Talking about classic films means that our heads are filled with many titles of great films that were already there when we saw the light of day for the first time, and many others that have grown with us. But, what makes a film become a classic?
Today we are going to talk about Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, which not only redefined what cinema was at the time, but also gave us one of the best performances by Russell Crowe, but what has made this film so successful? Perhaps its nominations for Best Film and Best Actor in a Leading Role (for Russell Crowe), or perhaps that it grossed more than 460 million dollars worldwide.
What is Gladiator about?
If you are one of those who never got to see that film, we are not going to give you spoilers but we are going to tell you a little about what this incredible film. This is the story of a Roman general, Maximus Decimus Meridius, who after being betrayed by Commodus, the new emperor, is forced to become a gladiator.
A script full of controversy
It was the year 2000 when Ridley Scott surprised the cinemas with this film set in ancient Rome. It soon became one of the biggest hits of a century that had just begun, but not everything has been a bed of roses for this film. The project began with David Franzoni, who based his first draft on the essay Those About to Die by Daniel P. Mannix, but everything changed with the arrival of Ridley Scott. From there, the collaboration of several screenwriters was necessary to give the story its final form.
But if there was one thing that was not lacking in this process, it was tension in the team, especially due to Russell Crowe’s critical attitude towards the dialogues… The actor had no qualms about commenting years later that his lines were “garbage”, going so far as to say: “I am the best actor in the world and I can even make garbage sound good.”
But… what was wrong with Crowe’s script?
Crowe was aware at the time that one of the most important things for any actor is to convey his messages emotionally, but the actor rejected several lines from his script and continually wanted to remove them or rewrite them. What’s more, even one of his character’s most iconic lines, “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius (…) And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next”, was initially rejected by the actor.
For his part, Crowe confessed in an interview years later that he believed there were some lines that would not quite fit with the audience and that he needed to feel them as if they were part of himself, to create an atmosphere in which they only saw the character and never the author.
Did you know that… from the set!)
Perhaps you didn’t know, but a large part of the scenes in the Colosseum were created digitally. Perhaps today it doesn’t seem like a novelty, but if we take into account that this film was shot in 2000, it was something tremendously novel for the time because they used CGI technology combined with a scale model to recreate that powerful Colosseum.
Two decades after its release, Gladiator remains a cinematic reference thanks to its mix of action, drama and emotion, and continues to draw the attention of new generations. And we’re going to give you some good news that you may not have known yet… there’s a second part of Gladiator, which was released last November! Are you ready?