My Agenda

When "Gladiator" first came out in May of '00, all I heard people say about this movie was "Cecil B. Demille eat your heart out?" and I wondered, "Why?".

Gladiator was THE best film for the summer of 2000. In fact, with the exception of "X-men" and "Scary Movie," it was the only one that was actually worth watching. But why should Cecil B. Demille eat his heart out? Besides the fact that he's been dead for a VERY long time and has already had worms eat his heart out, there's really no connection to this movie and Ceil B. Demille. Demille NEVER made a movie about Rome or Gladiators. The closest he did was "The Ten Commandmants" with Charlton Heston. Why not, William Wyler, director of "Ben-Hur" eat HIS heart out, because "Gladiator" had much better colosseum scenes than the classic Roman epic "Ben-Hur." Or why not Anthony Mann, director of the lavish "Fall of the Roman Empire" eat his heart out, because "Gladiator" was much more livlier. Or why not Stanley Kubrick, director of "Spartacus," because "Gladiator wasn't even a fraction as homo-erotic as "Spartacus" was. Why Cecil B. Demille?

"Gladiator" deals with pretty much the same characters as "Fall of the Roman Empire" did. the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius dying and being succeded by his unruly son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix, "8MM"). Although, I must say, Commodus wasn't that unruly. He was a real wuss as a matter of fact. He whined all the time, and cried about how he wasn't that good, yet he was evil. What "Gladiator" has that "Fall of the Roman Empire" had, was a Gladiator as the central character (duh!). General Maximus (Russel Crowe, "The Insider"), after kicking some barbarian ass and kicking back, thinking of the good old days at home, is suddenly framed for the Emeror's murder and sent to die. He escapes, only to find his family burned to death. The only gripe I had about this movie, is duirng the poignant scene with his family, there's this jump cut that just about breaks your neck and ruins the whole mood. According to the movie's tagline he becomes a slave, but we don't see that, and then instantly he's a gladiator that goes to Rome to seek revenge, kind of like Ben-Hur. I think if a movie's tagline is "The General who became a slave, the slave who became a gladiator, the gladiator who defied an Emperor." There should actually be slavery. Or the tagline, "A Hero Will Rise." Maximus doesn't really 'rise' in fact he's severly demoted. I guess "A Hero Goes Down" wouldn't have been as appealing, for certain resons.

Every aspect of "Gladiator" is magnificent. The music... good enough for me to strongly consider spending $16 on the soundtrack, at Wal-Mart of all places. The camera work is excellent, and the fight scenes are wonderfully coreographed. The acting is flawless, except for a few exceptions. Joaquin Phoenix's whiny bitch of an emperor really didn't make as powerful a villian as it should of. Before he kills his father at the beginning he cries and whines "I have other virtues, I'm really a good guy, please don't hate me." And later he whines "They like Maximus better than me, it's not fair." And yet, he still concots evil schemes.. concot evil schemes meaning a friend of his talks about a snake so Joaquin Phoenix tries to get it on with his sister. And the little boy in this movie that resembled a Haley Joel Osment wanna be really got on my nerves. He was supposed to be a sweet innocent kid, yet had this stuck-up "holier than thaou" attitude. And when he does thsi mock sword fighting, this ambient "ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta" sound he makes is probably the most annoying thing I ever heard.

Over all, I give this 9 out of 10 stars. It's finally good to see Ridley Scott make a kick-ass movie since "Blade Runner." I would really recommend buying the DVD because this movie is GREAT!

Special thanks to Movie - Vault