Academy was right!

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2001)

-The Best: Russell Crowe, Connie Nielsen, the evil River Phoenix, the directing, plot, music, cinematography, the outstanding battle scenes which lead this film to be one of the best of all time. Synopsis: the whole movie. -The Worst:????????????????? -Rating: 9/10
Roman General Maximus (Russell Crowe) is chosen to be the new emperor of Rome after Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) instead of his son Commodus (River Phoenix), which becomes a corrupt prince by killing his father and claiming himself has the new emperor of Rome. As soon as Commodus has his hands on the power he orders the army to kill General Maximus and his family. It happens that Maximus survives the attack, but not does the family that is burned and crucified alive. Maximus is found unconscious on the ground by a group of nomads who turn himself in a gladiator called Spaniard specially known for his combat skills and are these very skills that take him to Rome to fight in the Colosseum as a Gladiator. Also in Rome Maximus calls everyone's attention once more by his combat skills which moves the emperor to know who that Spaniard Gladiator is. It is in this moment that appears one of the movie's best lines:  My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north, general of the Felix legions, loyal to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and now I will have my vengeance, in this life or in the next.'. Commodus is now frightened to see that his control of the empire is dropping and the people's love for him is each time dropping as well arranges some plan to make the new hero of Rome be forgotten in less than nothing
Once more, revealing the rest of the movie's plot would certainly be really boring and somehow useless because there's almost no one who haven't seen this masterpiece already. Regarding to the movie's evident quality there aren't needed anymore words uttered by another viewer like me, as this year's Oscar nominations speak for themselves. Start running to the Oscar ceremony as the clear favourite, Gladiator's final number of Oscars ended up being somewhat like a big disappointment (there were only five). However the awards delivered to the movie were all fair besides the Visual Effects one. I can tell that I am one of the biggest defenders of this movie, but if the recreation of one big city would have been done in some other movie it would certainly be forgotten or ignored by the academy to the nominations list, in my opinion what led to the big astonishment regarding to this effects was the fact that no one have seen the city of Rome in good old times of the empire so fully created before. It is clear to everyone's eyes that the Special Visual Effects are quite more flawless and astonishing in one of the other nominees Hollow Man. Due to it's acceptance to the big audience it is now a matter of opinion but you can't surely disagree that the effects were eye candy and all the work developed by the computer wise men should have been rewarded by the Academy (see for example the scene were Kevin Bacon disappears, only that about- five minutes scene will show all of you how right I am). Regarding to the other Oscars unfortunately Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stole almost all the awards that should have been given to Gladiator. It seems that critics and now the Academy are completely going nuts by those poor Tiger and Dragon that don't even appear on the movie But now getting back to the centre of the arena where movies like this one are considered minor when compared to movies that show a cheesy and ordinary love story that should have been water down along with the boat, we have to consider ourselves' lucky to have (only) five Oscars when we should have had 11 (Special Effects out  explained before-) Well, right now when there is lesser space for writing, before I will go back to my resting place, I should (of Course) congratulate all the ones that were responsible of bringing back Roman empire: Ridley Scott's aggressive and reachable vision, Russell Crowe's power which was capable of filling even more the Coliseum, an other powerful artist named Connie Nielsen, who by one single look meaned not what a thousand words could. See it, enjoy it, it might be tragic and get 5 Oscars instead of 11, but at least it is not tragic, ridiculous winning 11 Oscars when it should have been 5.
Strength and Honour 9 out of 10.