Story telling at its best

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2013)

Although this film has many great actors it was Crowe and Connie Nielsen who give it heart. Crowe's presence fills the auditorium and convinces the audience important events are taking place. Crowe pulls you to his side and you root for him almost from the start of the film.
This work is his finest from his appearance as the fierce but reluctant general who was a farmer at heart to his work as the brilliant, unstoppable gladiator warrior to the final scenes when he finally faces the man he has cursed and vowed to kill.
He defies an emperor.
The Emperor is a yellow-livered, depraved poor excuse for a human being but he is no pushover. He is a weak but determined worm of a man who knows what he wants and how to get it. He is ruthless and selfish in attaining his goals, always wrong-headed but unrelenting in his pursuit of satisfying his twisted desires. What he wants he takes with no respect for others.
The movie culminates in a life and death contest between Crowe and the emperor and at times the outcome seems in doubt.
The film was lush and stunning representation of Imperial Rome and the action, both on the battlefield and in the colosseum, is both beautiful and compelling.
This movie contains almost no historical truths but this quickly becomes a matter of "who cares?" "Gladiator" is story telling at its best and whether the naysayers, and there are many, like it or not, "Gladiator" is destined be a classic.
Connie Nielsen brings a strong and pure feminine energy to the film and her final scene, while melodramatic, will remain firmly established in my mind as one of my favorite movie memories.
Could anyone have played the emperor better than Joaquin Phoenix? Possibly but could anyone else have given us greater insight into the twisted soul of the emperor? Could anyone else have allowed us to actually feel compassion for the tortured psyche of the emperor? I don't know but Phoenix did all that and gave us a portrayal of a man driven mad by his obsessions.