Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Russell Crowe Reason for Oscar Win
Russell Crowe is the reason this film won an academy award. His performance as Maximus blew me away; it was if I had never seen a movie actor before. He took a role which could have been one-or-two-dimensional and from the moment we meet him, he encompasses everything Maximus is supposed to be: a leader, a fighter, a farmer, a man who loves his family, a man of honor, and a spiritual man. It's so hard to actually put your finger on it, but his facial expressions and the way he delivers such lines as, "what we do in life echoes in eternity" and especially the speech where he states his name, "loyal servant to the true emporer, Marcus Aurelis, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife," -- I defy anyone that hears Russell deliver that speech to not feel something. The music swells up, the crowd is cheering, the gladiators yell "Maximus". A definite favorite movie moment for me. I do think Gladiator an average story and it is; but Russell, and Russell alone, takes a film with some great filmmaking and lifts it up to a point where we feel we've seen a great film. I really believe this would have been a summer blockbuster ignored by the Academy at the end of the year if it hadn't been for Russell Crowe. I do have a lot of respect for Tom Hanks and Ed Harris, but I must say I cheered when Russell took home the prize. Cudos to Ridley Scott and the opening battle sequence as well; but I challenge anyone to really watch this movie and not see that Russell was the soul. I have this on DVD with surround sound -- the only way to watch it!