A triumphant achievement from all angles

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2001)

So what if Commodus was actually murdered in his bathtub? And honestly, do we care that he actually ruled with his father Marcus Aurelius as co-emperor for several years before Marcus Aurelius died? At least, these are some of the facts which have been rearranged in "Gladiator", but why not take liberties with poetic license?! Great cinema is about drama, and this is not a documentary, nor will the audience be disappointed by what they see. Gladiator gives the audience what it wants: the human connection. History is not flat, lying on a page. It was real, as real as today is now, and in Gladiator, history is alive, visually compelling... transporting. What higher compliment could we give than that so many people have been able to instantly identify with a time and place that most of those watching this film have never given much thought to before? How can this in itself not be called a triumph? And I would even argue that the writers of these historical epics *must* truncate and rearrange so many aspects of one historical era to reproduce the whole for our understanding... thus aspects of the equally despotic Roman emperors Caligula and Nero are merged with the character of Commodus... but Gladiator is not merely a visual success, or that merely because of its fantastic special effects. It is quite simply a compelling story. We all support Maximus in his fight to avenge the murders of his wife and son. We all love to watch the strangely intriguing performance of the ambitious, luminously mad emperor Commodus... and the delicate maneuvering of his politically-minded sister, Lucilla! The acting in Gladiator is also reason enough to see the film. Not only have we the last performance of the great Shakespearean actor Oliver Reed playing Promximo, and the incomparable Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius, but two new luminaries on the cinematic horizon: Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. If great acting can be accomplished with the simple movement of the eyes, if great acting, as has often been said, can be achieved with and within the subtlety of a single expression, then these two have mastered the art of great acting! A telling point would be to see the film dubbed into Italian (close to Roman Latin); this would prove, I think, how talented these actors are in the expressiveness of their emotions through the eyes and body language, as well as through their fantastic speaking voices. As for Connie Nielsen, I have to say that she was excellently cast as the elegant Lucilla; had Ridley Scott substituted her for any other more well-known but less capable Hollywood actress, I think the role would have been the film's greatest weakness. In fact, it was a wise choice to cast this film with extremely talented but less well-known actors (though NOT ANY MORE!), or else Gladiator may not have seemed so realistic, nor made so powerful an impact on so many. I would recommend this film to anyone. My rating: 11/10.