A Masterpiece Of Polished Pulp Cinema

Rating: 9/10 (27 March 2019)

GLADIATOR is a masterpiece of polished pulp Cinema with all the right ingredients: visceral fights and battles; a beautiful, mysterious woman; a villain you love to hate and a hero with a code of honor (and arms like tree trunks); it has all the drama and heartbreaking betrayals and tragic deaths of a Telenovela and as much blood and testosterone as you'd find in a Rambo movie. It's simply glorious, spectacularly entertaining filmmaking - all delivered straight to the gut and without a shred of irony.
And boy is this violent revenge tale and journey to ancient Rome beautiful to look at: every shot is framed like a painting; it's one of those gorgeous looking Ridley Scott films where every landscape becomes as much a protagonist of the film as the actors in it. As for those actors, they are never less than magnetic to watch, and especially Joaquin Phoenix and Russell Crowe stand out; they bring an intensity and all-in approach to their roles that garnered them both Oscar nominations (Crowe won his).
I sometimes hear the argument by certain self-professed film critics that GLADIATOR is too pulpy to really be considered a good film. I couldn't agree less. This is one rousing adventure and one beautiful movie with a fantastic cast - and it knows exactly what it wants, and it achieves it to a degree of perfection. It's about as cinematic an experience as film can offer, and it's as watchable today as it was nearly 20 years ago.
P.S. (for new IMDb users): In case you don't know whether to trust this review or not, because you have no idea what my tastes in film are, just click on my username - gogoschka-1 - and you'll see a list what my 50 favorite movies are.