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This is a review from the Norwegian website "Nettavisen", a news site. Gladiator got five points out of six possible.

Raw Gladiator Fights

By Tommy Lørdahl May 19, 2000 12:06
Translated by Kim E.

Russell Crowe is extremely strong as a brave slave in Ridley Scott's brutal gladiator movie. With its energy and action scenes, Gladiator impresses.

Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise) has captured a movie genre that practially has been dead for almost 35 years. Gladiator is in many ways an old-fashioned movie, that by far follows the receipe from the movies made in the 50s and the 60s.

The story itself, the presentation of the battle for life using raw muscle power and the relationship between the slaves and the decadent upper class is impressive. You can also find lines that you would never see in any other type of film.

General Maximus (Russell Crowe) is so successful in the battle field that the dying emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) prefers him as the new emperor instead of his own son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Commodus gets to know about his father's thoughts, and clears the way for his own power.

He thinks that he has killed Maximus, but the two of them meet later in the arena, the emperor and Rome's most popular gladiator, effective in battles against soldiers and wild animals.

Russell Crowe continues to impress as an actor. Recently we could see him in the Oscar nominated The Insider, and now he is another type of warrior, a wild animal with a physical energy that provides a nerve to Scott's well-composed "violence entertainment". He is doing very well in a type of role that many of the movie history's best actors got to try in the golden age of the gladiator movies - like in Ben Hur and Spartacus.

Ridley Scott's career has gone up and down, especially these last years. In Gladiator he gets to use his vital visual fantasy, and the arena scenes are brilliant even though he borrows a lot from new war movie classics.

Ridley Scott's film has definitely parts that can be too raw for some people, too.

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