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An Epic Masterpiece

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An Epic Masterpiece

Gladiator is set about 2000 years ago in the Roman Empire. The director, Ridley Scott, gives the audience the feeling that they are actually in the city of Rome 2000 years ago watching the gladiators battle each other to death with many different beautiful types of scenery and sets, such as the battle scene in the very beginning of the film, which is a beautiful forest covered in snow with trees lined on the outside of the Roman base, and Caesar’s palace, which is very big with tall rooms and many different pillars and marble floors. The most notable set in the film is the famous Coliseum of Rome which stands about twenty stories high, holding about 20,000 people to watch the gladiators battle to the death, looked as if it were the actual coliseum being used by the gladiators. Scott gives the film a sense of realism by showing blood and gore as it might happen if they were actually fighting in a ring.
The film’s main character, Maximus (Russell Crowe), is made a slave by the new ruler of Rome, Commodus, (Joaquin Phoenix), because his father, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), was murdered by Commodus in a jealous rage because Marcus decides to make Maximus his successor, which does not go over well with Commodus. Maximus is taken away to be executed, but escapes and sets out to find his wife and child dead and is captured by slave-traders to become a slave. He is bought by Proximo who makes him fight as a gladiator around different arenas to make money. Proximo realizes Maximus’ potential and heals him up to fight in the great Coliseum of Rome, where he finds Commodus and in the end faces him one on one in the Coliseum. One scene that has the most impact on the whole movie is when Maximus and Commodus fight their final battle in Rome’s famous Coliseum one on one. The coliseum is filled with thousands of Romans watching and cheering for Maximus. Both fighters are in the center of the arena surrounded by twenty to thirty guards to make sure none of them have any chance of escape. Before the fight even takes place, Commodus stabs Maximus in the side out of sight of anyone, in order to get an advantage over him and to weaken him making it seem as though the emperor is a superior fighter than Maximus. Maximus staggers around the arena the whole time because of the injury to his side, but still manages to keep up with Commodus. The end of the fight shows a close up of Maximus and Commodus with no sound in the background to show more impact and Maximus is forcing his sword upon Commodus’ neck with Commodus trying desperately to defend himself, but fails. Commodus falls to the ground along with Maximus because of the stab wound. The guards, who were initially on the side of Commodus, surround Maximus and lift him out of the arena as if he were the rightful ruler of Rome, with slow angelic music in the background giving the audience the sense of grief toward the late Maximus who had finally been reunited with his wife and son.
This scene has a great impact on the film as a whole because it shows what Maximus has wanted to do for so long but couldn’t, get revenge. Ridley Scott does a great job making the audience not know what do expect in the end, whether it be a tragic end or a happy end, and in a way, ends up being both. The very end, when Maximus meets with his wife and son in the afterlife, has a great emotional impact on the audience because throughout the whole film, Maximus wanted to just see his family again and in the end, he finally does. Ridley Scott has very good use of visual style for the film by creating realistic scene after scene keeping the audience’s attention to the film the entire time. Many of the different sets make the film seem more realistic even with the computer generated sets such as the Coliseum. Ridley Scott gets beautiful shots all around the outside and inside of the Coliseum, which is actually computer generated in some parts, and makes it seem as if it were really there in the city of Rome during the film. It has a huge center ring in which the gladiators all compete against one another to the death with the audience surrounding the stage. The shots for the fight scenes give the audience the sense that they are actually sitting in the Coliseum watching the gladiators battle to the death and some of the shots give the perspective of the actual gladiators as they plan out their attacks and defend themselves from other attacking gladiators. The music is very epic, much like the film itself, making the film have more impact on the audience watching the film. The acting was phenomenal throughout the whole film, with everyone showing real emotion and anger when needed, especially the main actor, Russell Crowe, who won the best actor award. Joaquin Phoenix also did a phenomenal job as the selfish, careless, and most hated Caesar of Rome making the audience hate him as though he were the real ruler of Rome. The actor’s costumes were amazingly designed with the look of what would probably be the city of Rome 2000 years ago.
One film review by James Berardinelli says all good things about the film and praises Ridley Scott for his amazing shots and recreation of the city of Rome 2000 years ago. The review states that Gladiator does an incredible job in recreating the city of Rome and the Coliseum as it was one of the most well known cities of the time. Berardinelli does point out a couple minor flaws in the film from his point of view and he states that “Gladiator consistently looks good, although, during some of the fights, rapid cutting creates a sense of disorientation and confusion” and “One minor stumbling block for the film is an occasional tendency towards moments of pretension.” I agree to some degree with the first sentence but I feel that during the fights, Ridley Scott wanted to give the audience the feeling that there was action going on all the time and didn’t want to bore them with long shots of the fighting sequences. Since the shots were so rapid during the fight scenes, it keeps the audience’s attention to the whole fight scene and he shoots it so that some of the fight scene’s that are important are shot with a close up. I do agree with the second sentence though because it states that gladiators gain power by controlling the mob and entertaining them while killing, but I would think that if you were actually a gladiator fighting another gladiator, you wouldn’t worry about entertaining the crowd, but just to win the battle any way you can.
Another review by Jeffrey M. Anderson is almost completely opposite of James Berardinelli’s review because he says almost everything bad about Gladiator. Anderson complains about some of the acting, such as Joaquin Phoenix and Richard Harris, and how the movie was shot with the different camera angles during the battle scenes. The last of his complaints about the film are the writers whom he says “The dialogue, by three writers (David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson) -- and God knows how many other uncredited script doctors -- seems to have been stolen from all the worst parts of a couple of hundred recent movies. It's thuddingly dull and we've heard it all before. Not one scene springs to life.” I disagree with this passage because I believe the writing for the film tells a very good story and keeps the audience into the story the whole time with no boring parts. Most of the complaints are not very detailed and he just touches on them without explaining them in detail why he thinks what he does. Anderson just focuses on the very few flaws, if any, in the film and tries to expand on these to make the reader believe the whole film is a flaw. I believe the battle scenes were meant to have many different camera angles in order to give the audience more of a surprise feeling and give them a chance to see the important parts of the battle by shooting close ups on the gladiators as they are about to make an important battle move.
Gladiator is one of the best films of all time with a great story line and great acting. The film is one of the few films these days that focuses on an epic story with beautiful scenery and sets. Every scene in the film made me wanting to watch more to see what was going to happen and kept my attention the whole time. Most movies make the audience lose focus during parts of the film, but Gladiator keeps the audience wanting more without losing any kind of attention to the film.

Works Cited

Anderson, Jeffrey M. “Chariots of Ire.” Gladiator (2000). <http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/gladiator.shtml> (4 May 2000)
Berardinelli, James. “Gladiator.” <http://www.reelviews.net/movies/g/gladiator.html> (2000)

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