Rate 300

[Galethorn]

I gave it a 9 instead of a 10 for one reason: I didn't like all the rock music they stuffed in. I mean, would you have Metallica roaring in the background of Saving Private Ryan? Would you set the stage for Bladerunner's dystopian future with 18th century harpsichord? If you answered yes to either, please don't become movie directors.

Other than that, it was everything I could have wanted. The spartans were using the right kind of sword, for Hermes' sake! Etc. etc.

 

[shilsen]

I gave it a 9 instead of a 10 for one reason: I didn't like all the rock music they stuffed in. I mean, would you have Metallica roaring in the background of Saving Private Ryan? Would you set the stage for Bladerunner's dystopian future with 18th century harpsichord? If you answered yes to either, please don't become movie directors.

Why not? Using anachronistic music has been a long-running convention dramatic entertainment historically across the planet, and the primary reason most of us have issues with it now is that it's not as common as in Hollywood cinema. When Shakespeare's audience was watching Julius Caesar, Othello and Hamlet, they weren't hearing Roman, Moorish/Venetian or Danish music in the background, but Elizabethan tunes. It only causes a problem if your expectations are different. When I'm watching the movie, I'm already very aware that I'm watching something that isn't historical at all, so modern music in the background wouldn't bother me in the least.

YMMV, and apparently does.

 

[GlassJaw]

I was greatly disappointed in Gladiator.

I've heard it all now.

 

[trancejeremy]

I gave it a 9 instead of a 10 for one reason: I didn't like all the rock music they stuffed in. I mean, would you have Metallica roaring in the background of Saving Private Ryan? Would you set the stage for Bladerunner's dystopian future with 18th century harpsichord? If you answered yes to either, please don't become movie directors.
.

Eh - Vangelis, who did Blade Runner, also did the music for movies such as The Bounty (set in the 1600s, I think), Chariots of Fire (19th century), 1492, and Alexander (300 bc ish, IIRC). Not all his stuff is as new-agey as Blade Runner, but it's in the same basic vein.

The era of the music doesn't matter, it has to fit the mood. And in this case, it seems like heavy metal does fit the mood of a stylistic war movie, as opposed to something more subtle or timely.

 

[Felon]

I gave it a 9 instead of a 10 for one reason: I didn't like all the rock music they stuffed in. I mean, would you have Metallica roaring in the background of Saving Private Ryan? Would you set the stage for Bladerunner's dystopian future with 18th century harpsichord? If you answered yes to either, please don't become movie directors.

I know a lot of folks who have this attitude, and IMO it's painfully lame. They saw Excalibur or something similiar when they were a kid, and now it's engrained in their brain that when you see a guy running around with a sword, you're supposed to be hearing a 100-piece orchestra with trumpets and kettle drums and bass violins. Can't use non-acoustic instruments because that's anachronistic. Never mind that 100-piece orchestras are pretty anachronistic as well....

A lot of classic rock has fantasy roots. I think the eighties really missed the mark by never producing a full-blown heavy-metal S&S film.

 

[Felon]

I've heard it all now.

Wait. I don't get many opportunities to vent like this...

Gladiator sucked the big one. Maximus could've handled his initial situation much more intelligently, and handling it as stupidly as he did required a ton of deux of machina to keep him alive for the rest of the movie. Commodus was a effete clown and that makes for a very poor arch-villain by any standards. An obtuse hero and a sissy villain add up to a very unsatisfying movie. I don't know why folks raved. Well, yes, I do, but I don't know why there wasn't a stronger anti-Gladiator reaction as a result of all the raving.

OK, now you've heard it all.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Wait. I don't get many opportunities to vent like this...

Gladiator sucked the big one. Maximus could've handled his initial situation much more intelligently, and handling it as stupidly as he did required a ton of deux of machina to keep him alive for the rest of the movie. Commodus was a effete clown and that makes for a very poor arch-villain by any standards. An obtuse hero and a sissy villain add up to a very unsatisfying movie. I don't know why folks raved. Well, yes, I do, but I don't know why there wasn't a stronger anti-Gladiator reaction as a result of all the raving.

Having the physically inferior but politically/intellectually powerful villian is a common meme in Sword & X (Sandal/Shield/Sorcery) type movies. Conan's trickiest foes were often wizards, not other warriors, for example. To me, this is a good thing, because is makes the story something more than just a cage-match. This is really exaggerated in 300, as the Persian army is depicted as physically degenerate and corrupt, implying that they are spiritually and morally as well, in contrast to the idealized manly men of the Spartan army (another indicator of how the movie is more mythic that historical.)

As for Maximus being initially dense, I don't remember enough about the movie to address that point... Hopefully the popularity of 300 will get the cable channels to run Gladiator and its ilk more in the coming weeks.

 

[sckeener]

Wait. I don't get many opportunities to vent like this...

Gladiator sucked the big one. Maximus could've handled his initial situation much more intelligently, and handling it as stupidly as he did required a ton of deux of machina to keep him alive for the rest of the movie. Commodus was a effete clown and that makes for a very poor arch-villain by any standards. An obtuse hero and a sissy villain add up to a very unsatisfying movie. I don't know why folks raved. Well, yes, I do, but I don't know why there wasn't a stronger anti-Gladiator reaction as a result of all the raving.

agreed, but for me this sums it up

The problem is, not a single surprise awaits us along the hard road to the movie's perversely obvious wrap-up. We have been sharing an extravaganza of grand design, superb acting, and terrific sound and scoring (courtesy of ultrahip Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance), but the entire course of the movie has been apparent from the opening minutes. Thus, the soul of Gladiator is made sluggish by a maddening lack of suspense.​

Dallas Observer.

I crave plots I can't predict. I could have slept through this movie and still have claimed to see it. It was uninspiring. It was beautiful, but it lacked a brain.

Did it get best picture and best actor? I guess I can see why it didn't win it for script or directing.

 

[John Crichton]

10 from me.

Why?

Cuz I would rate Braveheart and Gladiator 10's and this movie reminded me of those. This is a man's movie and ultimate entertainment where you can just sit back and soak it in. It's a man's movie that woman can love, as my GF can attest to and many others. It does what it set out to do in spades and you can't ask for anything more.

Keep It Simple Stupid to the extreme.

 

[John Crichton]

agreed, but for me this sums it up

The problem is, not a single surprise awaits us along the hard road to the movie's perversely obvious wrap-up. We have been sharing an extravaganza of grand design, superb acting, and terrific sound and scoring (courtesy of ultrahip Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance), but the entire course of the movie has been apparent from the opening minutes. Thus, the soul of Gladiator is made sluggish by a maddening lack of suspense.​

Dallas Observer.

I crave plots I can't predict. I could have slept through this movie and still have claimed to see it. It was uninspiring. It was beautiful, but it lacked a brain.

Did it get best picture and best actor? I guess I can see why it didn't win it for script or directing.

That review screams, "I expected something else from this movie and didn't get it." It's not the ending of the movie that matters, it's what happened on the journey. And the journey was fun. Gladiator is not a movie that is shooting for a surprise ending. Heck, the title says it all: The main character is there solely to entertain the audience and die doing so.