And here it is! My favorite movie of all time!

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2006)

Yes, finally I get the time to comment my undisputed favorite! Gladiator is my favorite movie because it gave me the opportunity to a bit of a 'teaser' of what I could expect in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But since Hollywood altered and messed up LotR, Gladiator remains my all time favorite. However!!! My favorite thing to do (as you all know), is to rap down on my favorites. This time, Gladiator must pay. Hehe >:)
Gladiator did one very serious mistake; it mixed fiction and reality. That's a mistake that a. o. Xena: Warrior Princess made several times. (There, they portrayed the Troyan war to occur sometime during Julius Ceasar's reign as war Marshall. These two event, both actual events from history, occurred with a void of 400 years between.) They started of the film with the Romans going to war in Germanica. And winning. This is wrong. The Roman Empire never seized Germanica, and never won any battles there. (Except for Italy beating Germany in soccer a couple of times.) They continue with Commodus, son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, kills his father to become the new Emperor. This I cannot verify as a true event or not, but it seems far-fetched. I don't buy. However, it does make a good drama scene. And they end the movie with Emperor Commodus being killed by his former general, Maximus, now turned gladiator, in the Colosseum. Now, it is true that Commodus did fight gladiators in the Colosseum, and it is likely that that's how he died, I do not know this for sure myself. But, the film's main character, Maximus, is merely a character of fiction, so if Commodus was killed in the Colosseum, it was not by him. Except for this, the film is the absolute best in its genre, and yes, I still consider it a lot better than the LotR trilogy. Here's my five reasons why. 1. Gladiator had to start from scratch. No one had heard of it before its first press release and premiere. LotR has been common knowledge for more than 40 years. 2. LotR was written by one of the worlds's greatest and most intelligent authors of all time. How are you suppose to best that? I'm not saying that the Gladiator script was better than the LotR books, but at least it was an honest piece of work. 3. Like millions of other LotR fans, my expectations for the trilogy was sky high. And from a book reader's point of view, I was more or less disappointed when I saw the result. This was not Tolkien, this was Hollywood. Gladiator was more Hollywood than LotR, but we didn't expect it to be anything else either. 4. When Gladiator was, and remains to this day, completely free! Unlike, LotR, it's not tied down by copyrights and spinoffs and merchandicing and whatnot. You might find a couple of t-shirts or something out there, but they would most likely only be promotional or something. The LotR concept have released billions of merchandice, and they are dependant on these things being sold, and they expect a certain amount of profit. What was once a wonderful piece of authory art and the most loved and respected piece of fantasy literature of all time has become a money machine. Shame! Gladiator is of course making a lot of money still, but no everybody expected that to happen. And at last 5. Gladiator clearly thought of real talent and realistic appearance before popularity and sex appeal. Compare Russell Crowe's MAximus and Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn anyday, and I am very sure you will have to admit that Russel's MAximus will come out victorious. Russell looks like a regular, everyday worker. A bit grimy and rustic, and hard knocked. Maximus looked like he hadn't seen water ever most of the film and it fit him well. Ergo, Russell fits the bill when a character needs to be down and dirty. Viggo Mortensen, who is a very good looking fellow to begin with, was made to look good as Aragorn, even when Aragorn was dirtied up or injured. He was always stylish, even in the Ranger rags he wore. Now don't get me wrong, the LotR trilogy is so definitely worth a watch, but I don't think you should watch with any expectations whatsoever, and certainly not with the books in mind.
So, my recommendations are as follows; watch Gladiator if you don't have the time to watch any of the Lord of the Rings films. I can guarantee that you will be just as entertained, if not more.
One more note; this movie was also Oliver Reed's last film as he died during the shooting of the film in Malta due to heart failure. He was 61. The film is dedicated in his memory.