Gladiator - Movie Review

Gladiator
Review by David Blacketer

Gladiator is an action film, directed by Ridley Scott. The film was set in the time where the Roman Empire had begun and the Emperor at the time, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) is murdered by his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) so that he will become the Emperor of Rome. In order for Commodus to become the Emperor of Rome, he has to eliminate the war hero and the loyal subject, Maximus (Russell Crowe) and his family to the underworld so he can finally succeed to the throne.

Maximus escapes his death, and then rides his way to his family. He then discovers that they are already dead. From being exhausted he passes out, and then is captured to become a gladiator by a man called Proximo (Oliver Reed) in a small arena. Maximus shines out in the arena as he does well, making his way to Rome, winning the crowd and staying alive so he can get his revenge on the current Emperor, Commodus “either in this world or the next”.  He has the chance to battles the Emperor in the arena against thousands of people. If he is able to win the fight he would finally complete his goal to avenge his family, free current slaves and giving the order of what the previous Emperor – Marcus Aurelius – wanted before he was suffocated by his son.

Russell Crowe acts very convincingly as a man who is filled will anger and courage to try and achieve his goal on killing the man who attempted to execute him. Gladiators in the time period when Rome had an empire, would have been fearless, strong and ready to kill or die in the arena, Russell Crowe showed all these emotions as he played the part of Maximus who was willing and determined to avenge his family’s death and the emperor he served Marcus Aurelius, knowing already he has nothing to loose.

Furthermore, as Joaquin Phoenix plays the part of the emperors suborn son, Commodus, he shows powerful emotion in his character as a powerful man who was fearless while being emperor, until he finds out the man he thought sentenced to death and killed -Maximus- , showed himself in the arena, telling him to his face he will get his revenge, returning the fear in the eyes Commodus. Also he shows that frustration kicks into him as he cannot simply kill Maximus as he has won the crowd in the arena.

The special effects in the film are suburb as it shows ancient Rome on how it would have looked like at the time. The amazing Coliseum looked very modern for its time as people “never even knew men could build such things”. In addition, the gory parts of the film, where men were slaughtering each other in the arena looked very realistic as characters showed either anger when killing their opponent, or pain as they were getting killed by their opponent.

The script of the film was very well written as it has a strong emotional impact as it shows a path of a man who fights his way to get to the emperor so he can avenge his family. This shows courage as he will risk his life fighting against brutal men and soldiers to kill the emperor. Also all the characters have their own story and emotions, giving the film more interest to the audience as they see the story and emotions of different characters, not just the main characters.

Although the film doesn’t have a very memorable soundtrack, it is still very powerful as it reflects on the scenes of the film. The soundtrack brings emotions to the audience as it makes it clearer on the mood of the scene. The soundtrack is very important in this film as it provides emotion with it as the audience will pick up, giving them the right emotion of the scene.

In my personal opinion on the film, I would say it would have to be one of my favorite films as it shows historical events on what it would be like as a Roman soldier or gladiator during the time of the Roman Empire. It shows how different life was like during that time and how people were entertained on watching men slaughter each other. Furthermore it has a very entertaining story line as it realistic and shows a story of a man who once use to be a loyal servant and a war hero, to the bottom and becomes a gladiator who fights his way to avenge his family.