You can feel not only his anger and fear but also the madness of a man who actually believes he is a God. Finally, the supportive acting in this cast was well done starting with relative newcomer Connie Nielsen, giving a believable performance as Lucillia, the sister and love interest of Commudus. Finally, besides a gripping story, fantastic directing, and superb acting, the film would still be missing a note if it didn t contain the emotionally moving score of Hanz Zimmer. While not familiar with his early work, I became a fan after hearing his incredibly emotional music in The Prince of Egypt . There are three formats included here, starting with the reference quality DD 5.1.
Every sound is picked up, no matter how subtle.
From the arrows and trebuchets firing in the forests of Germania, to the crowd roaring all around you in the Coliseum, the sound plays an important role in getting the viewer totally enveloped in the film. Also included was a DTS ES mix that makes its premiere on the Gladiator disc. Providing six discrete channels of sound, the mix provides yet again a fuller soundstage than its DD 5.1 colleague, which I noticed especially with the trebuchets, which moved more subtly from speaker to speaker. Finally, as I mentioned before, Hanz Zimmer s score constantly flows throughout the room, funneling not only through the surrounds but also generously portioned in the front soundstage as well. Rounding out the audio is a Dolby English 2.0 surround.