roman emperor marcus aurelius ( richard harris ) chooses his trusted general maximus ( russell crowe ) as his successor .
however the emperor’s evil son commodus ( joaquin phoenix ) murders his father before the announcement can be made , and maximus ( as well as his family ) is sentenced to be executed .
maximus is able to escape his executioners , but is later captured and sold as a slave to proximo ( oliver reed ) .
proximo is looking for gladiators to earn himself money ( he being a former gladiator himself ) , and maximus reluctantly uses his skills to prove himself a powerful gladiator .
when emperor commodus announces that new games will be held in the colisseum , proximo takes his gladiators there to do battle .
maximus sees this as his chance to exact revenge on commodus .
gladiator begins with a great battle sequence between the roman army and germania , and actually is able to maintain interest during the now required ” 40 minutes of exposition after a kick ass opening sequence ” style of moviemaking .
the only downfall of the opening sequence is the editing style used . . .
it’s choppy slow-motion which is unsettling and distracting .
it’s similar to the opening sequence in saving private ryan , but nowhere near as effective .
the actual gladiator battles are thrilling , but also a bit disjointed .
many times it’s unclear as to exactly what’s going on . . .
all the audience can tell is that blood is being spilled .
we’re not sure who’s blood or by who’s hand though .
there’s an instance of this earlier in the film too that’s disappointing .
it’s comes when maximus escapes his executioners .
some flashes and a few quick cuts later and maximus is free . . .
but i still don’t know exactly how he did it .
russell crowe should have become a major star after his gleefully over the top role as a computer generated serial killer in 1995’s virtuosity .
for whatever reason his stardom never arrived . . .
but he should have it now .
from here on moviegoers should now be able to say , ” let’s go see the new russell crowe movie ” .
he gets the best scene in the film ( and one of the best moments of all recent movies ) when he reveals his identity to commodus in the colisseum .
it’s both rousing and chilling .
joaquin phoenix does a very effective job of making commodus a person and not just a cartoon character ( which could have easily happened ) .
commodus is conniving , sneaky and whiny , but phoenix never lets the character get silly .
it’s a very good ( and very creepy ) performance .
oliver reed died during the filming of gladiator , and it’s a huge loss to the acting world .
i’ve always been fascinated with reed . . .
he’s one of those very talented performers who once had a fine career but ended up in direct to video junk during his twilight years .
it’s ironic that this film probably would have gotten him back into real movies again , as he gives a fun and sincere performance .
the film is dedicated to him , and he will surely be missed .
reed’s death presented the filmmakers with an obvious problem , as he still had scenes to be completed .
rather than recast the role ( and end up reshooting a great deal of footage ) , a digital version of oliver reed was created at a reported cost of 2 million dollars .
ironically , that was probably more money than reed ever earned for a single film .
anyway , this digital effect is only used in one scene that i am aware of ( for about twenty seconds ) and if you aren’t looking for it you won’t even be able to tell .
some of the other digital effects are less convincing however . . .
and like i always say , noticable digital effects take me out of a movie immediately .
it’s sad that such a good film has these distractions .
movies like the fall of the roman empire and spartacus seemed to do okay without the use of computer effects .
keep in mind that gladiator is based on real people and real events , but is entirely a work of fiction .
however it’s a work of fiction that’s great entertainment , and another film to add to the list of damn fine flicks released in 2000 a . d .