Review of Gladiator (1992) by Simon H — 06 Jun 2014

Gladiator I feel is one of those films where you will either like it or dislike it. Setting the record straight, I am not saying Gladiator is a bad film. A lot of effort has clearly been put into it, whether it's what you see in the sets and costume or what you hear in the dialogue and music. I would go as far as say that Gladiator may even deserve the Oscars it went onto the win that year. You also can't help but give the production team credit for finishing Oliver Reed's performance after he had passed. It is definitely worth watching the documentary on the process.

Whilst I don't dislike the film, I didn't really seem to enjoy it the second time around as much as I had hoped. Although, I first watched it about 10 years ago, I still remembered the odd moment. Unfortunately, time had exaggerated what I had remembered and it had failed to live up to my memories. Even mere hours after viewing it again, I still can't put my finger on what exactly let me down about the film. The running length could have been shortened down slightly and I am still unsure about Russell Crowe as the lead, but there is something else. It's a good chance that knowing how the film was going to play out could have been what caused my lack of enjoyment. Still, I shall give the cast and crew credit for creating such a well made epic.