Review of Gladiator

Just as Johnny B. Goode, Walk & Money For Nothing are one of the greatest guitar-driven songs, Gladiator is one of the greatest music-and-acting driven film I've ever seen and is one of the few from the 21st Century that can be considered a masterpiece.

Well, Sir Ridley Scott, the mastermind behind Alien & Blade Runner and, to some extend, Matchstick Men, has convinced me that he can pull off an epic movie as brilliantly as his above two mentioned sci-fi movies. Now I'm gonna compare Gladiator with a few movies from the same genre.

It wasn't as beautiful as Titanic nor the romance was as romantic as in Braveheart. Unlike Pathfinder, this was unforgiving and more brutal and it was driven in the same cinematic manner as Ben-Hur and some of the scenes were almost like Spartacus. All the battle scenes in the Colosseum are nail-biting and I would rank this film somewhere along the lines of Apocalypto but a little better.

Another thing is his heroes & villains. They are always great, no matter how much pain they have gone through or how much pain they inflict upon others. Ellen Ripley, Rick Deckard and G.I. Jane being one of the best examples of heroes while Roy Batty and the relentless Aliens being the famous. In this one we have Russell Crowe in one of his few finest moments - apart from Cinderella Man & The Inside - playing the titular Gladiator, General Maximus Decimus Meridus with Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus, the antagonist. I've been a fan of Joaquin Phoenix ever since I saw him in Walk The Line but after watching his performance in this film, It was like as if I had never seen him before onscreen. The single scene he dominated was the one explaining the virtues to his father before smothering him to death. Whereas in other scenes, Oliver Reed was simply the best.

A must watch and very enjoyable movie and 85% of the fun comes from your knowledge. If you know about the ancient history, the Gods, the Romans or atleast the names, then the fun doubles. I frankly think there's no fun in watching a history-based movie if you don't know what's what but... give Gladiator a try!