Thursday, October 26, 2017

Are You Not Entertained?

We put Gladiator (2000) on the queue because of Ridley Scott: We enjoyed Alien: Covenant so much we wanted more Ridley. But I guess it could fit in with Dragon Blade, the Jackie Chan/John Cusak movie.

It stars Russell Crowe as a Roman general, on campaign with Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). It starts with a very nice battle scene, one of many. Harris tells Crowe that his son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is not a fit successor, and that he wants Crowe to act as regent and restore the Roman Senate to power. This leads Commodus to kill his father, and tries to kill Crowe, who escapes. He heads for his home in Spain, but Commodus got there first, and killed his family. He collapses and is taken by slavers.

He winds up as a gladiator, working for Oliver Reed, along with Nubian Djimon Hounsou. As a general, he has some novel ideas about strategy and teamwork, and is soon a star, heading for Rome. There, he hopes to meet up with Phoenix for revenge.

This is a great, old-fashioned sword and sandals epic. There's a ton of talk about the noble Roman virtues (Strength and Virtue!), stoicism, and  love of patria. There's also some great fights. Scott films this beautifully, every fight a story. There was even a testudo - the famous Roman infantry formation where the men stand close together and raise their shields to form walls and a roof (a personal fave).

We were entertained (to answer Crowe's question), but in retrospect, I feel like it might have been a touch too generic. It has all a batch of classic actors - even Claudius himself, Derek Jacobi. It was of a high quality, but not really groundbreaking. But if you like those old movies like Spartacus and Ben Hur, you'll love this.

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