It should be noted that the part played by
Russell Crowe was written with
Mel Gibson in mind. You
can tell, as with many of the lines sounding like several of his previous films.
Mel, however, turned
down the part due to it being too much like his other movies. He didn't want to be caught up in
historical battle dramas (whether real or
contrived), because his last two very sucessful films were
Braveheart and
The Patriot; both very similar to
Gladiator in their own right.
This is not to say that I take complaint with the choice of
Russell Crowe. His acting job was quite
excellent, and I am the proud owner of it on
DVD. The
consistency job was not as high as it should
have been, as there were several slip-ups and minor
historical inaccuracies, but as an
entertainment
peice, it is superb.
Another interesting aside on the film is that the person who played
Proximo (the older, freed
gladiator),
Oliver Reed, died during filming at the age of 61 on
location in
Malta, of a
heart
attack. The problem there was, he still had several scenes left to shoot. The effects editors did an
excellent job by playing with
computer lighting and positioning to make the remainder of his scenes
look like there were actually shot by him. It was quite well done. Even under close inspection, I still
cannot tell which scenes were altered.
Gladiator did very well at the 2001 Oscars. It won for:
It was also nominated for: