Gladiator, Part of my reviews for the 2001 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees

Gladiator is directed by Ridley Scott who has directed 47 movies and TV shows in his 53 year career, and produced almost 3 times that many pieces of work. That in itself is an amazing accomplishment, but when you add the scale of some of these movies: Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven, it’s even more impressive. Also a mention has to go to Alien (1979) which in my opinion is as close to the perfect horror film as you can ever get – and that was his second ever feature length directorial. *thunderous applause*

Hmmm. It seems all I want to do now is a review of Alien…… Focus Youngy, one film at a time.

I’m trying to imagine what was going through Ridley Scott’s mind when he and the casting team came up with the list for this movie. With a production of this size, surely the last thing you want to worry about is your cast so with that in mind let’s get Russell Crow, Richard Harris and Joaquin Phoenix on board…… not enough egos and still think we may get a productive day on set? Fuck it then let’s throw in Oliver Reed too!

Maximus (Russell Crowe)  is a brave, tacitly savvy and fiercely loyal General to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) who only wants the war he’s been asked to lead his men into to be over so he can return to his family. Unfortunately his traits do not go unnoticed and Aurelius tells Maximus of his plan to name him his successor. But when the Emperor’s son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) finds out, he kills his father and orders the death of Maximus. As he escapes injured, his wife and son are murdered. He then ends up a slave and is sold to become a gladiator. Trained by Proximo ( Oliver Reed), a former gladiator himself, Maximus wins every battle and soon finds himself sent to Rome to take part in the Gladiatorial Games. It is here that he plans to plot his vengeance and gain his freedom.

A role which defined Crowe for many years, in what has turned out to be a tempestuous career. His brooding menace is exactly what the character of Maximus needed as a foil to the crazed antagonist Commodus. He really threw himself into this role (quite literally) getting more then a few knocks on the way. He aggravated an Achilles tendon injury, broke a foot bone, cracked a hip bone, and popped a few bicep tendons out of their sockets.

Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant as Commodus. He goes from spoilt, impulsive and highly strung to every so creepy and dangerous (to everyone around him, family or not) and back again in the blink of an eye. This dude is a seriously good actor. Also happens to be the inspiration for Jack Gleeson’s  Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones.

The epic “Swords and Sandals” movies had pretty much been dormant in Hollywood since their heyday in the 1950’s and 60’s but Scott brings them back in a big way here. The scope of this film is immense and he fully deserved his Best Director Oscar.  Cinematographer John Mathieson did a stunning job here too. The use of colouring and shade, lighting and mist to shape the shots is another throwback to the earlier Roman epics like Ben Hur and Spartacus.

With these actors on set there was no way the film was going to run smoothly. Here are just a few of the problems Scott had to deal with.

Crowe threatening to kill the producers with his bare hands and telling anyone that wanted to listen how bad he thought the script was. Telling Screenwriter William Nicholson, “Your lines are garbage, but I’m the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good”. Harris refusing to acknowledge any script re-writes  as he didn’t want to learn any new lines, Phoenix deciding the Emperor should probably be a bit larger so puts on weight and then cant fit into his armour, Reed not working past 5pm as “His life was his own after that” He also took an immediate dislike to  Crowe and offered him a fight.