Gladiator (2000)

There's a moment early in Gladiator where Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus embraces his father, and you can see it on his face: the neediness, the resentment, the coiled violence underneath. It lasts maybe five seconds. And it tells you everything you need to know about who this man is and what this film is going to be. That's the kind of performance that makes a blockbuster feel like something more.

Ridley Scott's 2000 epic is a blood-soaked, sand-dusted beast of a film, and it still hits hard more than two decades on. It's the kind of grand, muscular spectacle that Hollywood barely makes anymore, and whatever its flaws (and there are a few), it earns its reputation. This is a film that goes for it, fully and without apology.

Phoenix is the revelation here. Commodus is twitchy, fragile, seething, a man rotting from the inside out, and Phoenix plays every register of that with total commitment. He's not a pantomime villain. He's something more uncomfortable: a damaged person with too much power and not enough sense to know what to do with it. I kept thinking how easily this role could have been a cartoon, and how completely Phoenix refuses to let it be one. And then there's Oliver Reed as Proximo, in what turned out to be his final screen role. Reed brings real gravitas and weathered charm to a part that lesser casting would have made forgettable. Every scene he's in has a bit more weight to it.

Russell Crowe's Maximus is, by comparison, the straightest line in the film. Noble, stoic, driven by grief and honour. Crowe carries it with conviction, don't get me wrong, but the role does lean heavily on meaningful squinting and dreamy soft-focus flashbacks to a sunlit farm. It works, mostly because Crowe's a genuinely compelling screen presence, but next to Phoenix he's playing a different, quieter game.

The film looks stunning. Ancient Rome is rendered with real grime and grandeur, all filth and marble and spectacle, and the Colosseum sequences have genuine chaos and weight to them. Historical accuracy? Not exactly the priority, but the emotional accuracy, the sense of spectacle and danger and crowd bloodlust, lands completely. I had a similar sense of Ridley Scott just committing to a world and daring you not to be swept along when I watched Black Hawk Down (2001). Different setting, same total immersion.

Now, Hans Zimmer's score. The main theme is iconic, full stop. Pure goosebump material, the kind of music that makes a wide shot of men on horseback feel genuinely momentous. But there's that other melody, the soaring, swashbuckling one that sounds almost note-for-note like Pirates of the Caribbean. I know, logically, that Gladiator came first. Doesn't matter. The damage is done. Every time it swells up you're half-expecting Jack Sparrow to lurch into frame, and it pulls you right out of second-century Rome. It's a strange distraction in an otherwise powerful score.

The bigger issue, though, is the runtime. At two and a half hours, Gladiator outstays its welcome in places. The revenge plot loops back on itself, the farm flashbacks repeat without adding much, and the momentum between arena sequences can stutter. There's probably a tighter, meaner film in here somewhere, one that could've shed forty minutes and only got better for it. The bloat doesn't sink it, but you feel it.

What keeps it soaring, even through the slower stretches, is the genuine emotional commitment on screen. This isn't a film that's just going through the epic motions. It believes in its characters, in its themes of duty and loss and corrupted power, and that belief is infectious. Four stars. A modern classic with real heart and grit, just a touch more indulgent than it needed to be.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2000  | Watched: 2025-08-31

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: fuboTV · Paramount Plus Premium · Paramount Plus Essential · Philo
Rent: JustWatch TV · Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Ridley Scott: Black Hawk Down (2001) · Prometheus (2012) · Alien (1979) · Alien: Covenant (2017)
More with Russell Crowe: A Beautiful Mind (2001) · Virtuosity (1995) · The Nice Guys (2016) · L.A. Confidential (1997)
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)