Gladiator as realistic individual

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2001)

What a difference a script can make!! This past Sunday, March 25, 2001, a "historical" movie, GLADIATOR, won an important award, the Oscar for Best Picture. Its credentials and appeal are in striking contrast to the 1960 epic SPARTACUS. That slave and gladiator and human being (played by Kirk Douglas) stands head and shoulders above the slave and gladiator and human being, Maximus (played by Oscar-winning Russell Crowe). The story and underlying ideas that send the characters to their comparable deaths are of considerable impact on their audiences. The 2000 script by co-producer David Franzoni and others did not win in the category for Best Screenplay (Original) because of any number of plot discrepancies and overall "leaps." The 1960 script, on the other hand, utilizing a powerful historically based novel, does convey more of the reality of slavery's cruelty and oppression. Whereas Russell Crowe's portrayal comes across as a blend of "Terminator" and "Rambo," the Kirk Douglas fight scenes retain an urgent, fearful, and yet human effort to stay alive one more day. A contrast of the villains in the two screenplays (Commodus versus Crassus) as well as other minor characters (e.g. Lucilla versus Varinia, Quintus versus Antoninus) shows again and again that the earlier slave/gladiator epic went for message and subtlety while the 2000 slave/gladiator "vehicle" goes for enormous effect and visceral fast moves. I find the new GLADIATOR to be visually impressive and interesting for its use of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) as a conflicted world leader. The story of the downtrodden and their champion that is SPARTACUS is going to last and hold up far better to future generations, however. The DVD extras that include commentary by Director Ridley Scott and others may hold some answers to the plot "flaws" of the new movie but the reverent restoration done a few years ago on the old movie improved its story's already evident strengths and daring characterizations.