Film School Dropouts: Ridley Scott

Gladiator

For all its obviously huge production value, I think I liked the little things in Gladiator best, small details and moments that defy description -- but I'm going to try anyway. In the scene during which Maximum is passed out in a cart, on the way to being sold into slavery, he wakes up, having delusional visions, and his finger brushes a rock on the ground. To his addled mind, the impact of one small pebble hitting another is as loud an impact as a bullet being fired. In the closing scene, Juba buries Maximus's wife and son dolls, and when he stands up, the audience sees that he's standing in the Coliseum on a day it is not used for battle. Whereas all along it had been sunny and noisy and full of men and blood, today it is silent, empty -- the show is over. Small details like this, to which so much attention was obviously paid to, really stand out and made this movie something other than just another sword-and-sandals epic.

Overall, it's a decent revenge story (never mind the historical inaccuracies) wrapped inside beautiful visuals, courtesy of Ridley Scott, and impressive effects. The opening battle scene, when viewed on a theater screen, manages to impress and strike a note of dread with its image of barbarian hordes emerging from an untamed forest wilderness. Costumes and set design were lavish and rich, and the music was also excellent -- almost too good for the film itself, in fact. Russell Crowe didn't have to do much except sulk and be menacing for most of the film, but there are a few rare moments in which he gets to display that he can actually act. Although much was made of Commodus's immorality, there wasn't much to show for it in the movie except that he was kind of an ineffectual emperor and in love with his sister (forgivable, since it was Connie Nielsen). It's the kind of movie that leaves you feeling as if you had experienced something greater than what it actually was, and that in itself, I think, is commendable.

Kingdom of Heaven

Blade Runner

This film really stands out, not just from the main body of Ridley Scott's work, but from most other movies that I can think of. First of all, in terms of Phillip Dick adaptations, this would probably have to be the best one (and I'm mostly thinking of Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly, although Scanner wasn't half bad). But it's so different from the book that it might almost be another work altogether. The scale on which it was made probably links it most with cyberpunk, because the actual look of the two words isn't really the same. Cyberpunk is sleek, shiny,