Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 1.0
Undeserving of Best Picture
Why this film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor, I will never know. I suppose the Academy was simply trying to flow with the general public's (shallow) opinion by rewarding both this overhyped film and its actor Russell Crowe the 2 major awards. Of course it is Hollywood's tradition to honor films that are big-budget, big-epic productions. Most people who rooted for this film to win Best Picture probablly only saw this film out of the 5 nominees. Personally, to me, a good film is not about whether a film is "spectacular" visually, but about the deeper internal meaning behind it. Men clad with masks fighting and beheading each other...and you call that Best Picture? To be totally honest, it only deserved one Academy Award: Best Costume Design. That was the only impressive part about this film. Janty Yates did an AMAZING job designing those spectacular costumes, but other than that, the plot is thin and weary. To be totally honest, Best Picture should have gone to Traffic or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Best Actor should have gone to Ed Harris or Javier Bardem; while (although this has nothing to do with anything) Best Actress should have gone to Ellen Burstyn. However, the Academy proved it is no respectable organization by stripping the deserving nominees of the awards that it so rightfully deserves and rewarding only the most overhyped rubbish.