Wait, it’s styled as GLADIIATOR? Does this mean the I in GLADIATOR was a Roman numeral 1 the whole time?
Well, it brings me no real joy to report that I was more entertained by that little witticism, which I thought of when I saw the opening credits, than I was by this movie. And definitely more entertained by that IMDb trivia item about Nick Cave’s script, which genuinely would’ve been way better, at least if that one had Denzel…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Content warning: discussion of sexual abuse near the end.
Hilary and I revived our previous tradition of watching a horror movie on Christmas, and this one was a hit.
There are a number of angles into this:
1. Influence on other movies.
2. Critiques of making of it (see IMDb trivia) which could perhaps be seen partly as life imitating art: e.g. shmooshing of Scottish and English traditions, led by an English crew and English-accented aristocratic characters; sexual liberation disguising…
Really interesting character study. I know a guy kinda like this. Actually, I’m kind of like this myself, only less charming. There is something about his pain that is more right and appropriate than everyone else’s ability to be functional.
Definite category fraud campaigning Culkin for the supporting actor Oscar he’s going to win, but would be a worthy lead acting performance.
It’s a good movie with great acting and a fantastic story behind it. I thought the biggest strength was how it showed the impact of the “justice” system on incarcerated persons, regardless of guilt (some characters being innocent was very much incidental to the story, a wise choice).
Not gonna lie, I thought they were gonna be doing musicals cos I didn’t know Sing Sing was the name of a prison.
Rapey incel fantasy. It’s like the only way they could humanise (while also ridiculing, sometimes racistly) male nerds was to completely dehumanise all women. This movie caused harm.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I’ve seen some reviews - such as this popular one - criticising this film for not providing more context about the war: the political motivations of the two sides, numbers killed, specific atrocities committed, etc. To which I’d say a few things. Firstly, plenty of relevant information about all of that is readily available to anyone who does some cursory research. The film doesn’t do the research for us, which is the filmmakers’ prerogative. It also doesn’t create a misleading narrative that contradicts…
