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| Movies,
Justin Harries,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F4
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After a series of overblown misfires, director Ridley Scott resurrects the long dead sword and sandal epic to public acclaim.
Perhaps the time is right to indulge in this highly unfashionable genre, the epic is ‘in’, and I’m sure the possibilities of recreating the Coliseum via CGI were mentioned more than once at the movies conception.
The story, as it stands, is incredibly generic – admonished hero swears revenge upon the ruling classes that brought about his downfall. Stoic Russell Crowe is our man, Maxims, up against Joaquin Phoenix as the Machiavellian Emperor Commodus. The story brushes the history books, giving Commodus a more climatic end and giving a reason why previous Emperor Aurelios chose his successor so badly. However, the story is happy to find modern resonance, the duel between our characters is played as a media war, control being with those most popular on TV, sorry, at the Coliseum. Crowe, driven, consumed with revenge, is every inch the action hero, whereas Joaquin is more problematic. Saddled with an Emperor so stereotypical (cowardly, incestuous, psychotic), Joaquin is caught between camping it up or attempting to find depth to the Emperor’s neurosis. However, its great to see old hands Richard Harris and Oliver Reed not bellowing it out but putting in fine, reserved performances.
It's Scott who has the stylistic jitters here; between gritty Braveheartian hacking and slashing and the opulence of decedent Rome he and his DP go overboard playing with the films texture. When working within the remit of the film’s location this works beautifully, giving the movie some scope, Germainia having a dark, grainy ambience, which opens up only when relocating to the sunnier climes of Spain and North Africa, Rome has a washed out, muted tone which corresponds to the city’s recreated look. Only during the film's many fight sequences does the stylistic differentiation’s become glaringly contrite. Obviously wanting to have his battles to carry the same visceral weight as the extremely brutalistic Saving Private Ryan, Scott takes more than notes from the master’s textbook by employing exactly the same camera techniques. But whereas the hyper jerk, high grain effects work so to recreate the newsreel feel of WWII, in Gladiator they come across as merely incongruous, which when coupled with amphetamine strength editing, renders the action unfocused and confusing.
Also, Gladiator does carry a burden it cannot escape, that of Hans Zimmers stupifingly crass score. Totally lifting elements from the works of Gorecki, Wagner and Holst, this literally is music by numbers, which would be OK if it wasn’t so overbearing and pompous.
There is plenty to make up for these deficiencies – Scott’s attention to detail works within Rome’s interiors, making for a sumptuous recreation. Some of the gladiatorial combat works (a scene with chariots puts Ben Hur to shame), and the film is convincingly gory. Just one thing would have topped all this of for me – Hans Zimmer fending off a pack of Coliseum lions. Tasty.
UK rating:
15
US rating:
R
Ridley Scott1999 USA
Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Russell Crowe, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou
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