A Look Back at Gladiator (2000)

 

With the sequel on the way it's time to look back at the first movie.

Gladiator is a historical epic, that was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures, Scott Free Productions, and Red Wagon Productions and distributed by DreamWorks Distribution. It's written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson and directed by one of my many favorites, Ridley Scott.

The story is, Roman general Maximus has lead a successful victory, but when he's demanded loyalty to the self-proclaimed new emperor Commodus, he refuses. His punishment is the death of his beloved wife and son. Now reduced to being a slave and fighting as a gladiator, Maximus now plans to work through the ranks and get his revenge.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Now despite how much I love this movie, there is one tiny but forgivable issue, the pacing. Yeah even though the movie is overall awesome, it does drag in some areas.

• Positives

Alright now to the good stuff. One of those being Ridley Scott's directing. Like I said before, he's one of my faves and no matter the genre or quality of the movie, Ridley always delivers when it comes to the look of his films. And Gladiator is no different. It looks gorgeous.

In all honesty, I don't know what I can say about Russell Crowe's performance that hasn't already been said. He delivered and earned his Best Actor award, and I think that's all that needs to be said.

Since this is an epic, how's the action? Well folks the action is pretty sweet. I loved it. Whenever it's go time I go so excited. The action is thrilling and can be very brutal.

Now to move onto the dialogue. Yes we've got the "Are you not entertained?", but there are also other great bits of dialogue like, "At my signal, unleash Hell". But my personal favorite is "I knew a man who once said, Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."

The last thing I'll praise is our main villain, Commodus. If you plan to watch this just before the sequel comes out, be prepared to absolutely hate this guy. Sure he's creepy and ruthless, but he's also such a childish and cowardly little weasel you're just waiting in anticipation for Maximus to beat the hell out of him. Seriously, you're gonna love to hate this guy.

Gladiator was a tremendously great film back in 2000 and it's a tremendously great film now. It's strongly recommended for you to see this. Yes, I did mention some pacing, but it's forgivable.

My final rating is, A MUST WATCH!

Boy that was fun. Come back on Thursday, Nov 21st, for a brand new Raiders of The Lost Media (yes I still do those), with that one I'll be going over the original idea for Gladiator II. And oh boy is it a crazy one. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.