Gladiator Review

It is curious that the same filmmaker who made a meticulous and exquisite reconstruction of the militaria and the Napoleonic environment when adapting Joseph Conrad's story The Duelists completely changed the third and applied to his new historical films a completely deformed and close image, sometimes, to the grotesque I am referring to its director, Ridley Scott , who seemed to burn his boats with his first three films (apart from The Duelists, Alien and Blade Runner ) and, since then, has gone downhill in a progressive crescendo with sporadic breaths of oxygen that However, they never reached the level of those early years.

This is especially visible in his works of a historical nature , the last one ( Exodus. Gods and Kings ) being especially serious, bordering on the ridiculous. 1492, the conquest of Paradise was described at the time by some critics as the worst of its author, but today it is seen almost with interest if it is compared with the aforementioned or with two tostones of the caliber of The Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood . In addition , Black Hawk Down , which is actually more of a war genre, and Gladiator , should be included .

It is not that Gladiator is a bad movie, since it has flaws, yes, but also virtues. It happens that the virtues come above all from the work that it reproduces as the blatant plagiarism that it is (an increasingly widespread custom, that of making unconfessed remakes , as we recently saw in The Revenant with respect to The Man from a Wilderness or six years ago with True grift with respect to Value of law ).

In the case of Gladiator , the obvious and scandalous reference was The Fall of the Roman Empire , shot in Spain by Anthony Mann in 1964. The film was developed in a slow and complex way, with a cataract of scripts that did not quite convince the filmmakers. producers or the actors -especially Russell Crowe, who vetoed phrases that, paradoxically, would later make him famous- and whose final version was the result of a thousand and one rewrites, although most of it was the merit of the first screenwriter who participated, David Franzoni ; The fact that he didn't know much about ancient Rome didn't matter because he was inspired by several books on the subject and ultimately ended up winning an Oscar in collaboration with John Logan .and William Nicholson , who improved the dialogue for Crowe.

The Australian played the role of his life as Máximo Décimo Meridio , a Hispanic general adopted by Emperor Marcus Aurelius who will fight with the legitimate offspring, Commodus, for power and for the love of his sister, Lucilla . If Crowe perfectly embodies his character in Gladiator , the Caesar played by Richard Harris is light years away from Alec Guinness's version in The Fall of the Roman Empire because he really seemed like a reincarnation of the philosopher Caesar (Harris seems to choose to show him closest to Diogenes, looking disheveled).

Connie Nielsen 's Lucilla isn't Sofia Loren's either, of course, just as Joaquin Phoenix 's Commodus lacks Christopher Plummer's playful wickedness. Better unemployed comes the string of luxury secondary , former stars: Oliver Reed (who died during filming) playing the master of gladiators and Derek Jacobi (the unforgettable Claudio from the television series) as a senator, David Hemmings, Giannina Facio...

Gladiator was shot in natural settings in England, Italy, France, Malta and Morocco, albeit with digital retouching in numerous scenes, while for the soundtrack Scott turned to Hans Zimmer who, as usual in their works together, composed a successful score with a style very similar to that of the director's previous collaborator, Vangelis and with a theme whose reverberations he later repeated ad nauseam in other works. This one happens to be the best.

The film recounts the last moments of Marco Aurelio's life in the German limes (where he did not live in a makeshift camp with tents but rather a built and fortified one, the seed of the future city of Vindobona, that is, Vienna), his assassination and his replacement by Commodus, despite the fact that the old emperor's intention was to “hand over power to the people” , reinstating the republic .

Commodus orders the assassination of Máximo's family and he, a fugitive, ends up becoming an invincible gladiator , returning to Rome to face Caesar himself in the arena of the Colosseum, who has plunged the empire into chaos with his bad government . About history, just the basics: Marcus Aurelius wasn't killed by his son but by the plague and he didn't need to kill him because he had associated him with the throne while still alive; also, the idea that he wanted to return to the republican regime is very unbelievable . Commodus was, indeed, fond of fighting in the arena (and he stood out, too) but he didn't die in it either; he did it in the palace , at the hands of a servant, half poisoned, half strangled.

If the plot introduces these important changes in history , the reconstruction is not faithful to reality either, although it manages to appear so. Things of current cinema, which appears to be better documented and, in reality, does not overcome the historicity, in itself debatable, of the cinema of the fifties and sixties. The initial battle , for example, is exciting and spectacular but has nothing to do with the way the Roman legions fight: the velites (light infantry) and auxiliary corps would intervene first; then, after a shower of pilae , the legionnaires would advance without breaking formation. The ballistas , catapults and other war machinesseen throwing fiery projectiles were used only in sieges .

Gladiator shows are not very faithful either, among other things because there is hardly any documentation about it and little is known with certainty. Of course, it did not occur to Marcus Aurelius to ban them under penalty of popular mutiny, since it must not be forgotten that the Roman motto of government was panem et circenses ; by the way, the races in the circus were more frequent and popular than the expensive games in the amphitheater.

Scott admitted to having been inspired by Spartacus and, indeed, the character of Djimon Hounsou is heir to that of Woody Strode. The director takes advantage of the digital effects to recreate the combats, be it between warriors, be it with beasts, or even the Colosseum itself with an awning and everything. Also in the triumphal entry of the emperor in Rome, shot following the model of The Triumph of the Will , the propaganda film that Leni Riefenstahl made for the Nazis in 1934.

There are other small details that have been widely commented on by the most critical fans and are repeated in all forums: the usual stirrups on horses (they were invented in the Middle Ages), Máximo wounded crossing Europe in a pis pas to reach his Emeritus native Augusta (Mérida) and trying to save his family (an ellipse solves the weeks of travel that would be required), the allusion to the harvests when the snow reveals that they are in winter, the errors in the use of Latin (the name should change the word order by Tenth Meridio Maximus, rather; or the sign that says Ludus Maximus Gladiatores , which would have to be changed to Ludus Maximus Gladiatorum), the primitive and stereotyped image of the Germans, the long reign of Commodus (twelve years plus the three with his father) compared to the short period of the film, the incongruous attitude of the Praetorians in letting Maximus go after he killed the emperor etc.

In this regard and others, it should be said that the historical advisers of "Gladiator" denied the final result and demanded that their names not appear in the credits. But others consider the purely cinematographic aspects worse. The plot turns out to be quite simple, even hollow, raised in a basic way so that the viewer identifies with the protagonist and his ideals (a general without political aspirations in ancient Rome! How would he get to that position then?), against a bad guy with hardly any nuances (at least Christopher Plummer was a nice villain) and with a sentimental ending that, for some, is the worst thing about the film.

Nothing will matter to his team, considering that Gladiator was a total success and won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor , among many other awards. Hollywood scored a point because it revived the peplum as a genre. And Ridley Scott too, as he reinvigorated his career, then reeling after the infamous White Storm and Lieutenant O'Neill . The bad thing is that he gave her wings for other less estimable things that make it increasingly clear that she is irretrievable. In short, as Máximo would say: “Strength and honor”.