ARE YOU ENTERTAINED?

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2000)

About halfway through Gladiator Russel Crowe, having just butchered an arena of opposition, yells to the crowd, "Are you entertained." The line serves as meta-analysis, with Crowe simultaneously critiquing both the African spectators and film goers themselves. The audience at my showing applauded as Crowe fought battle after battle, "The general who became a slave, the slave who became a gladiator. . ." On this purely visceral level, the film succeeds tremendously. Comparisons to other bloody epics like Braveheart, however, are somewhat misguided. Gladiator failed to create a believable setting, its Rome looked and felt like a computer game. Also, its characters never showed range of emotion, fitting into the one-dimensional forms of petulant emperor, menacing gladiator, brooding hero, concerned senator, etc. The bottom line with Gladiator, however, was that for two and one half hours I never once looked at my watch. I left having had fun and was indeed entertained.