Gladiator (2000 film)

"Gladiators (2000)" redirects here. For the American television show, see Gladiators 2000.
Gladiator

A man standing at the center of the image is wearing armor and is holding a sword in his right hand. In the background is the top of the Colosseum with a barely visible crowd standing in it. The poster includes the film's title, cast credits and release date.

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ridley Scott
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by David Franzoni
Starring
Music by
Cinematography John Mathieson
Edited by Pietro Scalia
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 1, 2000 (2000-05-01) (Los Angeles)
  • May 5, 2000 (2000-05-05) (United States)
  • May 12, 2000 (2000-05-12) (United Kingdom)
Running time
 155 minutes[2]
Country
  • United Kingdom[3]
  • United States[3]
Language English
Budget $103 million[4]
Box office $457.6 million[4]

Gladiator is a 2000 British-American epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed (in his final film role before his death), Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel, and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays the fictional character, loyal Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to slavery, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murders of his family and his emperor.

The film was released in the United States on May 5, 2000, and was a box office success, receiving generally positive reviews and being credited with rekindling interest in the historical epic. The film won multiple awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Crowe, and three other Oscars at the 73rd Academy Awards.

Plot

In AD 180, Hispano-Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius leads the Roman army to a decisive victory against the Germanic tribes near Vindobona, ending a long war on the Roman frontier and winning the favor of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Maximus, weary of battle, desires to retire to his Spanish farm estate, but the Emperor tells him that his own son and heir to the throne, Commodus, is unfit to rule and so appoints Maximus as regent to help save Rome from corruption. Before Maximus makes his decision, Commodus is confronted by his father who tells him that he will not be emperor. Burdened by grief and believing he was never valued by his father, Commodus murders him.

After mourning Marcus Aurelius' death, the new Emperor asks Maximus for his loyalty, but the general suspects foul play and refuses. Soon after, Maximus is arrested and is scheduled to be executed at dawn. Maximus manages to escape and makes the long journey to his farm on horseback, but arrives to find it burnt and his family dead, under orders of Commodus. He buries them and collapses in despair. He is then captured by slavers who take him to Zucchabar, a North African province. He is sold to a man named Proximo, who trains him as a gladiator. There he befriends two of Proximo's gladiators, a Numidian named Juba and a German named Hagen.

Reluctant at first, Maximus is forced to fight in local tournaments. He wins every match because of his superior military skills and traumatized indifference to death. His newfound fame and recognition is brought to Proximo's attention. Proximo reveals to Maximus that he himself was once a gladiator, and had fought well enough to have gained his freedom. He encourages Maximus to go to Rome and fight in the Colosseum, where the Emperor has organized 150 days of games to commemorate his late father. Proximo advises him to "win the crowd" to earn their respect and eventually his freedom. He could then use this leverage to possibly overthrow or kill the Emperor as part of his plan for revenge.

Maximus' first taste of gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum is depicted as a re-enactment of the Battle of Zama. With his team portrayed as Carthaginian infantry, they defy all expectations and are able (solely due to Maximus' commands) to defeat "Scipio's legionaries" who were supposed to obliterate them. A surprised and delighted Commodus comes into the arena to personally congratulate them. Maximus braces himself to kill the Emperor, but at the last moment decides against it because of the presence of Commodus' young nephew Lucius Verus. He then reveals himself to the startled Commodus and vows to have his vengeance. As the Praetorian Guard prepares to kill him, the crowd chants "Live!" repeatedly, earning their favor and showing their support. Commodus relents and leaves angrily.

Next, Maximus is pitted against the formidable Tigris of Gaul, an undefeated gladiator. After a fierce and lengthy duel which Commodus attempted to fix, Maximus is able to gain the upper hand, but spares his opponent's life despite the crowd's urging that he kill him. Angered by this action, Commodus berates him, even taunting him with harrowing details of his family's death. Undaunted, Maximus turns around and walks away. This act of defiance, along with his victory over Tigris, makes him more popular than the Emperor himself.

As Maximus is being escorted back to the gladiators' quarters, his former orderly Cicero approaches him and says that he still has the loyalty of the legions, encamped near Rome. Commodus' sister Lucilla and the chief senator Gracchus secure a meeting with Maximus, and he obtains their promise to help him escape Rome, rejoin his soldiers, topple Commodus by force, and hand power over back to the Senate. Suspicious, Commodus learns of this plot from Lucilla by threatening young Lucius, then dispatches his men to arrest and/or kill the conspirators. Gracchus is quickly apprehended, while a contingent of Praetorians is sent to Maximus' quarters. Proximo lets Maximus escape and sacrifices himself and his men (including Hagen) to gain him more time. Maximus reaches the rendezvous point but falls into a trap; Cicero is killed and Maximus is captured.

Commodus, desperate and jealous of Maximus' growing popularity, challenges him to a duel in the Colosseum. Before the fight, and unknown to the crowd, he stabs him in the side to put him at a disadvantage. During the fight, Maximus manages to evade Commodus' blows and disarm him. Commodus asks the Praetorians to give him a sword, but his request is denied. He produces a hidden stiletto, but Maximus instinctively turns the blade back into his throat, killing him.

However, Maximus succumbs to the stab wound, asking with his last words that reforms be made, his gladiator allies freed, and that Senator Gracchus be reinstated. He is then carried away for an honorable funeral as a "soldier of Rome". Later, Juba revisits the Colosseum at night, and he buries Maximus' figurines of his wife and son at the spot where he died. He promises that he will see Maximus again, "but not yet".

Cast

Production

Screenplay

Gladiator was based on an original pitch by David Franzoni, who wrote the first draft.[8] Franzoni was given a three-picture deal with DreamWorks as writer and co-producer on the strength of his previous work, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, which helped establish the reputation of DreamWorks. Not a classical scholar, Franzoni was inspired by Daniel P. Mannix’s 1958 novel Those About to Die, and he chose to base his story on Commodus after reading the Augustan History. In Franzoni's first draft, dated April 4, 1998, he named his protagonist Narcissus, a wrestler who, according to the ancient sources Herodian and Cassius Dio, strangled Emperor Commodus to death.[9]

Several dead men and various scattered weapons are located in a large arena. Near the center of the image is a man wearing armor standing in the middle of an arena looking up at a large crowd. The man has his right foot on the throat of an injured man who is reaching towards the crowd. Members of the crowd are indicating a "thumbs down" gesture. The arena is adorned with marble, columns, flags, and statues.
Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, the 19th-century painting that inspired Ridley Scott to tackle the project.

Ridley Scott was approached by producers Walter F. Parkes and Douglas Wick. They showed him a copy of Jean-Léon Gérôme's 1872 painting entitled Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down).[10] Scott was enticed by filming the world of Ancient Rome. However, Scott felt Franzoni's dialogue was too "on the nose" (lacking subtlety) and hired John Logan to rewrite the script to his liking. Logan rewrote much of the first act, and made the decision to kill off Maximus's family to increase the character's motivation.[11]

Russell Crowe describes being eager for the role as pitched by Walter F. Parkes, in his interview for Inside the Actors Studio: "They said, 'It's a 100-million-dollar film. You're being directed by Ridley Scott. You play a Roman General.' I've always been a big fan of Ridley's."[12]

With two weeks to go before filming, the actors complained of problems with the script. William Nicholson was brought to Shepperton Studios to make Maximus a more sensitive character, reworking his friendship with Juba and developed the afterlife thread in the film, saying "he did not want to see a film about a man who wanted to kill somebody."[11]

The screenplay faced many rewrites and revisions. Crowe allegedly questioned every aspect of the evolving script and strode off the set when he did not get answers. According to a DreamWorks executive, "(Russell Crowe) tried to rewrite the entire script on the spot. You know the big line in the trailer, 'In this life or the next, I will have my vengeance'? At first he absolutely refused to say it."[13] Nicholson, the third and final screenwriter, says Crowe told him, "Your lines are garbage but I'm the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good." Nicholson goes on to say that "probably my lines were garbage, so he was just talking straight."[14]

Russell Crowe described the script situation: "I read the script and it was substantially underdone. Even the character didn't exist on the pages. And that set about a long process, that's probably the first time that I've been in a situation where the script wasn't a complete done deal. We actually started shooting with about 32 pages and went through them in the first couple of weeks."[12]

Of the writing/filming process, Crowe added, "Possibly, a lot of the stuff that I have to deal with now in terms of my quote unquote volatility has to do with that experience. Here was a situation where we got to Morocco with a crew of 200 and a cast of a 100 or whatever, and I didn't have anything to learn. I actually didn't know what the scenes were gonna be. We had, I think, one American writer working on it, one English writer working on it, and of course a group of producers who were also adding their ideas, and then Ridley himself; and then, on the occasion where Ridley would say, 'Look, this is the structure for it -- what are you gonna say in that?' So then I'd be doing my own stuff, as well. And this is how things like, 'Strength and honor,' came up. This is how things like, 'At my signal, unleash hell,' came up. The name Maximus Decimus Meridius, it just flowed well."[12]

Pre-production

In preparation for filming, Scott spent several months developing storyboards to develop the framework of the plot.[15] Over six weeks, production members scouted various locations within the extent of the Roman Empire before its collapse, including Italy, France, North Africa, and England.[16] All of the film's props, sets, and costumes were manufactured by crew members due to high costs and unavailability of the items.[17] One hundred suits of steel armour and 550 suits in polyurethane were made by Rod Vass and his company Armordillo. The unique sprayed-polyurethane system was developed by Armordillo and pioneered for this production. Over a three-month period, 27,500 component pieces of armor were made.[18]

Filming

The film was shot in three main locations between January and May 1999. The opening battle scenes in the forests of Germania were shot in three weeks in the Bourne Woods, near Farnham, Surrey in England.[19] When Scott learned that the Forestry Commission planned to remove a section of the forest, he convinced them to allow the battle scene to be shot there and burn it down.[20] Scott and cinematographer John Mathieson used multiple cameras filming at various frame rates and a 45-degree shutter, creating stop motion effects in the action sequences, similar to techniques used for the battle sequences of Saving Private Ryan (1998).[21] Subsequently, the scenes of slavery, desert travel, and gladiatorial training school were shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco just south of the Atlas Mountains over a further three weeks.[22] To construct the arena where Maximus has his first fights, the crew used basic materials and local building techniques to manufacture the 30,000-seat mud brick arena.[23] Finally, the scenes of Ancient Rome were shot over a period of nineteen weeks in Fort Ricasoli, Malta.[24][25]

In Malta, a replica of about one-third of Rome's Colosseum was built, to a height of 52 feet (15.8 meters), mostly from plaster and plywood (the other two-thirds and remaining height were added digitally).[26] The replica took several months to build and cost an estimated $1 million.[27] The reverse side of the complex supplied a rich assortment of Ancient Roman street furniture, colonnades, gates, statuary, and marketplaces for other filming requirements. The complex was serviced by tented "costume villages" that had changing rooms, storage, armorers, and other facilities.[24] The rest of the Colosseum was created in computer-generated imagery using set-design blueprints and textures referenced from live action, and rendered in three layers to provide lighting flexibility for compositing in Flame and Inferno software.[28]

Post-production

Men in white robes with the Colosseum in the background.
Several scenes included extensive use of computer-generated imagery shots for views of Rome.

British post-production company The Mill was responsible for much of the computer-generated imagery effects that were added after filming. The company was responsible for such tricks as compositing real tigers filmed on bluescreen into the fight sequences, and adding smoke trails and extending the flight paths of the opening scene's salvo of flaming arrows to get around regulations on how far they could be shot during filming. They also used 2,000 live actors to create a computer-generated crowd of 35,000 virtual actors that had to look believable and react to fight scenes.[29] The Mill accomplished this by shooting live actors at different angles giving various performances, and then mapping them onto cards, with motion-capture tools used to track their movements for three-dimensional compositing.[28] The Mill created over 90 visual effects shots, comprising approximately nine minutes of the film's running time.[30]

An unexpected post-production job was caused by the death of Oliver Reed of a heart attack during the filming in Malta, before all his scenes had been shot. The Mill created a digital body double for the remaining scenes involving his character Proximo[28] by photographing a live action body-double in the shadows and by mapping a three-dimensional computer-generated imagery mask of Reed's face to the remaining scenes during production at an estimated cost of $3.2 million for two minutes of additional footage.[31][32] Visual effects supervisor John Nelson reflected on the decision to include the additional footage: "What we did was small compared to our other tasks on the film. What Oliver did was much greater. He gave an inspiring, moving performance. All we did was help him finish it."[31] The film is dedicated to Reed's memory.[33]

Historical authenticity

The Numidian king Juba. The Numidians were most likely of Berber origin, instead of Sub-saharan origin.

Development

The film is loosely based on real events that occurred within the Roman Empire in the latter half of the 2nd Century AD. As Ridley Scott wanted to portray Roman culture more accurately than in any previous film, he hired several historians as advisors. Nevertheless, some deviations from historical fact were made to increase interest, maintain narrative continuity, and for practical or safety reasons. Scott also stated that due to the influence of previous films affecting the public perception of what ancient Rome was like, some historical facts were "too unbelievable" to include. For instance in an early version of the script, gladiators would have been carrying out product endorsements in the arena; while this would have been historically accurate, it was not filmed for fear that audiences would think it anachronistic.[34]

At least one historical advisor resigned due to these changes. Another asked not to be mentioned in the credits (though it was stated in the director's commentary that he constantly asked, "where is the proof that certain things were exactly like they say?"). Historian Allen Ward of the University of Connecticut believed that historical accuracy would not have made Gladiator less interesting or exciting because "creative artists need to be granted some poetic license, but that should not be a permit for the wholesale disregard of facts in historical fiction".[35][36]

Fictionalization

Marcus Aurelius died at Vindobona (a Roman camp on the site of modern-day Vienna in Austria) in 180 AD; he was not murdered by his son Commodus following the final battle of the Marcomannic Wars. In reality Marcus Aurelius gave succession to his immoral son. In doing so the great philosopher emperor ended the beneficent tradition of previous Adoptive Emperors.

The character of Maximus is fictional, although in some respects he resembles the historical figures Narcissus (Commodus's real-life murderer and the character's name in the first draft of the screenplay),[37] Spartacus (who led a significant slave revolt), Cincinnatus (a farmer who became dictator, saved Rome from invasion, then resigned his six-month appointment after 15 days),[38][39] and Marcus Nonius Macrinus (a trusted general, Consul in 154 AD, and friend of Marcus Aurelius).[40][41][42] Although Commodus engaged in show combat in the Colosseum, he was not killed in the arena; he was strangled in his bath by the wrestler Narcissus. Commodus reigned for over twelve years, unlike the shorter period portrayed in the film.[43][44]

The character of Maximus had a similar career (and personality traits as documented by Herodian) to Claudius Pompeianus (a Syrian) who married Marcus Aurelius' daughter Lucilla following the death of Lucius Verus. It is believed Aurelius may have wanted Pompeianus to succeed him as Caesar in preference to Commodus but was turned down. Pompeianus had no part in any of the many plots against Commodus. He was not depicted in the film.[35]

In the film the character Antonius Proximo claims "the wise" Marcus Aurelius banned gladiatorial games in Rome forcing him to move to Mauretania. The real Marcus did ban the games but only in Antioch as punishment for the city's support of the usurper Avidius Cassius. No games were ever banned in Rome. However, when the Emperor started conscripting gladiators into the legions, the resulting shortage in fighters allowed lanistae such as Proximo to make "windfall" profits through increased charges for their services.[45]

Anachronisms

Costumes within the film are almost never completely historically correct. Some of the soldiers wear fantasy helmets. The bands wrapped around their lower arms were rarely ever worn. Their appearance is the product of historical movies always depicting peoples of antiquity wearing such bands. Although the film is set within the 2nd century AD, the Imperial Gallic armor and the helmets worn by the legionaries is from AD 75, a century earlier. This was superseded by new designs in AD 100. Likewise the Legions' standard bearers (Aquilifer), centurions, mounted forces, and auxiliaries would have worn scale armour: Lorica squamata.[46][47] The Germanic tribes are dressed in clothes from the stone-age period.[48]

The Roman cavalry are shown attacking using stirrups. This is anachronistic in that the horse-mounted forces of the Roman army used a two-horned saddle. Stirrups were only employed for safety reasons because of the additional training and skill required to ride with a Roman saddle.[45][49] Catapults and ballistae would not have been used in a forest. They were reserved primarily for sieges and were rarely used in open battles.[45]

In the bird's eye view of Rome when the city is introduced for the first time there are several buildings that did not exist at the time of Gladiator. For example, the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine is quite prominent; however, it was not completed until AD 312.

Influences

The film's plot was influenced by two 1960s Hollywood films of the sword-and-sandal genre, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Spartacus,[50] and shares several plot points with The Fall of the Roman Empire, which tells the story of Livius, who, like Maximus in Gladiator, is Marcus Aurelius's intended successor. Livius is in love with Lucilla and seeks to marry her while Maximus, who is happily married, was formerly in love with her. Both films portray the death of Marcus Aurelius as an assassination. In Fall of the Roman Empire a group of conspirators independent of Commodus, hoping to profit from Commodus's accession, arrange for Marcus Aurelius to be poisoned; in Gladiator Commodus himself murders his father by smothering him. In the course of Fall of the Roman Empire Commodus unsuccessfully seeks to win Livius over to his vision of empire in contrast to that of his father, but continues to employ him notwithstanding; in Gladiator, when Commodus fails to secure Maximus's allegiance, he executes Maximus's wife and son and tries unsuccessfully to execute him. Livius in Fall of the Roman Empire and Maximus in Gladiator kill Commodus in single combat, Livius to save Lucilla and Maximus to avenge the murder of his wife and son, and both do it for the greater good of Rome.

Scott cited Spartacus and Ben-Hur as influences on the film: "These movies were part of my cinema-going youth. But at the dawn of the new millennium, I thought this might be the ideal time to revisit what may have been the most important period of the last two thousand years – if not all recorded history – the apex and beginning of the decline of the greatest military and political power the world has ever known."[51]

Spartacus provides the film's gladiatorial motif, as well as the character of Senator Gracchus, a fictitious senator (bearing the name of a pair of revolutionary Tribunes from the 2nd century BC) who in both films is an elder statesman of ancient Rome attempting to preserve the ancient rights of the Roman Senate in the face of an ambitious autocrat –Marcus Licinius Crassus in Spartacus and Commodus in Gladiator. Both actors who played Gracchus (in Spartacus and Gladiator), played Claudius in previous films – Charles Laughton of Spartacus played Claudius in the unfinished 1937 film I, Claudius and Sir Derek Jacobi of Gladiator, played Claudius in the 1976 BBC adaptation. Both films also share a specific set piece, wherein a gladiator (Maximus here, Woody Strode's Draba in Spartacus) throws his weapon into a spectator box at the end of a match, as well as at least one line of dialogue: "Rome is the mob", said here by Gracchus and by Julius Caesar (John Gavin) in Spartacus.

The film's depiction of Commodus's entry into Rome borrows imagery from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1935), although Scott has pointed out that the iconography of Nazi rallies was itself inspired by the Roman Empire. Gladiator reflects back on the film by duplicating similar events that occurred in Adolf Hitler's procession. The Nazi film opens with an aerial view of Hitler arriving in a plane, while Scott shows an aerial view of Rome, quickly followed by a shot of the large crowd of people watching Commodus pass them in a procession with his chariot.[52] The first thing to appear in Triumph of the Will is a Nazi eagle, which is alluded to when a statue of an eagle sits atop one of the arches (and then is shortly followed by several more decorative eagles throughout the rest of the scene) leading up to the procession of Commodus. At one point in the Nazi film, a little girl gives flowers to Hitler, while Commodus is met by several girls who all give him bundles of flowers.[53]

Music
Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard – "Now We Are Free"
listen to a clip from the score of Gladiator.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The Oscar-nominated score was composed by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, and conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Zimmer was originally planning to use Israeli vocalist Ofra Haza for the score, after his work with her in The Prince of Egypt. However, Ofra died in her early 40s in late February 2000, before she was able to record, and so Gerrard was chosen instead. Lisa Gerrard's vocals are similar to her own work on The Insider score.[54] The music for many of the battle scenes has been noted as similar to Gustav Holst's "Mars: The Bringer of War", and in June 2006, the Holst Foundation sued Hans Zimmer for allegedly copying the late Holst's work.[55][56] Another close musical resemblance occurs in the scene of Commodus's triumphal entry into Rome, accompanied by music clearly evocative of two sections – the Prelude to Das Rheingold and Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung – from Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung. On February 27, 2001, nearly a year after the first soundtrack's release, Decca produced Gladiator: More Music From the Motion Picture. Then, on September 5, 2005, Decca produced Gladiator: Special Anniversary Edition, a two-CD pack containing both the above-mentioned releases. Some of the music from the film was featured in the NFL playoffs in January 2003 before commercial breaks and before and after half-time.[57] In 2003, Luciano Pavarotti released a recording of himself singing a song from the film and said he regretted turning down an offer to perform on the soundtrack.[58]

Reception

Gladiator received generally positive reviews, with 76% of the critics polled by Rotten Tomatoes giving it favorable reviews, with an averaged score of 7.2 out of 10.[59] At the website Metacritic, which employs a normalized rating system, the film earned a favorable rating of 64/100 based on 37 reviews by mainstream critics.[60] The Battle of Germania was cited by CNN as one of their "favorite on-screen battle scenes",[61] while Entertainment Weekly named Maximus as their sixth favorite action hero, because of "Crowe's steely, soulful performance",[62] and named it as their third favorite revenge film.[63] In December 2000, Gladiator was named the best film of the year by viewers of Film 2000, taking 40% of the votes.[64] In 2002, a Channel 4 (UK TV) poll named it as the sixth greatest film of all time.[65] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Are you not entertained?".[66]

It was not without its deriders. Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, and criticized the look of the film as "muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct." He also derided the writing, claiming it "employs depression as a substitute for personality, and believes that if characters are bitter and morose enough, we won't notice how dull they are."[67] Camille Paglia called the film "boring, badly shot and suffused with sentimental p.c. rubbish."[68]

The film earned US$34.83 million on its opening weekend at 2,938 U.S. theaters.[69] Within two weeks, the film's box office gross surpassed its US $103 million budget.[70][71] The film continued on to become one of the highest earning films of 2000 and made a worldwide box office gross of US$457,640,427, with over US$187 million in American theaters and more than the equivalent of US$269 million in non-US markets.[72]

Accolades

Gladiator was nominated in 36 individual ceremonies, including the 73rd Academy Awards, the BAFTA Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards. Of 119 award nominations, the film won 48 prizes.[73]

The film won five Academy Awards and was nominated for an additional seven, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and Best Director for Ridley Scott. It was the first movie to win Best Picture without winning either a directing or screenwriting award since All the King's Men at the 22nd Academy Awards in 1950. In 2003, Chicago became another Best Picture winner which didn't win an Academy Award in either of these two major categories. Due to Academy rules, only Hans Zimmer was officially nominated for Best Music, Original Score, and not to Lisa Gerrard at the time.[74] However, the pair did win the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score as co-composers.

American Film Institute Lists

Impact

The film's mainstream success is responsible for an increased interest in Roman and classical history in the United States. According to The New York Times, this has been dubbed the "Gladiator Effect".

It's called the 'Gladiator' effect by writers and publishers. The snob in us likes to believe that it is always books that spin off movies. Yet in this case, it's the movies – most recently Gladiator two years ago – that have created the interest in the ancients. And not for more Roman screen colossals, but for writing that is serious or fun or both."[82]

The Cicero biography Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician and Gregory Hays's translation of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations received large spikes in sales after the release of the film.[82] The film also began a revival of the historical epic genre with films such as Troy, The Alamo, King Arthur, Alexander, 300, Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood (the last two were also directed by Scott).[83] The character of Maximus was placed 12th in the Total Film list of 50 best movie heroes and villains[84] and 35th in the Empire's 100 Greatest Movie Characters.[85] Maximus is also featured on 55c "Australian Legends" postage stamp series.[86] Russell Crowe attended a ceremony to mark the creation of the stamps.[86]

Home media

The film was first released on DVD on November 21, 2000, and has since been released in several different extended and special edition versions. Special features for the Blu-ray Disc and DVDs include deleted scenes, trailers, documentaries, commentaries, storyboards, image galleries, Easter eggs, and cast auditions. The film was released on Blu-ray in September 2009, in a 2-disc edition containing both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film, as part of Paramount's "Sapphire Series" (Paramount bought the DreamWorks library in 2006).[87] Initial reviews of the Blu-ray Disc release criticized poor image quality, leading many to call for it to be remastered, as Sony did with The Fifth Element in 2007.[88] A remastered version was later released in 2010.

The DVD editions that have been released since the original two-disc version, include a film only single-disc edition as well as a three-disc "extended edition" DVD which was released in August 2005. The extended edition DVD features approximately fifteen minutes of additional scenes, most of which appear in the previous release as deleted scenes. The original cut, which Scott still calls his director's cut, is also select-able via seamless branching (which is not included on the UK edition). The DVD is also notable for having a new commentary track featuring director Scott and star Crowe. The film is on the first disc, the second one has a three-hour documentary into the making of the film by DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika, and the third disc contains supplements. Discs one and two of the three-disc extended edition were also repackaged and sold as a two-disc "special edition" in the EU in 2005.

Cancelled sequel

In June 2001, Douglas Wick said a Gladiator prequel was in development.[89] The following year, Wick, Walter Parkes, David Franzoni, and John Logan switched direction to a sequel set fifteen years later;[90] the Praetorian Guards rule Rome and an older Lucius is trying to learn who his real father was. However, Russell Crowe was interested in resurrecting Maximus, and further researched Roman beliefs about the afterlife to accomplish this.[91] Ridley Scott expressed interest, although he admitted the project would have to be retitled as it had little to do with gladiators.[92] An easter egg contained on disc 2 of the extended edition / special edition DVD releases includes a discussion of possible scenarios for a follow-up. This includes a suggestion by Walter F. Parkes that, in order to enable Russell Crowe to return to play Maximus, who dies at the end of the original movie, a sequel could involve a "multi-generational drama about Maximus and the Aureleans and this chapter of Rome", similar in concept to The Godfather Part II.

In 2006, Scott stated he and Crowe approached Nick Cave to rewrite the film, but their ideas conflicted with DreamWorks's idea of a spin-off involving Lucius, whom Scott revealed would turn out to be Maximus's son with Lucilla. Scott noted that a tale of corruption in Rome was too complex, whereas Gladiator worked due to its simple drive.[93] In 2009, details of Cave's ultimately-rejected script surfaced on the internet: the script having Maximus being reincarnated by the Roman gods and returned to Rome to defend Christians against persecution; then transported to other important periods in history, including World War II, the Vietnam War, and finally being a general in the modern-day Pentagon. This script for a sequel, however, was rejected as being too far-fetched, and not in keeping with the spirit and theme of the original film.[94][95]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Gladiator - Cast, Crew, Director and Awards". NYTimes.com. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Gladiator". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Gladiator (2000)". British Film Institute. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Gladiator (2000)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  5. ↑ Script of the movie
  6. ↑ Elvis Mitchell (May 5, 2000), "The New York Times: Best Pictures", New York Times, retrieved July 25, 2015
  7. ↑ Britt Hayes (June 13, 2013), "See the Cast of 'Gladiator' Then and Now", Screencrush.com, retrieved July 25, 2015
  8. ↑ Stax (April 4, 2002), The Stax Report's Five Scribes Edition, IGN, retrieved February 27, 2009
  9. ↑ Jon Solomon (April 1, 2004), "Gladiator from Screenplay to Screen", in Martin M. Winkler, Gladiator: Film and History, Blackwell Publishing, p. 3
  10. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 22
  11. 1 2 Tales of the Scribes: Story Development (DVD). Universal. 2005.
  12. 1 2 3 "Inside The Actors Studio - Transcript". kaspinet.com. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  13. ↑ Corliss, Richard; Ressner, Jeffrey (May 8, 2000), "The Empire Strikes Back", Time, retrieved February 27, 2009
  14. ↑ Bill Nicholson’s Speech at the launch of the International Screenwriters' Festival, January 30, 2006, archived from the original on May 17, 2008, retrieved February 27, 2009
  15. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 34
  16. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 61
  17. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 66
  18. ↑ "MOTW: Sic Semper Illuminatus: Five Fun Facts about "Gladiator"", Themovienetwork.com, February 26, 2013, retrieved July 25, 2015
  19. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 62
  20. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 68
  21. ↑ Bankston, Douglas (May 2000), "Death or Glory", American Cinematographer (American Society of Cinematographers)
  22. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 63
  23. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 73
  24. 1 2 Gory glory in the Colosseum, Kodak: In Camera, July 2000, archived from the original on 2005-02-09, retrieved February 27, 2009
  25. ↑ Malta Film Commission – Backlots, Malta Film Commission, retrieved 28 August 2009
  26. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 89
  27. ↑ Winkler, p.130
  28. 1 2 3 Bath, Matthew (October 25, 2004), The Mill, Digit Magazine, retrieved February 27, 2009
  29. ↑ Landau, Diana; Parkes, Walter; Logan, John; Scott, Ridley (2000), Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic, Newmarket Press, p. 89, ISBN 1-55704-428-7
  30. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 122
  31. 1 2 Landau 2000, p. 123
  32. ↑ Oliver Reed Resurrected On Screen, Internet Movie Database, April 12, 2000, retrieved February 27, 2009
  33. ↑ Schwartz, p.142
  34. ↑ Not Such a Wonderful Life: A Look at History in Gladiator IGN movies February 10, 2000
  35. 1 2 Ward, Allen (May 2001). "The Movie "Gladiator" in Historical Perspective". University of Connecticut. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  36. ↑ Winkler, Martin (2004), Gladiator Film and History, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, p. 6, ISBN 1-4051-1042-2
  37. ↑ Gladiator: The Real Story, retrieved February 27, 2009
  38. ↑ Livy. Cincinnatus Leaves His Plow. Taken from The Western World ISBN 0-536-99373-4
  39. ↑ Andrew Rawnsley (June 23, 2002), He wants to go on and on; they all do, London: Guardian Unlimited, retrieved February 27, 2009
  40. ↑ Peter Popham (October 16, 2008), Found: Tomb of the general who inspired 'Gladiator', London: The Independent, retrieved February 27, 2009
  41. ↑ 'Gladiator' Tomb is Found in Rome, BBC News, October 17, 2008, retrieved February 27, 2009
  42. ↑ Tomb of Roman general who inspired Gladiator reburied, PreHist.org, December 6, 2012, retrieved December 6, 2012
  43. ↑ "GLADIATOR: THE REAL STORY". Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  44. ↑ "Commodus". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  45. 1 2 3 Winkler, Martin M. (2004). Gladiator: film and history. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-1042-2.
  46. ↑ DeVries, Kelly & Robert Douglas Smith (2007). Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. pp. 24-27. ISBN 9781851095261.
  47. ↑ "Scale (Lorica Squamata)". Australian National University. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  48. ↑ Junkelmann, Marcus in Hollywoods Traum von Rom (Hollywood’s Dream of Rome), p. 117, 120 and 195.
  49. ↑ "Movie Nitpick: Gladiator". The Nitpickers Site. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  50. ↑ Martin M. Winkler (June 23, 2002), Scholia Reviews ns 14 (2005) 11., retrieved February 27, 2009
  51. ↑ Landau 2000, p. 28
  52. ↑ Winkler, p.114
  53. ↑ Winkler, p.115
  54. ↑ Zimmer and Gladiator, Reel.com, archived from the original on February 10, 2008, retrieved February 27, 2009
  55. ↑ Priscilla Rodriguez (June 12, 2006), "Gladiator" Composer Accused of Copyright Infringement, KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO, archived from the original on 2008-05-16, retrieved February 27, 2009
  56. ↑ Michael Beek (June 2006), Gladiator Vs Mars – Zimmer is sued:, Music from the Movies, archived from the original on 2008-06-18, retrieved February 27, 2009
  57. ↑ Winkler, p.141
  58. ↑ Anastasia Tsioulcas (October 26, 2003), For Pavarotti, Time To Go 'Pop', Yahoo! Music, retrieved February 27, 2009
  59. ↑ Gladiator, Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved February 27, 2009
  60. ↑ Gladiator, Metacritic, retrieved February 27, 2009
  61. ↑ The best – and worst – movie battle scenes, CNN, April 2, 2007, retrieved February 27, 2009
  62. ↑ Marc Bernadin (October 23, 2007), 25 Awesome Action Heroes, Entertainment Weekly, retrieved February 27, 2009
  63. ↑ Gary Susman (December 12, 2007), 20 Best Revenge Movies, Entertainment Weekly, retrieved February 27, 2009
  64. ↑ "Gladiator triumphs in Film 2000 poll". London: BBC News. 2000-12-22. Archived from the original on 2003-02-03. Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  65. ↑ 100 Greatest Films, Channel 4, archived from the original on 2008-04-15, retrieved February 27, 2009
  66. ↑ Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "The 100 Greatest Movies, TV shows, Albums, Books, Characters, Scenes, Episodes, Songs, Dresses, Music vidos, and Trends that entertained us over the past". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84
  67. ↑ Ebert, Roger (May 5, 2000). "Gladiator Review". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
  68. ↑ "Our unimpressive president". salon.com. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  69. ↑ Schwartz, p.141
  70. ↑ Sale, Martha Lair; Parker, Paula Diane (2005), Losing Like Forrest Gump: Winners and Losers in the Film Industry (PDF), retrieved 2007-02-19
  71. ↑ Schwartz, Richard (2002), The Films of Ridley Scott, Westport, CT: Praeger, p. 141, ISBN 0-275-96976-2
  72. ↑ Gladiator total gross, Box Office Mojo, retrieved February 27, 2009
  73. ↑ Gladiator awards tally, Internet Movie Database, retrieved February 27, 2009
  74. ↑ "Filmtracks: Gladiator (Hans Zimmer/Lisa Gerrard)", Filmtracks.com, May 5, 2000, retrieved July 25, 2015
  75. ↑ "The 73rd Academy Awards (2001) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
  76. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains
  77. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
  78. ↑ AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees
  79. ↑ AFI's 100 Years ...100 Cheers Nominees
  80. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot
  81. ↑ "AFI" (PDF). afi.com. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  82. 1 2 Martin, Arnold (July 11, 2002), Making Books; Book Parties With Togas, The New York Times, archived from the original on January 17, 2008, retrieved February 27, 2009
  83. ↑ The 15 Most Influential Films of Our Lifetime, Empire, June 2004, p. 115
  84. ↑ "The 50 greatest movie heroes and baddies of all time revealed". Thaindian.com. 2007-11-27. Retrieved 2011-06-10.
  85. ↑ The 100 Greatest Movie Characters Empire
  86. 1 2 "Oscar winning Aussies go postal". BBC News. 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
  87. ↑ Gladiator, Blu-ray.com, retrieved 2009-05-16
  88. ↑ Initial "Gladiator" Blu-ray Reviews Report Picture Quality Issues, Netflix, retrieved 2009-09-11
  89. ↑ Stax (June 16, 2001), "IGN FilmForce Exclusive: David Franzoni in Negotiations for Another Gladiator!", IGN, retrieved February 27, 2009
  90. ↑ Brian Linder (September 24, 2002), "A Hero Will Rise... Again", IGN, retrieved February 27, 2009
  91. ↑ Stax (December 17, 2002), "A Hero Will Rise – From the Dead!", IGN, retrieved February 27, 2009
  92. ↑ Stax (September 11, 2003), "Ridley Talks Gladiator 2", IGN, retrieved February 27, 2009
  93. ↑ Scott Weinberg (May 8, 2006), "Ridley Lays "Gladiator 2" to Rest - Rotten Tomatoes", Rottentomatoes, retrieved July 25, 2015
  94. ↑ Michaels, Sean (May 6, 2009). "Nick Cave's rejected Gladiator 2 script uncovered!". The Guardian (London). Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  95. ↑ Cave, Nick, Gladiator 2 Draft, retrieved 16 May 2010

References

  • Landau, Diana; Walter Parkes, John Logan, and Ridley Scott (2000), Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic, Newmarket Press, ISBN 1-55704-428-7  Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)

Further reading

  • Reynolds, Mike (July 2000), "Ridley Scott: From Blade Runner to Blade Stunner", DGA Monthly Magazine (Directors Guild of America) 
  • Schwartz, Richard (2001). The Films of Ridley Scott. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-96976-2
  • Stephens, William (2001), "The Rebirth of Stoicism?", Creighton Magazine, retrieved 2010-01-04 
  • Stephens, William (2012). "Appendix: Marcus, Maximus, and Stoicism in Gladiator (2000)", in Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-4411-0810-4
  • Ward, Allen (2001), "The Movie 'Gladiator' in Historical Perspective", Classics Technology Center (AbleMedia), retrieved 2007-01-26 
  • Winkler, Martin (2004). Gladiator Film and History. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-1042-2

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Gladiator (2000 film)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.