Review of Gladiator (1992) by Ben L — 09 Nov 2015

I've seen parts of Gladiator before, but this is the first time I think I watched it from start to finish. I can see the inspiring story that so many people love, because it is a classic tale of one man against an evil empire. Also they do a superb job of creating serious emotional stakes in the film with the death of family members and also attempted murder. In fact there is a lot to love in this movie, especially the fight sequences which are bloody and exciting. They use some quick-cutting techniques that would ordinarily annoy me, but I felt the film did a good job of making it clear what exactly was happening at all times. There's really only 3 things that hold me back from completely embracing this film as a favorite, but they annoy me so much that I don't even feel the need to watch it again:

1. Certain scenes get quite repetitive. I feel they could have trimmed a decent amount of time out of the movie if they didn't include quite so many scenes of people meeting in secret multiple times, or Commodus being creepy with Lucilla again and again. I think you can frequently tell where things are going in Gladiator, and if it got there quickly it wouldn't be bad, but it drags at times so I find myself saying "Get on with it!".

2. The end of the film feels utterly contrived, as if it comes out of nowhere. **SPOILERS** Commodus suddenly choosing to step into the arena (even after weakening Maximus) is strictly there because they dug such a deep hole for Maximus that they had to invent a way for him to get at Commodus. The ending would have actually been more dramatic and effective if his escape plan and assault on Rome had worked. The ending is so completely out of step with the plot in the rest of the film I just start to laugh at its ridiculousness.

3. Last but not least, Russell Crowe is the lead. I don't have much experience with Crowe's movies, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he actually can act, but I have yet to see it proven. He makes some dramatic facial expressions, but every single line delivery is completely without any emotion. I swear that the only difference between his lines when talking intimately with Lucilla, and his lines when shouting to his soldiers, is volume. I should be choked up at the end, and even more importantly every time he mentions his wife and son, but instead his cold emotionless performance rubs off on me.

Gladiator is not a terrible film, and I know why people are very passionate about it. I actually enjoyed it more than I expected, but because of these few flaws I wouldn't recommend it to others.