GLADIATOR
Rated R - Running Time: 2:34 - Released 5/5/00
After his Best Actor nomination for last year's The
Insider, Russell Crowe has moved into the big leagues,
assuming the title role in Gladiator, a star vehicle of
astounding proportions. The bitter truth is that while Crowe does
an excellent job impersonating fellow Aussie action-hero Mel Gibson,
the film's writers (David H. Franzoni and John Logan, with William
Nicholson) and director (Ridley Scott) have caved in to the temptation
to produce one of those technically superlative, appallingly expensive,
loud, sweeping, 2½-hour-long epics with lots of grit and
bloodlust but very little soul.
In a story that borrows heavily from The Ten Commandments,
with generous sprinklings of Braveheart and Spartacus
thrown in, Crowe plays Maximus, the winningest Roman general since
Julius Caesar. He is so beloved by the elderly emperor Marcus
Aurelius (Richard Harris) that he is chosen over the emperor's
own snotty son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) to succeed him. But
before the emperor's wish can be made known, Commodus kills the
old man and assumes the throne himself, ordering Maximus to be
executed. With the kind of superhuman strength that makes action-movie
stars what they are, Maximus eludes and kills his captors, only
to be enslaved by Proximo (played by now-deceased Oliver Reed),
a sort of 180 A.D. version of Don King, who trains slaves to fight
to the death for the amusement of whoever pays to watch.
With his uncanny ability to win carefully choreographed sword
battles, Maximus ascends to the level of superstar, winding up
in the Roman coliseum doing his thing for his old nemesis, Caesar
Commodus. Although the emperor's first impulse is to re-execute
the man he thought he already executed, he is forced by Maximus's
huge fan following to adopt more subtle methods, like putting
him in the ring against armed charioteers and hungry Bengal tigers.
(Well, he's kind of dumb, so this is as subtle as he gets.) But
that doesn't work, so Commodus finally has to take the rascal
to the woodpile himself, not realizing until too late who's going
to get the spanking.
To say this epic is predictable is to make an understatement
of similarly epic proportions. Oh, it's not that it isn't pretty,
and there are many clanking sword battles and tons of gore, if
you're into that, but watching Crowe go into the rubbing-sand-on-his-palms
schtick reminded me of Tom Laughlin carefully taking off his shoes
in all those Billy Jack movies. One has to consciously supress
the urge to shout out, "Oh-Oh! He's gonna open up a can of
whoop-ass now!"
Connie Nielsen provides a credible performance as Commodus's sister, the woman of power who still loves Maximus and tries to subvert the plans of her own brother in order to protect him. And Phoenix is suitably effete and innefectual as the bratty young emperor. But from Ridley Scott, who directed films like Alien and Thelma & Louse, I would expect a film with more substance than this. ***