GLADIATOR

Rated R for violence
111 minutes running time
Dreamworks Pictures
Directed by Ridley Scott
Rating:

Gladiator is a story about the many faces of power. Set in the second half of the second century, the tale begins with Rome's continued conquest of the world. Maximus, played by Russell Crowe, a brilliant and celebrated Roman General and tactician, is preparing his legion for battle against Germanic tribes. This film is not for the feint at heart. What follows is a brutal, bloody battle, accurate and extensive enough to make one glad he's just looking at the past and not living it.

Maximus' triumph is short lived. Another face of power emerges. Caesar's son, Commodus, excellently portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, in his own grasp for absolute power, sets the plot rolling. In his attempt to rid himself of Maximus, many new faces of power are revealed. Stripped of everything, forced into exile and slavery, Maximus harnesses his hatred. It is in the gladiator ring that he emerges as a new power intent on killing Commodus. The more Commodus tries to crush him, the stronger Maximus becomes through the one power stronger than anything else in Rome: the will of the people.

All the elements of man's free will are exposed in this film, both the negative and positive. Even though it's rather distressing, you can almost say this story seems a mirror, reflecting a similarity to current times. Gladiator asks the question, "What is the desire of bloodsport?" Is it an escape from reality. It's not difficult to link the perversity of Rome to some of today's practices.

For the period film fan, Gladiator has all the right elements. It was filmed in three locations. The costumes are accurate and the battle and fight scenes are realistic. There's no peek-a-boo with the camera; the film is filled with lots of action and lots of death one would expect with a gladiator tale. But, that's not to say that the action is what carries the movie. No way. The story is compelling. You're not watching actors in a movie. You're there, in the story with them.

In order to give the film its authentic feel crews built a one tenth portion replica of The Colosseum to scale. According to production designer, Arthur Max, "In 175 A.D. there were a million people in Rome. Games were the biggest thing going , the heart and soul of the empire. So we came to the conclusion that we were going to have to build a section of arena full sized and used computer graphics to expand it." The entire Rome set is very accurate. "This is the exact replica of what it would have been like in both architecture and dimension," says director, Ridley Scott.

Russell Crowe summarizes Gladiator: "Combining a movie about political intrigue based factually on events of the time with a huge action spectacular. As for Djimon Hounsou, who played the gladiator,Juba, he says the role was a boys dream - playing a tough guy, a gladiator. Oliver Reed, who portrayed Proximo, the gladiator trainer, also starred in the film. Unfortunately this is the last film you'll see him in. He died before the film was finished. Computer technology and voice dubbing was used to complete his role.