Something that bothered me about Gladiator II - we hear the crowd roar and cheer and chant, but those sounds and sensations are always removed from the shots of the Roman people in the stands of the Colosseum. We never meet these people of Rome, but the characters of Gladiator II (even the Good Guys) seem to know what is best for them.
In the first Gladiator we are told over and over that to win the crowd of the…
A disquieting experience. Wave after wave of disgusting and hatred for what this family is capable of, their optimism summed up in an offhand comment made in the act of showing off their ash-filled garden. The vines will crawl up the walls of Auschwitz over the years - this is not a temporary sanctuary, rather one of thoughtful enjoyment.
It's hard to fully capture a movie that is so in conversation with the Holocaust, and is so intentional in obscuring…
