Gladiator was by far the best film of 2000. Probably the only film of modern times that can truthfully be labeled as an epic! The length of this film is not an issue; I guarantee that you will be glued to the screen for every second of it. It is simply breathtaking!
Its 180 AD and the battle between the Roman Empire (at this time they dominated virtually all of Europe) and the barbarians from Germania, the barbarians are the only people left that have any chance of defeating the Roman empire. We meet Maximus, a general in the Roman army organizing the battle defenses of the Romans. The war has been going on for a long time and it is down to the last remaining barbarians. The barbarians turn up and they are greatly out numbered.
Well, obviously the Romans hammer the barbarians. And then we see the old and dyeing emperor of the Rome, he tells Maximus that his dying wish is for Maximus to become emperor of the Roman Empire, Maximus goes to think about this. At this time the emperor’s son and daughter arrive and he tells his cocky and arrogant son that Maximus will be the next emperor, and lets just say he was not amused.
The son, angry and annoyed kills his father, and he becomes emperor. As his first act he send troops to kill Maximus and then go on to kill his wife and his son. This doesn’t exactly go to plan, Maximus escaped but his family are not so lucky, they are raped and crucified by the Roman troops. From there Maximus swears to have his revenge (if by now you haven’t gathered Maximus is the main character.) He finds himself as a slave to Proximo, a man who organizes gladiator fights.
The new emperor decided to have a series of ’games’ (gladiator fights) and through this Maximus sees a path to Rome and his ultimate revenge.
And I am not going to tell you what happens from there.
I have to give credit to Ridley Scott, when I heard that Russell Crow would be playing Maximus, I had my doubts to say the least. I have seen his past films and he was very good in them, I just though that he wasn’t good enough to play this sort of roll. There is not that many well know actors/actress’ in this film. But they are all top class.
This film is as good as everyone says! (Obviously)
The Special Effects in this film are very good the opening 20 minutes especially. This is the best battle scene I have seen in a long while. It is very violent and looks very real. And this scene is probably the reason that it is a 15 certificate. It is actually quite disturbing. Also there are mainly 2 extremely good Computer Generated images (CGI), the first is the recreation of Rome. It looks brilliant and so vivid. The second is the recreation of the Coliseum it looks perfect in every, there are no faults, well that I can see. It really does look real.
This is a great film watch it. Now I command thee!