![]() But he is left for dead by Marcus' son, a bitter rival named Commodus (the name comes from the Latin for "convenient" and not what you're thinking).Īfter escaping and finding that his wife and son have been murdered, Maximus finds his way to the deserts of North Africa, where he is sold as a slave to Proximo (the late Oliver Reed), a manager of gladiators. After Maximus defeats the barbarians, Marcus names him protector of Rome. The hero, a general from Spain named Maximus ( Russell Crowe), is a favorite of the dying emperor Marcus Aurelius ( Richard Harris). (There are blue skies in the hero's dreams of long-ago happiness, but that proves the point.) The story line is " Rocky" on downers. By the end of this long film, I would have traded any given gladiatorial victory for just one shot of blue skies. This darkness and a lack of detail in the long shots helps obscure shabby special effects (the Colosseum in Rome looks like a model from a computer game), and the characters bring no cheer: They're bitter, vengeful, depressed. Its colors are mud tones at the drab end of the palette, and it seems to have been filmed on grim and overcast days. ![]() The film looks muddy, fuzzy and indistinct. ![]() Proximo: That's enough for the provinces, but not for Rome.Ī foolish choice in art direction casts a pall over Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" that no swordplay can cut through. The story centers on the now-adult Lucius, Commodus’ nephew and the son of Connie Nielsen’s character Lucilla from Scott’s original film.Maximus: I'm required to kill-so I kill. Scott is currently developing a sequel to the movie that is set two decades after Maximus’s death. The epic won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe. “Gladiator,” released in May 2000, was a box office blockbuster with $460 million worldwide. So, solves it by going into a massive close-up, when I turn to face Commodus – it’s just forehead and chin and out of frame you can’t see the Teletubby hair wiggling in the wind.” ![]() “I tried doing it slowly, I tried doing it fast, but every time two hairs stand up like I’m a fucking Teletubby. “That helmet was full of static electricity and every time I took it off the hairs on the top of my head stood up,” Crowe said. Crowe said filming the speech turned out to be riddled with annoyance because his helmet kept making his hair look funny when it called in the script to take the protective gear off. Ridley Scott’s First Napoleonic Epic Came Out 46 Years Ago - and Cost Under a Million Dollarsīy changing Maximus’ fate and killing the character off after the final duel, his climactic speech becomes even more emotionally-charged. “And my joke used to be, ‘Yeah, what does Maximus do? Does he end up running a fucking pizzeria by the Colosseum?’ He has a singular purpose, which is to meet his wife in the afterlife and apologize for not being there for her. This character is about one act of pure vengeance for his wife and child, and, once he’s accomplished that, what does he do?’ Crowe said. “I remember Ridley coming up to me on set saying, ‘Look, the way this is shaping up, I don’t see how you live. Crowe said it was a decision that felt right, especially because the character’s “my name is Maximus” speech was “basically a suicide note” from the start. In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Crowe looks back at the moment Scott changed his mind about Maximus’ fate while filming was already underway. However, throughout the majority of production the protagonist was supposed to live through the end credits of the movie. The ending of Ridley Scott‘s Oscar-winning epic “ Gladiator” has tugged at the heartstrings for the last 20 years thanks to the death of Maximus ( Russell Crowe) during his climactic duel in the Colosseum against Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). ![]()
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