Extras: From the Cutting Room Floor, The Making of Gladiator,
Gladiator Games: Roman Blood Sport, Hans Zimmer: Composing Gladiator,
My Gladiator Journal, Original Storyboards, Stills Gallery, Trailers and
TV spots, Cast and Crew, Production Notes, Audio Commentary
Director:
Ridley Scott
(1492: Conquest of Paradise, Alien, Black Rain, Blade
Runner, G.I. Jane, Gladiator, Legend, Thelma and Louise, White Squall)
Producers:
Douglas Wick, David Franzoni and Branko Lustig
Screenplay:
David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson
Music:
Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
Cast:
Maximus Decimus Meridius: Russell Crowe
Commodus: Joaquin Phoenix
Lucilla: Connie Nielsen
Proximo: Oliver Reed
Marcus Aurelius: Richard Harris
Gracchus: Derek Jacobi
Juba: Djimon Hounsou
Lucius: Spencer Treat Clark
Gladiators... READY!
It's the year 180 A.D. and Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe)
is a brilliant general, framed for murder of Caesar, aka Marcus Aurelius
(Richard Harris), the son of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) who
wants to rule as he sees fit, dissolving the senate and ruling alone
as an emperor.
Trying to dispose of his dirty work he attempts to have Maximus executed
but the film can't end before it's hardly begun and he escapes home to find
his wife and child murdered. He is then taken to the Roman province of
Zucchabar where he is bought by Proximo (Oliver Reed in his last ever
film - he died during its making and was replaced in some scenes by stand-ins
and CGI work) and trained to be the best Gladiator in the ring.
Proximo teaches him to win the crowd. Then you win, not because you kill
more quickly than the rest, but because the crowd loves you more. In the midst
of all this he comes face to face with Commodus and they must have their final
showdown.
The film also stars Connie Nielsen as Commodus' sister Lucilla,
Spencer Treat Clark as her son Lucius, Derek Jacobi as
senate member Gracchus and Amistad's Djimon Hounsou as
Maximus' friend Juba.
The picture looks excellent a lot of the time, particularly for bright scenes
but dark ones aren't always quite what they could be. The film is presented
in the original 2.35:1 ratio (not 1.85:1 as the PR material previously
indicated, thankfully) and is anamorphic.
The average bitrate is a middling 5.98Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
The sound is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS ES Matrix 6.1 (not
Discrete 6.1 like the Region 1 DVD). I can only
listen to the former but it's brilliantly realised in the action scenes when
in battle and in the ring. The dialogue moments make use of gentle ambient
effects. Hans Zimmer's score is very much like that for Crimson Tide.
We have not been as blessed as the Americans yet though, since they have the
latest versions of these sound formats in Dolby Digital 6.1 EX and
DTS 6.1 ES Discrete, for which you need an extra rear-centre speaker and the
equipment for this to function, which isn't generally available yet in the
UK.
Extras :
A whole second disc is devoted to these extras which are as follows :
From the Cutting Room Floor (32 mins) : 12 deleted scenes,
all but the last one having an optional director's
commentary track attached as the final one
is a collage assembled by the editor, ranging from Maximus observing the
wounded after the initial battle victory to the Christians being approached by
lions in the ring. All of these are in Dolby Pro Logic and are not anamorphic.
The Making of Gladiator (25 mins) : An "HBO First Look" featurette with
clips from the film mixed with comments and chat from the cast and crew.
Gladiator Games: Roman Blood Sport : Taken from American TV,
this is the entire 50-minute programme from The Learning Channel,
"The Bloodsport of a Gladiator" and looks at the sport in question.
Hans Zimmer: Composing Gladiator : A 20-minute interview with
the composer on his thoughts and feelings upon creation of the score.
My Gladiator Journal : A production diary by actor
Spencer Treat Clark, who plays Commodus' nephew, Lucius.
Original Storyboards : 6 scenes laid out in storyboard format.
Stills Gallery : Scores of pictures from portraits to locations.
Trailers and TV spots : A 60-second Theatrical Teaser
in 4:3 and Dolby ProLogic, a 90-second Theatrical Trailer in the
same format and Five TV Spots over a little longer than two minutes.
Cast and Crew : Info on many members involved, but they don't
include a full summary of all the films with which each has been involved.
Production Notes : Several more pages of info about the film.
Audio Commentary : A feature-length audio commentary from
director Ridley Scott, editor Pietro Scalia and cinematographer
John Mathieson. This particular extra is part of disc 1.
There are 29 chapters which isn't too bad, but for such a long film I'd like
to see more. Dialogue is in English only, while there are subtitles in
17 languages: English, Dutch, Polish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Swedish,
Norwegian, Croatian, Hebrew, Turkish, Danish, Hindi, Finnish,
Czech, Arabic and Greek.
The main menus on each disc have some subtle animation worked with the score,
while not all of the submenus get the same treatment.
Overall, over the weekend I was watching both this and
Joan of Arc,
I expected to find that one incredibly dull and Gladiator brilliant
in the extreme. The former wasn't quite that, but as for this one I was
very disappointed.
All you see in the trailers are the battle and gladiator ring scenes. They
look great and are, but they're too short and inbetween come great expanses
of dialogue that can put you to sleep. At least
Joan of Arc
managed to keep you entertained during the less heroic moments.
We get the idea instantly that Commodus is an evil bastard so why does it
need to be spelt out slowly? It's also not as violent as I thought it would
be because all entry/exit wounds are either just off camera or last one or
two frames so you can't see it for long. There are also the tired old
platitudes about how great people are, all said with the same insincerity
that has gone before them many a time.
Never mind Ridley, this should've been directed by TONY Scott, who
would've brought in Jerry Bruckheimer to spice things up a bit.
If you did enjoy Gladiator though then this DVD is for you because of the
huge amount of extras within.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
