Gladiator (3 Disc Extended Special Edition) [2000]

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Starring: ~ Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix Oliver Reed Richard Harris Derek Jacobi
List Price: £19.99

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Product Details:

Studio: Universal Pictures UK

Region: 2

Number of Discs: 3

Format: Anamorphic, Box set PAL Special Edition Widescreen

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Sales Rank: 7364

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Customer Reviews:

And they call that civilization (03 July 2008)
This extended version is a lot denser that what I remembered of the 2000 commercial version. The politics of Rome are explored in a lot more detail, particularly that strange power the Roman Emperor had because of his own praetorian guard that was doing absolutely everything he ordered, and took orders only from the Emperor. At the end, when the Emperor is dead or nearly dead because he is defeated and disarmed, they refuse to obey their own officer. They will obey him only when the sister comes down and legitimizes Maximus. You only meet servile people and even the Senate and the Senators are just as servile out of fear for their welfare. That could be extended to today, even if today in our democratic countries this manipulation of people is less obvious, less direct, less based on the fear of the leaders but on the fear of an external danger propped up and exploited by the leaders. Fear is still the main nerve of the crowd, and then provide them with some bread and good circus entertainment and they will follow your fears to the end of the world. The film is also extremely clear about two barbaric practices of this supposedly civilized Roman Empire. The conquest war that is not, far from it, always justified by any offensive aggressivity from the "barbarians" from beyond the frontiers of the empire. It is brutal and unequal. The advanced technology of the time is on the Roman side. Easy to win when you add to this advanced technology the military professionalism of the Roman Legion. And even so it is shown as what it is: an unclean inhumane and inhuman practice. Worse even the film shows the slave trade and the total reduction of these slaves not even to animals but to objects, properties, commodities you deal with and dispose of the way you want. What the film does not say is that the vast majority of this Roman society is composed of slaves, house slaves, garden slaves, hard work slaves, sex slaves and of course the famous gladiators, the fighting slaves. They all end in death, these slaves, a vast majority premature death imposed onto them by their masters or circumstances, but always to satisfy the desire of a free Roman citizen. The particularity of gladiators is that their end is to die in public from the hand of another gladiator or just mangled by a wild beast or some technical trap. At the top of the ladder of that death is the death decided by the Emperor himself. The film is of course extremely precise about these circus entertainments though concentrating only on the gladiators. There were many other ways to entertain the populace in the Coliseum, true entertainment always bringing death to some people down there in the arena for the real pleasure of the public. This has not changed at all, I mean the pleasure of being the witness of some gross, violent, repulsive dying process imposed onto the dying person by one or many other human beings. The only change is that it does not happen in circuses any more, and with real live, if I can say so, performances of the death of each victim. We have invented in the meantime a machine that enables us to give the illusion of seeing that and yet that does not happen for real. That is called the cinema. In the old days, the Greeks had dramatic productions for that cathartic function, but the Romans did not want anything illusionary, they wanted the real thing and they got it for several centuries with these gladiators and later the Christians, and all the time the executing in public places of all discontents, and even, when you could afford a slave, the real torturing and killing in all possible variations of your slave. We seem to forget, and this film reminds us of it, that the Roman Empire, and before it the Greek or Hellenistic empire was just based on the inflicting of death to any kind of people as the very justification of the social order, the political order or plainly your own prestige or authority. And some speak of this empire as a great period of civilization. Due to these slaves some inventions like watermills devised in the first century BCE were only exploited in the 10th century CE by the Benedictines, hence in the middle of what some call the dark ages (sorry no capital letters). A great film in this extended version.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Go buy (29 May 2008)
This was of course the last chance to see the great Oliver Reed (sober to boot - he died during filming in the middle of a drinking session, which also apparantly involved arm-wrestling). Its simply a superb film - no expense spared on set, and no imagination spared on making every second rivetting.

ONE REVIEW ONE SENTENCE (16 February 2008)
The Gladiator surpasses all expectations for a nights entertainment with Crowe, as Roman General Maximus, who delivers a perfect performance as a man driven by revenge, and also for bringing Oliver Reed back to life!

A true masterpiece (02 January 2008)
This perhaps my favourite film of all time, I have een it many times and it does not loose it's appeal, an action film with real heart and soul. Gladiator has a superb cat Oliver Reeds(superb as Proximo) Richard Harris (Marcus Aurellius) Russle Crowe (Gladiator) are the stand outs in my view. Crowe delivers a strong emotional performance he portrays a constant conflict of anger and sadness. The special effeccts make you feel like rome is there to be grapsed(the collesium is spectacular)
The film is even better for the extnded edition... bits put back in that were left out for the cinema. The extras are superb as well particuarly the piece looking at how oliver reeds part was completed after his death.

If you have not seen the fil i think you must a film for all ages great action scenes and great directing from Ridley Scott.

Superior. (13 November 2007)
As a great fan of the likes of 'Ben Hur' and 'Spartacus', I was ready to dismiss Gladiator as a generic amalgamation of the sword and sandle genre.
Unfortunately my snobbish take was somewhat derailed by a production of considerable merit. Ridley Scotts direction has given the movie a distinctive flavour enabling the principles to create characters which are far from derivitive.
This special edition enhanced my enjoyment of a film which provokes a broad spectrum of emotion without being pretentious or unduely challenging.
Just a great film to watch.....That Crowe guy's not too bad either.