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Rival, or enemy, states copped visits from Roman legions
whose discipline and sword skills turned legionnaires into
walking meat carvers who would slice through enemy ranks.
Face-to-face killing was what legionnaires liked and enjoying
the sight of flowing blood was not limited to soldiers, the
Roman population loved blood and guts and were fed it by the
colosseum-full.
The Games put on by emperors kept the populace entertained
- and the most acclaimed of these were the gladiator battles.
Usually slaves, the gladiators would fight to the death in
brutal clashes that few movies have tried to emulate - until
now.
Gladiator is a blood-and-sandal epic that transports
you back to the nasty realities of ancient Rome where treachery
and brutality were considered the nice parts of society.
Starring Kiwi actor (okay, he grew up in Australia) Russell
Crowe, Gladiator not only has a terrific plotline,
but stunning special effects that take full advantage of the
latest computer graphics.
Crowe is Maximus, favoured general and adopted son of Marcus
Aurelius (Richard Harris), one of the best emperors Rome had.
He has just won a bloody victory over the Germans and is looking
forward to returning home to Spain when political hell breaks
loose.
Aurelius meets an untimely end and his mentally unstable
son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), takes over and, seeing Maximus
as a rival, tries to bump him off.
Things get very nasty for Maximus and his family and so he
begins life as a slave and then as a gladiator on his path
to exacting revenge on the new Caesar.
Now, there are plenty of historical holes in Gladiator
- too many to go into here - but it is, after all, Hollywood
and as long as you don't watch it with a copy of The Rise
and Fall of the Roman Empire sitting on your lap, and
suspend belief on some of the storyline, you'll enjoy it as
a terrific action/adventure movie.
The imagery is astounding. The opening battle against the
Germans is a gruesome, but exciting, spectacle and sets the
tone for the gladiatorial combats that follow.
They are inventive, fast-paced and bloody, giving you the
feeling that perhaps the less hard-hitting epics of days gone
by wussed it on the level of violence.
One of the outstanding things about Gladiator is the
seamless mixing of real and computer-generated images.
The rendered buildings of ancient Rome look glorious and
the sweeping vistas of the city are stunning. Some have slammed
them for not being accurate - "You'd never see the Colosseum
from the Forum." - but Gladiator was never promoted
as the Melway of Ancient Times.
And when Maximus has to battle tigers popping from under
the sandy floor of the arena it looks as if our hero is genuinely
half a yellow-and-black whisker away from a toothy end.
The technical transfer on to DVD is excellent - the result
of strict overseeing by the director - with a razor-like sharpness
to the imagery and an almost perfect colour palette.
It would be easy to rave on about this movie but it's sufficient
to say that most of the hype is true - it is a sensational
yarn - well-acted, well-directed and tremendously exciting.
For mine, one of the highlights is the final, marvellous
performance from Oliver Reed as the former gladiator turned
gladiator-master. He may have been a hell-raiser but, by crikey,
he could act. This is one of his finest.
Definitely a must-have for the DVD library.
Conclusion: Movie 90%, Extras 95%
Continued:
DVD details at a glance >
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