People
of the Year
By Disco Stu - Editor in
Chief : Issue 5, Vol. II
If you're gonna make an epic, you
better do it in a big way. Ridley Scott, director
of such films as Blade Runner and Silence
of the Lambs, as well as this year's hit
movie Gladiator, literally burnt down
Bourne Woods in the UK for the huge battle
sequence in the beginning of the film (the forest
had been tapped by British officials for
deforestation anyway). Gladiator was
that kind of movie: big, all-consuming, confusing
at times, but still focused as an epic.
The
gladiator is Maximus, played by Russel Crowe;
Crowe is a Roman general who, after finishing up
a campaign in Germania and finally bringing peace
to the empire, is asked by the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius (Richard Harris) to become Caesar after
his death and restore the Republic. Maximus,
however, has every intention to return to his
farm in Spain, where his family awaits. Commodus
(Joaquin Phoenix), Aurelius' evil son, meanwhile,
seizes power and orders the death of Maximus and
his family. Believing the general is slain, he
returns to Rome, bent on dissolving the Senate.
Unfortunately, Senators Gracchus and Gaius try to
halt the new emperor's rise to power, while
Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), Commodus' sister,
quietly conspires against him. Somewhere in the
empire, Maximus is purchased as a slave by a
former gladiator, Proximo (Oliver Reed).
Eventually, Maximus excells as a fighter, wins
his way back to Rome, where he inevitably
confronts Commodus in the Coliseum.
It
would be an understatement to say that Gladiator
doesn't skimp on the detail. The sets, costumes,
and battle scenes (both in and out of the arena)
have been crafted with care and meticulous detail.
The fight scenes are plentiful, bloody and visual:
exactly what we might have seen in the arenas.
The film doesn't succeed in everything, though.
The CGI effects sometimes look like rejects from
a PC video game, while the fight scenes, though
quite good, are often confusing and over-edited.
Though
several actors excel in this movie (Phoenix and
Reed, in particular), it's Crowe who holds this
film together. No one else could have played Maximus. In person it seems as if Crowe is aloof
and not accessible, but in Gladiator he's
the guy you root for. When Maximus tells Marcus Aurelius,
"Rome is the light," you'll be ready to
enlist; when he warns Commodus, "I will have
my vengeance, in this life or the next," you
just want to get out of the way.
2.
Tom Hanks
Go see Cast Away and you'll find out why
he's earned two Oscars before. He pulled a
definite DeNiro on this film by gaining weight,
then halting filming to loose 50 pounds. And the
movie ain't bad, either.
3. Jim
Carrey
He's funny. Let's move on.
Artist
of the Year
| Band
of the Year
| Actor/Actress
of the Year
| Model
of the Year
| Breakthrough
of the Year
|
