Gladiator, 2000, Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen
Gladiator is a 2000 historical action drama film. It is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays General Maximus Decimus Meridius, friend of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who is betrayed by the Emperor's ambitious son, Commodus (Phoenix), who murders his own father and seizes the throne. Captured and enslaved along the outer fringes of the Roman empire, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family and his Emperor.
The film won five Academy Awards in the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film's epic scope and intense battle scenes, as well as the emotional core of its performances, received much praise. The film's success may have helped to revive the historical epic genre, with subsequent films such as Troy, Alexander, 300 and Scott's own Kingdom of Heaven.
Gladiator received positive reviews overall, (78% of the critics polled by Rotten Tomatoes gave it favorable reviews). The Battle of Germania was cited by CNN.com as one of their "favorite on-screen battle scenes." It was not without its deriders, with Roger Ebert in particular harshly critical attacking the look of the film as "muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct." He also derided the writing claiming it "employs depression as a substitute for personality, and believes that if characters are bitter and morose enough, we won't notice how dull they are."
The film earned $34.82 million on its opening weekend at 2,938 U.S. theaters. Within two weeks, the film's box office gross surpassed its $103,000,000 budget. The film continued on to become one of the highest earning films of 2000 and made a worldwide box office gross of $457,640,427, with over $187 million in American theaters and more than $269 million overseas. The film began a revival of the historical epic genre with films such as Troy, Alexander, Kingdom of Heaven and 300.Wikipedia
