Gladiator at 20: how Ridley Scott's epic rejuvenated the historical blockbuster - MW

Joey, do you like gladiator movies? The scary pilot asked the little boy on the plane !. For young audiences, the joke no longer makes sense. By plane! Nowadays, the movie of sword and sandals game has become an outdated gay joke, accidentally. But then came Gladiator, and the joke was on us. Released 20 years ago this month, the Roman epic Ridley Scott has given the cliché a new lease. Everything was there: the Colosseum in action! Ripple of human meat! Lots of tigers! But Gladiator ate cheesecake and ate it. It served the show and the publicity image of aviation, but was also solemn, the film deserved an Oscar (and, with hindsight, a good level of camp)

Gladiator is one of the first films to use CGI technology to recreate a real story, instead of aliens and monsters. Its ancient Rome had many virtual crowds, sometimes resembling a video game, but in 2000 it broke through. Others have noted it. For several years, we have had a little revival of the sword and sandals: Troy, Alexander, King Arthur. Because Zack Snyder, having exceeded 300, this genre became a travesty, but it never really disappeared: for example, Joaquin Phoenix, the incest killer in Gladiator has a very emotional atmosphere. Game of Thrones for him. Ridley Scott attempted to repeat the original recipe himself, first with the Crusades television series after September 11, which only proves that Orlando Bloom is not Russell Crowe, then with Robin Hood in 2010, which it proved that Russell Crowe was not exactly his former self.



Gladiator is the culmination of his Crowe career (he won the best actor Oscar), but it is also the beginning of the transition from the Hollywood commander to a demanding and demanding diva. According to Crowe, he saved Gladiator, put everything on the screen, and turned the horrific scenario into a form. You feel like Crowe thought he was the boss since then, so the stories of bad behavior, irritable press interviews, the second career were canceled as a rock star. Recently, he was in a bad mood, using his threat to get good results in the real gang history, and like Roger Ailes in The Biggest Voice, but advancing his career steadily. Joaquin Phoenix, is a study of contrast - and, perhaps, ego management. The phoenix tends to disappear in his character; Crowe's real personality, often overshadowed.

Now, Gladiator is an ancient story, but, in a way, its story is now more relevant than it was then: an unreliable authoritarian, robbing a powerful and treacherous empire. betraying its principles, those who oppose cunning politicians and distract citizens from violence, from populist scenes. Fear and wonder, a strong combination, being a senator on the sidelines of Derek Jacobi, say it. Gladiator served it and warned us against it.