Gladiator (2000 film)

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Gladiator
Directed by	Ridley Scott
Produced by	Douglas Wick David Franzoni Branko Lustig
Written by	David Franzoni
Starring	Russell Crowe Joaquin Phoenix Connie Nielsen Oliver Reed Richard Harris
Cinematography	John Mathieson
Editing by	Pietro Scalia
Distributed by	DreamWorks (USA) Universal Studios (non-USA)
Release date(s)	5 May 2000
Running time	154 min.
Language	English
Budget	$103,000,000
IMDb profile

Gladiator is a 2000 historical adventure film directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. It won five Academy Awards in the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. Gladiator is a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film but, like most films based in antiquity, it was criticized by historians for historical inaccuracies. Nonetheless, it is considered a classic among many, because of its epic nature, vivid battles, and praised direction from Ridley Scott. It is also credited with reviving the genre of the historical epic, leading to films like Troy, Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven, the latter also being directed by Ridley Scott.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Cast 3.1 Trivia 4 Influences 4.1 Historical 4.2 Artistic 5 Awards 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Plot

A farmer-turned-soldier named Maximus Decimus Meridius (played by Russell Crowe) is one of the leading generals in the Roman army. He leads his men to many victories and gains the support from the masses and even the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris). The emperor is dying, and though he has a son, Commodus (played by Joaquin Phoenix), the emperor wishes to appoint temporary leadership to Maximus in order to return the power to the Senate. On being told this by his father, Commodus kills him to inherit the position by default. Because he realizes the truth of what has happened, Maximus is sentenced to death. Soldiers are also sent for his wife and son. Maximus, however, escapes his fate and races home only to find that he was too late, and his family has been killed. After burying his wife and son, Maximus is captured by slavers and taken to North Africa. There, he is forced to fight as a gladiator in arena tournaments in order to stay alive. During this time, he meets the Numidian gladiator, Juba, and a barbarian from Germania named Hagen. Juba proves to be a great comfort to him, and they often talk of the afterlife, and if they will meet their dead family and friends there.

To survive the brutal life of a gladiator, Maximus appeals to the Roman people under the name and title, "Spaniard". His power and fame grows until he ultimately reaches the historic Roman Colosseum and comes into contact again with his true enemy, Commodus. Although it is revealed to Commodus that the famous "Spaniard" is in fact Maximus, the emperor is forced to let him live due to his popularity with the crowd. Maximus later survives an indirect attack on his life when he is forced into a match against "the only undefeated champion in Roman history," Tigris of Gaul. After an intense battle, where Maximus must avoid being killed by tigers released into the arena, Tigris is defeated, though Maximus refuses to obey Commudus' wish to kill him, and is pronounced 'Maximus the Merciful' by a spectator in the crowd.

Following the fight, Maximus meets with his former servant, Cicero, who informs him that his army is still loyal to him. Soon thereafter, Maximus forms a plot with Lucilla, Commodus' sister, and Gracchus, an influential republican senator, to rejoin with his army and topple Commodus by force. Commodus, however, learns of this plot and arrests Maximus on the eve of his coup. Now desperate to defeat Maximus, Commodus arranges a duel with him in the arena. Though he stabs Maximus with his dagger before the fight begins, Maximus emerges victorious by killing Commodus but dies also soon after, but not before ordering that governance be returned to the Senate. Through this last gesture, the original wish of Marcus Aurelius is finally realized.

[edit] Production

Overall, Gladiator cost a collected $145.7 million to film and promote, with much of the production cost spent on computer special effects. However, the movie grossed over $187 million in American theaters alone and after earning more than $269 million overseas, Gladiator proved to be a huge success at the box office^[1].

Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta during the filming of Gladiator; as a result, a body double and digitally altered outtake footage of the actor were used in his absence, at an estimated cost of $3 million. The film is dedicated to his memory.

Gladiator received very positive reviews, but it was not without its share of detractors. In particular Roger Ebert was harshly critical of the film attacking the look of the film as "muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct", although it was later claimed he saw the film in a sub-standard cinema. He also derided the writing claiming it "employs depression as a substitute for personality, and believes that if characters are bitter and morose enough, we won't notice how dull they are."

The score was composed by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, and conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Most of the film was shot in Morocco and Malta where a replica of the Colosseum was built. The Germania battle scene early in the film was filmed in Surrey in England.

[edit] Cast

• Russell Crowe - Maximus
• Joaquin Phoenix - Commodus
• Connie Nielsen - Lucilla
• Richard Harris - Marcus Aurelius
• Oliver Reed - Proximo
• Derek Jacobi - Senator Gracchus
• John Shrapnel - Gaius
• Tomas Arana - General Quintus
• Djimon Hounsou - Juba, named after the ancient African king
• Spencer Treat Clark - Lucius Verus, fictional son of the factual Lucius Verus and Lucilla
• Ralf Moeller - Hagan
• Sven-Ole Thorsen - Tigris of Gaul
• Tommy Flanagan - Cicero, Maximus' servant, named after the orator.

[edit] Trivia

• The four British and Irish veteran screen and classical stage actors (Shrapnel, Jacobi, Harris and Reed) were jokingly referred to by Crowe during filming as 'our four horsemen of the Apocalypse'^[1], and their English accents are often copied in the film by the American and Australian actors in order to merge in.

• Oliver Reed died of a heart attack during filming. After his death a body double was used photographed in the shadows with a 3D CGI mask of Oliver Reed's face to film the remaining scenes.

• In the opening battle scene of the movie, the Germanic leader says to the Romans "Ihr seid verfluchte Hunde." This is actually modern standard German (which the Marcomanni of 180 AD would of course not have spoken), and translates as "You [all] are cursed dogs," in English.

• Maximus tells Marcus Aurelius that his family live in a farm outside Trujillo. In reality Trujillo in Roman times was called Turgalium.

• At one point Nick Cave was approched to write a screenplay for Gladiator 2. His film would have been the story of an immortal warrior who only lives to fight. The last scene would have been Maximus standing in a battlefield in Vietnam^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Influences

[edit] Historical

The Roman emperors portrayed in the movie are Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris), who ruled AD 161–180, and his son, the deranged Commodus, who ruled between 180–192, and scandalized Roman society by appearing in the Colosseum as a gladiator, and spent most, if not all, of his time as Emperor in staging gladiatorial combats, seemingly obsessed with the sport. The film's characterization attempts to reflect Marcus Aurelius's reputation for wisdom but does so by placing a modern democratic slant to his actions and beliefs. The representation of Commodus is extremely watered down, as the senatorial sources such as the Augustan History present Commodus as far more insane and bloodthirsty than he appears in the film. While Commodus was the only Roman Emperor to fight as a gladiator (discounting reports of Caligula having done the same, as there is no record outside of Suetonius that he ever did so), he was killed by a gladiator, but not in the arena, as the film suggests.

Lucilla was Commodus’s sister and was married to Lucius Verus (mentioned in the film as the dead father of her son Lucius Verus, but not mentioned as co-emperor or seen), her father’s co-emperor until his death in 169. The incest, or attempted incest, between Commodus and Lucilla in the movie is not historically recorded, though Commodus is said to have committed incest with other sisters. Lucilla was in fact implicated in plots with members of the senate to kill her brother. In 182, following an assassination attempt on Commodus, Lucilla was exiled to Capri and subsequently executed on her brother’s orders.

The opening battle most likely is intended to depict the last fight of the Marcomannic wars. The film says they are fighting in "Germania," however the war was really against Germanic tribes in the area of the province of Pannonia. Of course Germania is more familiar to viewers and works better geographically with Maximus' home in Spain. Nearing the end of the battle, Maximus inexplicably raises the cry 'Roma Victor,' meaning 'Rome, the Conqueror.' (Greco-Roman culture often anthropomorphized aspects of civilization and nature in order to depict them as gods/goddesses to be recognized. The sequence of the battle's unfurling is not historically accurate, as legionaries abandon formation in favor of a more Hollywood-friendly action scene in which they combat the Germanic Marcomannii in one-on-one battles, in which the barbarians would have excelled. In reality the Romans favored close-knit formations and would not break formation unless being ordered to retreat (hastily) or if the legionaries broke under the strain in which case, unless able to reform or reach friendly lines, would almost certainly be wiped out.

Further information on Historical Imperial Roman Legionary tactics - Roman Legion

The city of Rome is seen in all of its glory, and the Colosseum (then actually called the Flavian Amphitheatre) is accurately seen as the stadium for the Roman people, though the topography, views and ground plan of ancient city-centre Rome around it are entirely fictionalised.

The character of Maximus is entirely fictional, though he is similar in some respects to the historical figures of Narcissus (the character's name in the first draft of the screenplay and the real killer of Commodus), Spartacus (who led a significant slave revolt), and Cincinnatus (the saviour of Rome who wished nothing more than to return to his farm).

A character in the film asserts that "Rome was founded as a Republic", and the conclusion implies that it returned to republicanism upon the death of Commodus. Rome did not revert to republicanism after the death of Commodus and Rome was not founded as a republic but as a kingdom, becoming a republic after the last King of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was deposed in 510BC. After Commodus' death he was replaced as emperor by the general Pertinax, who is never mentioned in the film.

[edit] Artistic

The film's plot is influenced by two 1960s films of Hollywood's sword and sandal genre, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Spartacus.

The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) tells the story of Livius, who, like Maximus in Gladiator, is Marcus Aurelius's heir. Both films tell the story of Commodus' murder of Marcus Aurelius and his seizure of power when he learns that the old emperor is planning to appoint Livius/Maximus as his successor. Livius/Maximus are exiled and seek to avenge Marcus Aurelius by killing Commodus.

Spartacus (1960) provides the film's gladiatorial motif, as well as the character of Senator Gracchus, a fictitious senator (bearing the name of a pair of revolutionary Tribunes from the 2nd century BC) who in both films is an elder statesman of ancient Rome attempting to preserve the ancient rights of the Roman senate in the face of an ambitious autocrat — Marcus Licinius Crassus in Spartacus and Commodus in Gladiator. Interestingly, both actors who played Grachus (in Spartacus and Gladiator), played Claudius in previous films — Charles Laughton of Spartacus played Claudius in the 1937 film I, Claudius and Sir Derek Jacobi of Gladiator, played Claudius in the 1975 BBC adaptation.

The story of Maximus bears similarity to Judah Ben-Hur. Both are accused of treason to the Roman Empire, becoming a slave and rising through the ranks, desiring vengeance and finding new life, be it Christian or pagan.

Additionally, Maximus, Quintus and other characters, as well as the opening sequence of the film (set in Germany), appear to be based on a work of historical fiction by Wallace Breem, Eagle in the Snow (set some 200 years later).

The film's depiction of Commodus's entry into Rome borrows imagery from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1934), although Ridley Scott has pointed out that the iconography of Nazi rallies was of course inspired by the Roman Empire.

The opening battle scene features war chants taken from the film Zulu (1964), one of director Scott's favorite films.

In the first battle scene, 400 meters of forest were burned down.

[edit] Awards

Gladiator was nominated in 36 individual ceremonies, including the 73rd Academy Awards, the BAFTA Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Of 119 award nominations, the film won 48 prizes^[2].

The film won five Academy Awards and was nominated for an additional seven, including Best Supporting Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and Best Director for Ridley Scott. There is controversy over the film's nomination for Best Original Music Score. The award was officially nominated only to Hans Zimmer, and not to Lisa Gerrard due to Academy rules. However, the pair did win the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score as co-composers.

• 73rd Academy Awards
  • Best Picture
  • Best Actor (Russell Crowe)
  • Best Visual Effects
  • Best Costume Design
  • Best Sound
• BAFTA Awards
  • Best Cinematography
  • Best Editing
  • Best Film
  • Best Production Design
• Golden Globe Awards
  • Best Motion Picture - Drama
  • Best Original Score - Motion Picture

[edit] References

1. ^ Diana Landau, Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic, p50

1. ↑  Gladiator total gross at Box Office Mojo
2. ↑  Gladiator awards tally at IMDB

[edit] See also

• Gladiator
• Crusade
• Gladiator soundtrack

[edit] External links

• Gladiator at the Internet Movie Database
• Gladiator at Rotten Tomatoes
• 4 Speeches from Movie in Text and Audio from AmericanRhetoric.com
• Gladiator's script.
• Project to translate Gladiator into Latin

v • d • e  Ridley Scott's Films
Boy and Bicycle • The Duellists • Alien • Blade Runner • Legend • Someone to Watch Over Me • Black Rain • Thelma & Louise • 1492: Conquest of Paradise • White Squall • G.I. Jane • Gladiator • Hannibal • Black Hawk Down • Matchstick Men • Kingdom of Heaven • All the Invisible Children • A Good Year • American Gangster