To keep us going until next month when we will get a dose of medieval Ridley with ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ ‘Gladiator’ . Here, the movie has been seamlessly recut to add the new stuff in and around 17 minutes of additional footage we have, but this does not add any particular weight to the proceedings. A slight extension here and a slight extension there and the odd seconds mount up, in fact there are only a few noticeable differences, although they do tighten up the conspiracy plots to overthrow Commodus. Most of these ‘additions’ had been viewed previously in the 'deleted scenes' and the 'Treasure Chest' extras on the previous 2-disc release, and each inclusion is duly noted when listening to the audio commentary coming from the director and star, the first audio commentary on DVD by Russell Crowe.
‘Gladiator’ is a great romp, big and bold, harking back to the epics days of ‘Spartacus’ , ‘Ben Hur’ ‘Romper Stomper’ ‘LA Confidential’ , ‘Master and Commander’ ‘The Insider’ , ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and his latest cinema release, the exciting true story of boxer Jim Braddock in ‘Cinderella Man’
In times of old, where the might of Caesar has conquered virtually all of the known and civilised world, only a few barbarous hordes still stand in their way. In the lands Germania a bloody battle is being fought in the snowy forests, now filled with smoke and the stench of death. Here stands Roman General Maximus (Crowe), surveying the fallen in all directions and wanting to breath the air of his home again. He has been away for far too long and wishes the comfort and safety of the family life he left behind for his beloved Emperor.
But Rome itself is changing and the political turmoil is just as deadly as the battlefield. Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) has other things in mind for his victorious and beloved General. The Empire needs it’s people and needs to be governed by such, so in a time where his days are numbered upon this Earth he wishes to pass on his reign to a decent man, a moral man, to enable the Empire to return to a Republic. The heir to the throne has other plans; the cowardly effeminate Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) takes his father’s last breath and crowns himself Emperor, and in doing so rings the death knell for Maximus and the wish of a democracy for the people.
Believed dead and his family brutally slain, Maximus becomes a faceless warrior in the gladiatorial ring. With the help of Proximo (the late great Oliver Reed), he learns how to win the crowd and makes his way to Rome, to wield his swords for the entertainment of the man who ordered him dead.
Commodus’s world is shattered when he learns who the ‘Spaniard’ is and he senses plots around every corner, he is clearly out of control and that makes him all the more dangerous. Taking rule over the nation by force and holding his sister’s allegiance at knifepoint he is edging towards his own downfall and crumbling as he is going along. The strain is taking its toll and he places vengeful plans into motion, will this bring death and destruction to those that oppose him or will his father’s dying wishes be finally fulfilled ? For Maximus, this is a story of going home, but what will he accomplish on the way there to be with his family again ?
The cast in ‘Gladiator’ is great, Crowe excels taking the main role with both bloodied hands and won an Oscar for his pains, Phoenix playing Commodus with an air of uncertainty and naivety that is both sorrowful and dangerous also got an Oscar nomination into the bargain. There is fine support too from Harris as the doomed Emperor (already showing signs of his own ill-health), Reed (who had to have his role finished by a stand in and CG effects due to his untimely death before production was completed which is shown in detail in the bonus features) and the delightful Connie Nielsen who brings the requisite amount of grace and glamour to the part of Commodus’s sister, Lucilla. Notes should have been made on this and the other successful epic of that time, ‘Braveheart’ , which would have avoided the unpleasant viewing experience of the woeful recent attempts of ‘Troy’ , 'King Arthur' ‘Alexander’ ‘Kingdom of Heaven’
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The effects too are on generally on the good side of things, the aforementioned CG work to complete Reed’s Proximo being one and only a few times does a particular background look faked (the birds flying past the sun lit Colosseum for instance), but overall it is a wonderfully created Rome of times past.
In ‘Gladiator’ , the cast and fine effects work are accompanied by an excellent Oscar nominated score from Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, Gerrard giving her wonderful and at times mournful vocals over Zimmer’s orchestrations, touching towards Gustav Holt’s boisterous ‘Mars, the Bringer of War’ from his ‘The Planets’ . How the score did not win an Oscar defies the imagination.
But enough of this, you want to find out the new meat…. The extra footage shows more of Proximo, a firing squad for the ill fated soldiers who told the tale of Maximus’s death, some Christians going to feed the lions, more characterisations of some of the gladiators including the hulking Hagen (Ralf Moeller) and a frightened scribe who quickly looses more than his hand in a bloody way, more plotting in the conspiracy department and the burning of some innocents. For the rest I will leave it them for your own discovery.
Finishing off disc one, you have an introduction with Ridley Scott basically saying his version, his cut, was the previous one, so it does not exactly bode well for the nearing 3 hour movie you are about to devote your time too. There is the aforementioned commentary track, which is fun and is subtitled too, although these can be a little confusing as they are for the purpose of the commentary but when our hosts are quiet for the odd moment they resume titling for the movie. There is also a pop up fact file, which has nice snippets of trivia on the locations, and such of which this is better suited to play both this and the commentary at the same time. What is missing from the previous release is the DTS track on the sound options, but the Dolby Digital 5.1 is excellent too.
Not just one, but two discs are loaded to the maximus (sorry) for your further viewing pleasure. The first being 'Strength and Honour: Creating the World of Gladiator' and coming in at just over 3 hours in length when hitting the playing all function, and it is a wonderful documentary by Charles de Lauzirika, detailing all of the concepts from the original production teams to the many re-writes and starting production in four countries without a finished script. Actually after watching the documentary you would not believe how this movie actually came to the screen with its problem filled history, not quite ‘Hearts of Darkness: A Film Maker’s Apocalypse’ but getting there. There is also the sad fact of the death of Oliver Reed and the lengths they went to finish his role, using stand- ins, CGI and sound bites from outtakes, a wonderful recreation for a wonderful actor, but his on screen interviews bring all the more sadness to his departure.The final disc is more of the art and graphics section of the movie and again coming in at several hours if watching all at once (no play all function this time). Here we get to see storyboards, their creation and even some for abandoned concepts (rhinos, zebras and elephants I here you say), costumes designs, and all manner of promotional material with loads, and I mean loads of stills. A few trailers and TV spots fill the rest of the bag.
The previous 2 disc release was pretty jammed pack full of goodies and the trailers aside, what we get here is all new. Is the extended version better than that of the theatrical version ? Not really, nor is it any worse. One thing is for sure, this new package has the warts and all on the movie, so if you are a fan how can you resist.
'Gladiator - Extended Special Version' is available now via Amazon and AmazonUK .
For those wanting to know where the Easter egg is, please go to page 3 of this review, for those wishing to explore on their own, thanks for reading.
You can read more about the DVD in our database .
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For the Easter Egg, insert disc 2 and enter the bonus section, place the curser on the page back icon and hit the curser right, this will highlight the image on the seal.... but be prepared ! Talk of 'Gladiator 2' is to be found here !
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