top of page
Search

Gladiator (2000) ft. Robb Conlon and Kieran B.

  • Writer: Thomas Duncan
    Thomas Duncan
  • Apr 30
  • 7 min read

Updated: May 5




Guests:




Cast:

  • Ridley Scott, Director

  • John Logan, David Franzione, William Nicholson, Writers

  • John Mathieson, Music

  • Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, Music

  • Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius

  • Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus

  • Connie Nielsen as Lucilla

  • Oliver Reed as Antonius Proximo

  • Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus

  • Djimon Hounsou as Juba

  • Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius

  • Ralf Möller as Hagen

  • Tommy Flanagan as Cicero

  • David Schofield as Senator Falco

  • John Shrapnel as Senator Gaius

  • Tomas Arana as Quintus

  • Spencer Treat Clark as Lucius Verus

  • David Hemmings as Cassius


Background:

  • Gladiator was released on May 5, 2000 (25th Anniversary).

  • On a budget of $110 million, the film would go on to gross $465 million worldwide finishing as the #2 film of 2000.

  • Critics were mostly positive at the time particularly for Ridley Scott's visual style and Russell Crowe's lead performance, but many criticized the screenplay for being without depth and lacking in true character development.

  • Nevertheless, Gladiator was nominated for 12 Oscars including Director (Scott), Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Phoenix), Original Score, Cinematography, Art Direction, and Film Editing.

  • Gladiator would win the Oscars for Best Picture, Actor (Crowe), Visual Effects, Sound, and Costume Design.

  • The film has since been further criticized for its historical inaccuracies.

  • However, in 2021, Empire magazine ranked Gladiator 39th on its "100 Best Movies Of All Time" list, and declared it the 22nd best film of the 21st century. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes included the film on its list of "140 Essential 2000s Movies". The character Maximus placed 95th on Empire's list of 100 Greatest Movie Characters.

  • Gladiator received a somewhat maligned but ultimately financially successful sequel in 2024, and a third film is currently planned.

  • Gladiator currently holds an 80% rating among critics on RT, a 67 score on Metacritic, and a 4.1/5 on Letterboxd.


Plot Summary: In Gladiator, Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) leads his army to victory in a decisive battle under Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The emperor, disillusioned with his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), wishes to pass power to Maximus to restore the Roman Republic. Before this plan can be enacted, Commodus murders his father and seizes the throne.


Refusing to serve the new emperor, Maximus is sentenced to death. He escapes execution but returns home to find his wife and son brutally murdered by Commodus’s men. Captured and sold into slavery, Maximus becomes a gladiator under the training of Proximo (Oliver Reed), a former gladiator himself. Maximus ultimately works his way to Rome, igniting a battle not just for revenge but for the soul of Rome.


As the story builds to a final confrontation, Maximus must fight one last time—against a corrupt emperor and the cruelty of the empire—to restore honor and justice and to fulfill a dying emperor’s last hope.


Did You Know:

  • Russell Crowe admitted that he felt unworthy of all the praise and the Oscar for Best Actor that he got for this film. After seeing the completed film, he felt it was a "director's film," and that the Oscar should have gone to Sir Ridley Scott instead.

  • Hans Zimmer's score is one of the bestselling movie soundtracks of all time.

  • Although Commodus was initially favored by the Roman people, he lost that status through dramatic acts of megalomania. He is often considered the initiator of the fall of Rome. During his reign, he incorporated his name into many common terms, such as the terms for money and the people. Eventually, the citizens and the Senate had enough of his rule: he was poisoned and, when he vomited out the poison, he was strangled. Afterward, the Senate returned the language to what it had been before Commodus, and the many statues of himself he'd put up were taken down.

  • It is a common misconception that a Roman emperor put his thumb upwards to signify that a gladiator was to be spared, whereas thumb down meant that there would be no mercy for a downed gladiator. In reality, this gesturing was the other way around: thumb up symbolized a sword action (and thus death), and thumb down a sheathed sword (mercy). The crew was aware of this while making the movie, but since "thumbs up" is considered to be a good sign nowadays, they decided not to unnecessarily confuse the audience.

  • A surprising fount of information in terms of Roman history was Connie Nielsen, who has always been fascinated by the period. She would be frequently consulted over accurate historical details.

  • Jack Gleeson modelled his character Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones (2011) after Emperor Commodus.


Best Performance: Russell Crowe (Maximus)/Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus)

Best Secondary Performance: Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus)/Ridley Scott (Director)/Connie Nielsen (Lucilla)/Russell Crowe (Maximus)

Most Charismatic Award: Russell Crowe (Maximus)/Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus)/Oliver Reed (Proximo)

Best Scene:

  • Conquering Germania

  • Commodus and Aurelius

  • First Gladiator Fight

  • Battle of Carthage

  • Tigris of Gaul

  • Final Confrontation

Favorite Scene: Tigris of Gaul/Proximo Negotiating/Conquering Germania

Most Indelible Moment: Final Confrontation/Echoes in Eternity


In Memorium:

  • Mac Gayden, 83, American singer and songwriter (songs: "Everlasting Love, "My Rainbow Valley")

  • Patrick Adiarte, 82, Filipino-American actor (appeared in: The King and I, High Time, Flower Drum Song)

  • Sophie Nyweide, 24, American actress (appeared in: Bella, Noah, An Invisible Sign)

  • Jean Marsh, 90, English actress and television writer (appeared in: Upstairs, Downstairs (also writer); Doctor Who; Willow), Emmy winner (1975)

  • Don Mischer, 85, American television producer (produced: multiple Super Bowls, Olympics, Emmys, Oscars telecasts and TV specials)


Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

Maximus: Are you not entertained?


Crowd Chanting: Spaniard! Spaniard! Spaniard!


Commodus: It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.


Maximus: At my signal, unleash hell.


Maximus: [removes helmet and turns around to face Commodus] My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.


Commodus: The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story! But now, the people want to know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. And what could be more glorious than to challenge the Emperor himself in the great arena?

Maximus: You would fight me?

Commodus: Why not? Do you think I am afraid?

Maximus: I think you've been afraid all your life.


Maximus: Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead!

[Cavalry laughs]

Maximus: Brothers, what we do in life... echoes in eternity.


Quintus: People should know when they are conquered.

Maximus: Would you, Quintus? Would I?


Maximus: I knew a man once who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."


Lucilla: Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.


Maximus: The frost, it sometimes makes the blade stick.


Marcus Aurelius: When was the last time you were home?

Maximus: Two years, two hundred and sixty-four days and this morning.


Maximus: Strength and honor.


Maximus: Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear.


Commodus: He sleeps so well because he is loved.


Proximo: You sold me queer giraffes.


Juba: You have a great name. He must kill your name before he kills you.


Proximo: He knows too well how to manipulate the mob.

Maximus: Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo. That is not it. That is not it!

Proximo: Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus. We mortals are but shadows and dust. Shadows and dust, Maximus!


Proximo: Listen to me. Learn from me. I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.


Gracchus: The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the coliseum. He'll bring them death - and they will love him for it.


Proximo: Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men.


Proximo: So, Spaniard, we shall go to Rome together and have bloody adventures. And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and we can suckle no more. And then, when enough men have died, perhaps you will have your freedom.


Maximus: I am required to kill; so I kill. That is enough.


Proximo: That is enough for the provinces, but not for Rome. The young Emperor has arranged a series of spectacles to commemorate his father, Marcus Aurelius. I find that amusing since Marcus Aurelius - the wise, the all-knowing Marcus Aurelius - closed us down. So finally, after five years of scratching out a living in flea-infested villages, we are finally going back to where we belong; the Colosseum. You should see the Colosseum, Spaniard. 50,000 Romans watching every movement of your sword; willing to make that killing blow. The silence before you strike and the noise afterwards; it rises up like a storm and as you were the thunder god himself.


Proximo: Some of you are thinking you won't fight. Others; that you can't fight. They all say that until they are out there.


Juba: And now we are Free. I will see you again... but not yet... Not yet!


The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 8.38

Impact/Significance: 9.75

Novelty: 7.13

Classic-ness: 7

Rewatchability: 7.88

Audience Score: 8.85 (90% Google, 87% RT)

Total: 48.99


Remaining Questions:

  • How is Maximus just picked up and put into slavery just like that?

  • Can we get a Pixar movie on Tigris of Gaul and his backstory?

Comments

© 2023 by Ronny Duncan Studio Network Proudly created with ERDM

bottom of page