Gladiator (2000) Gladiator (2000)

See also: _Index | Plot Structure (Gladiator) | Backbeats (Gladiator)

Quick Facts

• Director: Ridley Scott
• Screenplay: David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson (story by David Franzoni)
• Starring: Russell Crowe (Maximus Decimus Meridius, Roman general turned slave-gladiator), Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius and self-made emperor), Connie Nielsen (Lucilla, Commodus's sister and mother of Lucius), Oliver Reed (Antonius Proximo, lanista who buys Maximus), Richard Harris (Marcus Aurelius, philosopher emperor), Derek Jacobi (Senator Gracchus), Djimon Hounsou (Juba, Numidian fellow gladiator), Tomas Arana (General Quintus), David Schofield (Senator Falco), John Shrapnel (Senator Gaius), Tommy Flanagan (Cicero, Maximus's servant), Ralf Moeller (Hagen)
• Cinematography: John Mathieson
• Editor: Pietro Scalia
• Music: Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
• Production Companies: DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures, Scott Free Productions
• Runtime: 155 minutes (theatrical)
• Release Date: May 5, 2000 (US)
• MPAA Rating: R
• Awards: Won 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor (Crowe) at the 73rd Academy Awards.

Overview

A Roman general loyal to a dying philosopher-emperor is named heir to the principate,^b6 refuses the empty form of the offer, is condemned to death by the new emperor's son,^{b8 b9} escapes, finds his family murdered,^{b10 b11} is sold to a provincial gladiator school,^b12 and rises through the arena ladder to Rome itself, where the same emperor who ordered his death must stage him as spectacle.^{b18 b22} The film is structurally a revenge tragedy whose climax delivers tactical victory at mortal cost: Maximus kills Commodus in the Colosseum and dies of a wound dealt before the duel began,^{b34 b35} and the institutional outcome — Lucilla and Gracchus convening to restore the Senate — happens because Maximus made his death useful, not because he survived to see it.^{b36 b38} Ridley Scott's film is widely credited with reviving the historical-epic genre; it won the Best Picture Oscar at the 73rd Academy Awards and remains the reference text for late-Republic-into-Empire spectacle in American cinema.¹

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