiator, calling himself the Roman Hercules. His servants concocted fixed "battles" with (drugged) wild beasts and (drugged or disabled) gladiators that he would always win. The crowd, according to Gibbon, found this display of vanity a bit annoying, but the thing that made the people really mad was that he was simply killing too many people. People will tolerate a lot from an emperor, but not the possibility that they will be his next victim.