Like an overzealous abstract artist, Ridley Scott paints his sweeping epic "Gladiator" onto the screen with broad, bold strokes, using every technique at his disposal to add to the grand feeling of his film.
His cinematographer -- John Mathieson, who last showed his adept visual eye in "Plunkett & Macleane" -- uses an earthy palette of dark blues, greens and browns to help bring a somber and weighty mood to the film. Most of the time, these production choices succeed in their attempt at making a larger-than-life period piece about Roman gladiators.
Russell Crowe stars in the film as General Maximus (the Gladiator), and he takes Scott's and Mathieson's cue by spending most of the film brooding and looking fierce in intense battles with his armies and in the Roman Coliseum. While his performance may not match his turn in last year's "The Insider," Crowe's talent is readily apparent, and he shoulders the bulk of the film.
Joaquin Phoenix (River's brother) appears as Emperor Commodus, and his character, along with sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), are what makes this film's story exceptional. When Commodus's father, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), decides that Maximus is more suited to ruling Rome than his own son, things start to go awry.
In true Shakespearean style, themes and questions arise about honor, guilt, jealousy, betrayal and loyalty, and Commodus decides he has no other choice but to kill his father to retain power of the city.
In an extremely effective and personal scene, Commodus strangles his already-ill father, while tearing and emoting strong remorse about the ethics behind the act, which he knows were the same flawed ethics that prompted his father to tap Maximus as the next emperor.
Phoenix has great emotional depth and style, making him capable of pulling off his scenes proficiently; he's infinitely detestable, yet it's hard not to sympathize with him.
As emperor of Rome, Commodus orders the execution of Maximus and his family, but Maximus escapes only to be captured by the slave industry and trained as a gladiator.
As they train him, Scott draws from Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus." Everything from the costumes to the colored dots on their shirts seem lifted from that film. The only thing that's missing is Jean Simmons.
It's from there that Maximus again starts his rise to power simply through his popularity as a gladiator. But again, the real interest comes from Commodus. Phoenix plays his part as a true tortured soul, with a soft but strange look in his eyes; he's ruthless, but at the same time he needs to find someone who loves him.
His sister, who Nielsen plays perfectly, tends to be the person he looks toward for affection, but she is torn between the legacy of her father, her ancient but persisting love for Maximus and the perversity of her brother. With no way out of her situation, her character may be the most invoking and textured of the three.
Every scene between Nielsen and Phoenix comes across poignantly, and their strange relationship grabs hold of the foreground, overshadowing the beautiful backdrops of Rome, its Coliseum and the landscape.
As "Gladiator" starts, the wide shots of Roman countryside, the blue-filtered scenes of the forests as the soldiers are pelted with snow and the long shots of a lightning storm reflect Scott's attempt to create a larger-than-life tone for the film.
In these first sequences, the battle scenes are extremely gory and violent. Axes fly, heads are chopped off and stomach-turning sounds blare from the speakers to prove it.
But the major flaw in Scott's film reveals itself here. These beginning battle scenes are edited with fast motion, slow motion, quick cuts, form cuts and countless other editing techniques in order to replicate the excitement and thrill of battle.
But instead of being exciting, these scenes come off as out of place. Lots of close-ups and crowd reactions take the place of clear, carefully considered fight sequences.
At times, it's almost difficult to tell whether the haphazard editing is accidental or intentional.
Despite the fact that the film is generally solid, Scott tries too hard. If "Gladiator" were a true epic like Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus," Kevin Costner's "Dances with Wolves" or Mel Gibson's "Braveheart," the film would seem effortless instead of forced. We wouldn't need to be told through editing and directing technique that the film is larger than life -- we'd just walk away in awe.
