Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Apocalypse Then
You wouldn't expect gladiatorial combat to be worth watching. It's been the subject of thousands of one-panel cartoons, sportswriting allegories, and pedophile come-ons (Remember the pilot in Airplane asking, "Jimmy, do you like gladiator movies?")So it's a bit of a surprise that most of the combat scenes in this film play pretty well. Oh, there are quibbles: the lions and tigers look like they've been given Xanax-laced burgers, and despite fitful attempts to invoke real Roman custom (Crowe's prayers to his ancestors) the American nuclear family is still the basic unit of pathos.But most of it is beautiful, in an uncanny way. The great battle scene at the start of the film is like a pre-industrial Apocalypse Now shot, as the Roman catapults literally napalm the treeline. It's an interesting way of reimagining the Roman way of making war, and it's not actually such an implausible one. They were a fearsomely adaptable and ruthless people, and the film deserves credit for making them, and their bloodsports, something more than a tired punchline.One thing, though: Oliver Reed. Aaaiiee! The man is magical: whenever he appears onscreen, suspension of disbelief collapses. I await the day he and Keanu Reeves play opposite each other; the very fabric of the Universe may well collapse!