#66: GLADIATOR

STARRING: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou and Richard Harris. Written by David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson. Directed by Ridley Scott. Budget $103 million. Running time 155 minutes. First released in 2000.

It's 180AD, and Russell Crowe is Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, Rome's bestest general -E-VER! and he's only gone and beat Rome's last enemy, the Germanic tribes, on behalf of his boss, surrogate father, and emperor, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). To reward his adoptive son, Marcus offers him the job of Caeser much to the chagrin of his real son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) who up and kills his father and usurps the throne before Maxie has time to take up the post, then tries to have him killed. Badly wounded, Maximus escapes to find his family slaughtered and himself captured and sold into slavery to a gladiator school run by Oliver Reed's Proximo. From then on, Maximus, masquerading as the Spaniard, hacks and slashes his way to fame and glory and back to Rome to lead an uprising against Commodus in the Colosseum.

Bloody hell! What a year for re-issues at the cinema! Films I never thought I'd ever see back up on the big screen and this is one of them. Still as fresh as it was 24 years ago. I've watched this many times at home on DVD and Blu-Ray, but once again, it's only when it's back up on the big screen that it truly comes back to life. At home, your mind wanders, you pause for coffee and bog breaks, you might even stop to go and do something else, or worse yet pause it, to finish it off another time. But not so when you're sat in the biggest screen in your local cinema where you find yourself immersed in a film that fills your peripheral vision to such an extent that you forget you're in a cinema.

What a spectacle! I'd come to this after rewatching the classic Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, so I was well up for another dose of Roman epicness and boy does this deliver. Powerfully acted by Harris, Reed, Phoenix and Russell, who's perhaps only ever been better in La Confidential. Under Ridley Scott's expert direction this film looks the part and apart from the odd bit of dodgy CGI it's a visual masterpiece. The fights in the Colosseum are spectacular, savage, brutal and gory, the big location sets feel real filled with hordes of people that look and move so convincingly you can almost smell the stench of old Rome. 

The story is full-blown epic, and looks like the 103 million dollars it cost to make, but the money looks like it's been spent up there on the big screen. 

This was a deeply satisfying, and glorious romp and I loved every second. Roll on part 2!

10/10