GIVE THEM "BREAD AND CIRCUS"

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2000)

Rome, just like any other empire (British, Soviet and American, etc.), was bent as seeing itself as enlightening a dark world, even if attained by savage conquering. Therefore, historically speaking, it's hard to see these folks as the proverbial "good guys" in some kind of morality play.

That said, director Ridley Scott does deliver to us a pretty good movie. I found the performances adequate, yet still couldn't help see Russell Crowe's character (Maximus) as the L.A. CONFIDENTIAL detective character suited up in armor. The same brooding performance. Maximus, for a Roman General, is the typical Hollywood antihero. (Hey...let's mow these Huns down, so I can call it a day, and get home to the wife and kid.) This is hardly original. I've seen better work of his, in such films as the mentioned L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, THE SUM OF US and ROMPER STOMPER. His main antogonist, is the emperor's son, Commodus, played bewilderingly off-the-box by Joaquin Phoenix. The guy is a walking-talking Freudian slip, whom anyone with an ounce of sense wouldn't let him watch a hardware store for an afternoon, let alone an empire. The contrasts between the two leading characters was simply too obvious and simplistic. I frankly saw too much of a parallel in the script, with the relationship of Marcus Aurelius, Maximus, Commodus and Lucilla. It was like this part was lifted from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. It reminded me of the old Red Skelton quip: "Impersonation isn't the sincerest form of flattery...it's plagiarism!" Well, not as bad as all that, but the screenplay was hardly original, as well. A nice touch, was adding a few older veteran actors (namely Richard Harris and the late Oliver Reed, who gives an excellent turn to his character "PROXIMO").
The battle scenes and the brutal gladiator fights were stunning in their horrible brutality. Serious kudos for not flinching about the awful truths of human carnage. Top marks in this catagory. The computer generated effects have been well mentioned for their disapointing results, by other reviews, so I need not mention them here. Overall, rather overrated, but still generally entertaining fare if you're not looking for something too deep. A classic on the level of SPARTACUS? Hardly.