Ridley is one of my favorite directors only because of the visuals!

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2000)

Well Ridley Scott is the director of 2 of my favorite movies of all time, Alien and Blade Runner. I also like Thelma and Louise.
I think that Gladiator is a good film, but not a great one. I think that it doesn't beat Thelma and Louise (the film seems to be very underated because everybody said that Gladiator is Scott's best film since Blade Runner or even Alien).
Ridley Scott's good sense of casting is casting is very present in Gladiator and he knows who to direct an actor.
Russell Crowe is very good : I mean he is Maximus ! But I think that the best performance is give by Joaquin Pheonix (maybe it is because his character (Commodus) is the most developed in the film). Pheonix is so incredible that he steal every scenes that he appears !!! Connie Nielsen is impressive has the frightened sister of his younger brother. She is also very beautiful !
The supporting actors are very good too begining with Richard Harris who gives a very credible performance. The late Oliver Reed's first lines are funny and he is also credible. Djumon Hounsou (sorry for the wrong spelling) is good too, but I think that we don't see him too often. Derek Jacobi is always very good. Spencer Treat Clark give a very good young performance as Lucius.
Now technically the film is impressive. The camera works are well done and the cinematography (Ridley's force) is outstanding! Some may not apreciate the effect during the battle scenes. I think that it is a kind of violence censure. The violence is often suggested more than shown. It could have been a lot more gory ! So I think that the fast editing is a good thing, but I was disapointed the first time that I saw the movie (I've seen it twice). The score is very good. Hans Zimmer deserved to be in the Top 10 greatest and prolific Hollywood composers. The score: The Rock meets The Thin Red Line: 8.5/10 . The CGI effects disappointed me in the first viewing, but it grow on me the on the second viewing!
Ridley Scott's direction is NOT at his best but the actors are very well directed and Scott's vision of Rome is well represented. The themes in Gladiator are a bit similar to the themes of Blade Runner, but here stop my comparision with that masterpiece. Surprisingly, there is a "intimate feel" in that film and that feels good to have Ridley back! (Unfortunatly his next is going to be bad ("Hannibal" staring Sir Anthony Hoptkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman and Ray Liota). Ok maybe not, but I have a bad feeling about it! Ridley's cinematography (with the help of cinematographer John Mathiesen) is impressive and he really shows his influences of David Lean. The shots in Morocco remind me a lot of Lawrence of Arabia !
I think that the weakest point of the film is the story. It is not very weak, but it is clichÃ© and there are a lot of deja vu espacially if you had seen Braveheart two days before ! The characters are not very deep and there are some little plot holes.
Well, I think that it is the Hollywood film that you must see this summer if you only want to watch one, but don't expected a masterpiece it is not. ...A kind of Titanic movie...
8/10