GLADIATOR - DVD review

"We who are about to die salute you."

It's deja vu all over again: "Quo Vadis," "Demetrius and the Gladiators," "Ben Hur," "Spartacus." I thought we'd left the sword-and-scandal epics behind us forty years ago, but director Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner," "Alien," "Legend," "Black Rain") has resurrected the genre and produced a rousing if less-than-cerebral version of the species for the new millennium. What the film lacks in intellect, historical fact, or common sense, it more than makes up for in action, spectacle, and grandeur. Appropriately, DreamWorks Home Entertainment present it in a grand, Special Edition, two-DVD set that's loaded with more extras than would fit in a Roman coliseum.

The story begins in 180 A.D. at the end of a twelve-year campaign by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) against some upstart barbarian tribes in Germania. The Emperor's main man, his general, is Maximus (Russell Crowe), a strong, silent type who wins the war for him. The Romans triumph the way they always did--with superior numbers, superior cavalry, and superior strategy. Thank Maximus for this last turn. Now, Marcus is old and knows he's coming to the end of his reign, and back in Rome the Empire is divided on whether an emperor should continue to rule or the senate should take over. The old Emperor doesn't want his son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), to inherit his title because he recognizes Commodus for what he is, a weak, selfish, immature tyrant. In consequence, Marcus tries to hand over his authority to Maximus, naming him in private "Protector of Rome." But Commodus beats the old man to the punch. Before Maximus can tell anyone about the old Emperor's plans, Commodus murders his father, assumes the emperorship, and orders Maximus executed. Maximus escapes, only to find that Commodus has had his wife and son murdered and his villa torched.

The next thing we know, and don't ask how or why, Maximus is captured by slave traders and sold to a gladiatorial school. From there he returns to Rome and confronts the new, young Emperor. Thus, the plot. Connie Nielsen is also in the cast, as Lucilla, Commodus's sister, for whom he continually lusts in a "Caligula" kind of way. Derek Jacobi (remember him from "I, Claudius"?) is Senator Gracchus, an ally of Maximus. And Oliver Reed is the slave owner, Proximo, a role he was unable to finish because he died before the film wrapped and had to have some of his work completed digitally.

Basically, then, "Gladiator" works as a tried-and-true revenge plot. The bad guy kills the hero's family, and the hero tries to get even. DreamWorks' tagline for the film is, "The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an empire." That's about the size of things as the story unfolds over the course of two-and-a-half hours. The movie's primary claim to fame is its fight scenes, both in and out of the arena. Director Ridley Scott gets a lot of work from his participants, the warfare often reminding one in their energy and violence of the down-and-dirty conflicts on the football fields in Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday." No doubt, the comparison between the bloody Roman games of the past and the brutal sports of today is apt. In both cases, the combat is hot and heavy, with, naturally, the Romans coming out ahead in the blood-and-gore department. The film is not rated R for nothing. Indeed, the film glorifies the very thing the Romans so loved and we are supposed to deplore--the spectacle of death and destruction as entertainment. I guess times haven't changed that much, after all.

Those viewers looking to find another "Spartacus" will be slightly disappointed. Russell Crowe is a fine actor and does his best with the title role, but he is almost never called upon to do more than look good in a breastplate. In fact, he makes Kirk Douglas, always an underrated actor, seem like Laurence Olivier. But, then, Douglas had more to work with, including a script that allowed him some personal feelings to show through. Crowe, on the other hand, appears always to be at a distance, always a degree removed from any real human emotion, which, I suppose, is part and parcel of his character's personality. "Gladiator" is an action movie above all, and in between the battle sequences the intensity slows down considerably.

In addition to its action, where "Gladiator" scores heavily is in its special digital effects, which come off awesomely. It's clear that a studio does not have to produce an outer-space, sci-fi adventure anymore to benefit from the marvels of a computer. Here, the glories of the city of Rome are represented in extravagant detail, with all of its multitude of people, grand, imperial buildings, the central Forum, and spectacular architecture on vivid display. The Roman coliseum is magnificent and persuasive to behold, yet it was three-quarters constructed on a monitor screen.

Video:
Like most of Ridley Scott's work, "Gladiator" is not only figuratively dark in tone but quite literally dark as well. Its colors are almost entirely of a bluish-grey or dusty brown tint, most scenes set either at night or during overcast days. This doesn't give the DVD transfer much to work with, and the result is rather dreary on the eyes, with doses of DNR filtering and edge enhancement to help or hinder, depending on your point of view. I'm sure the 2.35:1 ratio video reproduction does its best, but that isn't saying much. The picture quality for "Gladiator" is a bland, straightforward dull all the way through.

Audio:
The audio, though, is outstanding, coming via Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS ES, or plain, old Dolby 2.0 stereo. In DD 5.1, the audience can hear catapult launchings, arrows flaming, swords clanging, and heads rolling from all directions, truly a dynamic "surround" sound.

Extras:
Disc one of the set contains the film itself, plus an audio commentary with director Ridley Scott, director of photography John Mathieson, and editor Pietro Scalia. English is the only spoken language, English is offered for subtitles, and there are twenty-eight scene selections.

Disc two contains the preponderance of bonus items, starting with my favorite segment: eleven deleted scenes, followed by a seven-minute montage of leftover shots assembled especially for the DVD. The deleted scenes may be viewed with or without commentary. Next, there's a twenty-five-minute documentary, "The Making of Gladiator," which does pretty much what most documentaries do, hypes the film. A more interesting documentary is one titled "Gladiator Games: Roman Blood Sport," about fifty minutes, detailing the facts behind the old Roman spectator sports. Another documentary, "Hans Zimmer: Scoring Gladiator," at twenty-one minutes seems overly long for a commentary on the film's music. Young actor Spencer Treat Clark, who plays Lucilla's son and Rome's heir apparent, wrote a diary during production, represented here as "My Gladiator Journal." It holds some minor interest for viewers wanting inside information on the job of movie acting. Then, there are original storyboards for eight sequences in the film and four that were never used; conceptual art; a still gallery that goes on forever; cast and crew biographies and film highlights; a few lines of production notes; and twenty-eight scene selections. To round things off, there are several TV spots, one brief teaser, and a full-blown theatrical trailer.

Parting Thoughts:
To conclude, I would advise the viewer to have fun and enjoy "Gladiator" but not to rely too heavily on Hollywood for real-life history. It is a film, after all. According to the "Encyclopedia Britannica," Commodus was made co-ruler and successor to his father, emperor Marcus Aurelius, in 177 A.D. Commodus then joined in the campaign against invading German tribes, but after the death of his father in 180, he quickly came to terms with them. "In 182 Commodus' sister Lucilla conspired with a group of senators to assassinate him. The plot failed, and Commodus retaliated by executing a number of leading senators. Thereafter, his rule became increasingly arbitrary and vicious. In 186 he had his chief minister executed in order to appease the army; three years later he allowed the minister's successor to be killed by a rioting crowd. Political influence then passed to the emperor's mistress and two advisers. Meanwhile, Commodus was lapsing into insanity. He gave Rome a new name, Colonia Commodiana (Colony of Commodus), and imagined that he was the god Hercules, entering the arena to fight as a gladiator or to kill lions with bow and arrow. Finally, when Commodus announced that he would assume the consulship on Jan. 1, 193, dressed as a gladiator, the public became incensed. On Dec. 31, 192, his advisers had him strangled by a champion wrestler."

"Go, and die with honor."