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| Russell
Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou,
Richard Harris |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Maximus
Decimus Meridius: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander
of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, 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.
A
Roman general is betrayed, forced into slavery and becomes a legend
in the gladiatorial arena.
 This
summer blockbuster from DreamWorks represented a return to form for
a beloved movie genre that had been missing, presumed dead for decades:
the historical epic. Having priced themselves out of existence in the
early 1960s, most moviegoers of today will only have seen these cinematic
juggernauts in faded pan & scan versions on Saturday afternoon TV.
But now, thanks to CGI, the epic scale required to sell these movies
has become more feasible, and without the religious trappings that make
most of the older Roman epics heavy going, the genre seems to have come
back into fashion, and it won't be long before we see more sword-and-sandals
epics making their way onto the big screen.
Gladiator is a successful movie, and may be memorable for making
a well-deserved star of Russell Crowe and bringing the Roman epic back
to life, but it lacks greatness. In spite of some impressive CGI work
that effectively recreates the size and grandeur of the Colosseum, the
movie as a whole lacks the scale that made a classic like Spartacus
and even a more recent adventure like Braveheart a monumental
movie experience. It may have worked better had the story been given
an extra half hour of screen time, as the proceedings feel somewhat
rushed at 149 minutes. The screenplay also leaves little room for subtlety
and gives the actors more than a few real clunkers of lines. Crowe and
Phoenix still succeed against the odds in making the most of their parts,
and Crowe just about ends up carrying the movie to its conclusion on
little more than his personal charisma. He has an awesome on-screen
presence and this movie at least gives him a stage big enough for his
heroic persona. |
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Identical
2-disc versions are available for Region 1 and Region 2. Minor differences
include the lack of chapter selection screen for the audio commentary
track and the Chicken Run easter egg on the Region 2 release.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at 2.35:1. The transfer is absolutely
flawless, recreating the film's rich cinematography and showing a stunning
amount of detail. Black levels are stable and deep, and the colors are
rich and vibrant, with accurate fleshtones and remarkable rendering
of the stylized segments.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 EX sound mix is very strong, with plenty of detail
in the sound design and a deep and wide soundstage with excellent directional
effects. The DTS EX 6.1 sound mix is even more impressive, with more
detail in the higher frequencies and more overwhelming effects in the
action sequences.
This
extraordinarily rich and well-designed 2-disc special edition sets a
new standard for DVD releases. Not only does it include a reference
quality transfer of the film and both DD and DTS sound mixes, it comes
with a great set of extra features that have been chosen and presented
with great care, and that succeed in adding greatly to the film.
The first disc features an audio commentary track from director Ridley
Scott together with cinematographer John Mathison and editor Pietro
Scalia. Unsurprisingly, Scott is the main speaker of the three, while
Scalia hardly seems to say anything at all. The director doesn't come
across as a terribly sympathetic character in his commentaries: he sounds
rather cold and distant, and gives a rather arrogant and defensive impression.
It's still an informative commentary, even though Scott has a tendency
to (over)state the obvious in his attempts to add insight to the storyline
and character development.
 Disc
number 2 holds a plethora of extra features, all of which are worthwhile
and well-presented. The Deleted Scenes section is presented like the
deleted scenes on the Alien DVD, with a list of scenes that each
have a preview still and a text description. All the scenes can be viewed
with or without director's commentary. An item from this section that
deserves special mention is called 'the treaseure chest'; it's a 7-minute
montage of unused footage, edited together by Pietro Scalia and scored
by Hans Zimmer. It includes shots that had to be cut to get an R-rating
as they were perceived to be overly violent, and it also includes the
alternate cut for the sequence in which Maximus' wife and child are
killed. It's a real treat and one of the best items on the disc.
A 25-minute 'making-of' documentary is better than the standard promotional
featurette, but fails to dig very deep beneath the film's glossy surface.
It features behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with cast and crew,
and the usual amount of brief clips from the film. The 50-minute documentary
'Gladiator Games' is much more interesting, providing some welcome historical
background on the barbaric gladiator tradition in Rome. It incorporates
some clips from the film to dramatically illustrate the history it refers
to. Other features include a 20-minute section on Hans Zimmer's film
score and 'My Gladiator Journal', a personal set diary from actor Spencer
Treat Clark, who plays the young Lucius in the film.
Several galleries of storyboards, concept art and location photographs
are carefully rendered, and are lots of fun to browse through. Don't
miss the Easter Egg for the unused Rhino section that you'll find if
you press the 'Up' button in the first frame of the Rhino storyboard.
Rounding out this amazing disc is a selection of theatrical and TV trailers,
with an Easter Egg on the Region 1 version containing a 'Gladiator Chicken
Run' trailer. The
animated menus open with a nicely processed montage of characters from
the film that leads into the main menu screen featuring a desaturated
view of Rome from atop the Colosseum. Brief transitional animations bring
you to the other menu screens, all of which are beautifully designed in
line with the look of the film. The 'Scene index' screen has animated
previews of six scenes per screen and is easily navigated. The disc doesn't
allow audio switching by using the 'Language' key on the remote, so to
go from DD to DTS or to the audio commentary, you have to access the menu
screens. This has the added drawback of having to start the movie over
if you want to switch audio channels while watching.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Gladiator.
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