Crowe can't save voyeuristic and incoherent film

Rating: 5/10 (24 January 2005)

Russell Crowe's fine performance as an ex-general turned into a slave and then a gladiator cannot save this picture from its utter absurdity, as the ending stages a pathetic duel between him and (no kidding) the Emperor of Rome in the Coliseum!!! There are some impressive scenes in the film, and Crowe has a beautiful screen presence; his friendship with a fellow Numidian gladiator is nicely conveyed, as is his attachment to amulets representing his family; the revelation of his identity is aptly charged with tension; and the preparation of the first battle is superb. Alas, it then turns into an orgy of gore.
Being an ancient Greek (Theban to be precise) general, I'm bound to have qualms about this film's treatment of antiquity. As many reviewers have noted, the sole idea of a roman citizen (let alone a general) being turned into a slave is absurd, as is the trip from Germania to Spain during which Crowe seems to pass through some sort of rocky desert before entering the hills of Tuscany... How familiar is the filmmaker with the geography of Europe I wonder? Depictions of power relations in Rome are also quite laughable.
But it is the voyeuristic stance and contemporary political relevance of the film which I find most disturbing. The despisal/fascination for the 'mob' which runs through the film has a distinctly fascist tinge. The violence is in some places unbearable, all the more so as it is gratuitous (the slaughter of Maximus' son)... My deep rejection and indeed contempt for the film really developed from listening to Ridley Scott's commentary on the DVD, in which he avows, among other depressing platitudes, that he would really have liked to live in Roman times, granted he was among the wealthy ruling classes... Probably in order to enjoy the spectacle of death and violence he in turn successfully inflicts on his twentieth-century teenage audience. The implications of such a fascination for slavery and violence are frightening, and make one want to watch SPARTACUS over and over again, as a reminder of the times in which Hollywood stood for humanist values, and not their despisal. It is also an opportunity to find where many seemingly novel ideas in GLADIATOR actually originate...
All in all, despite how much we want to believe in Crowe, the film is far from the historical and psychological complexity (and visual clarity in battle scenes) of the much-underrated Alexander. Indeed, Crowe would have been perfect in the part, and would probably have had the guts to oppose to the wearing of Colin Farrell's ridiculous blonde wig!