A class act!!

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2000)

I am usually worried that I'm in for a big let-down when I am looking forward to a film as much as I was to this one. This time however, I was very pleasantly suprised, when Gladiator not only fulfilled but surpassed my expectations. It's a brilliant film, which (while containing weaknesses such as a script which wasn't quite as good as it could have been, and one climactic scene which completely changes, and ruins, the ending) manages to engage your heart and mind.
The performances are without exception excellent (although the accents may distract a bit, there is such a wide variety of them). I must single out for commendation Mr. Phoenix, who despite his youth manages to portray a character with such conviction that you never for a moment doubt his interpretation. His physical performance is as good as his mental one.
The film rests firmly on the (extremely attractive and capable) shoulders of one Russell Crowe. In a tour-de-force performance, he manages to convey a man (not a superhuman) with frailties and doubts and fears and heart. I cannot convey to you how brilliant this man's performance was. If anyone else had been this character, the film would have rated at best a five out of ten.
Kudos to Russell Crowe, and to Ridley Scott, for managing to keep this film on a level with humanity, rather than one in which the characters become killing machines.
A must see, five stars out of five.