GUEST RENTAL REVIEW: Gladiator
© A.J. Malouin 2010
[Yours Truly and The New York Times know that 86% of all films & movies are seen at home and not in-theatre. This Rental Review comes to us from Annie of Oklahoma. Annie is our primary contact in the Oklahoma Movie Alliance, a group of 12-14 people centered around Bartlesville, Oklahoma, who stay up together all night long of Saturday evenings to socialize, gnosh, and watch one movie after another. —Your Editor]
Though the digital effects lack the weight and conviction of their equivalents in old Cecil B. De Mille movies, Ridley Scott’s sword-and-sandal epic has some of the intensity of old Hollywood in terms of storytelling, spectacle, and violence. The brutality has such a mythical grandeur that it occasionally resembles beauty.
The cast is strong (notably Nielsen as Commodus’s vacillating sister, and the lateOliver Reed, unusually endearing as a gladiator owner), the pacing lively, and the sets, swordplay and Scud catapults impressive. There’s careful thought evident in suggesting what can only be conjectured. If you’re going to enjoy this entertainment, don’t be overly preoccupied with historical accuracy.
Russel Crowe’s commanding performance not only towers over Ridley Scott’s epic adventure, but elevates it to a higher plane. This is a movie that I want to own and see over and over. If I ever update my 50 films list this movie will be on the list. The Sound track by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Girard (Celtic Woman) is phenomenal.
[Send your comments to <50films@malouin.us > and we’ll publish them here. —Your Editor]