GladdiadoThe fourth century Ridley Scott in his premiere, celebrating a rare honor. Reckoned by a film that returned his brightness to the genre GuardianAfter decades of oblivion. But the tape, which is based on the same elements that have made the famous Ben-Hur And Spartacus – Historical action and drama – did something else. He also showed the ability of the movie to invent the main and old premise, like the seventh art. The hero in search of atonement, after losing everything.
But although the result was an epic, which turned the maximum of the tenth meridio (Russell Crowe) into an immortal figure of the movie, the truth is that the shooting was surrounded by chaos. So much so that during the first two months Ridley Scott had serious doubts to complete the filming. And this, in fact, was full of multiple stiffing blocks. From the tigers that were going to avoid control over coaches, tragic death in a set to radical changes in the script. The truth is that production GladiatorThe final result was as wounded as successful. The contradiction that even makes More intriguing the whole production of Scott of the historical drama, which noted time.
This, thanks to the capacity of Ridley Scott, which already had an established race by the end of 1998 to create worlds. In fact, his first approach to the premise of the Roman general turned into a gladiator, which was not through the script, but a picture. Manufacturers Walter Parks and Dug Vick explained their idea for the tape from the canvas of Jean-Leon Jerome of 1872. Work called Police verseHe showed the gladiator with his foot on the neck of the defeated enemy. The image was so powerful that Scott was enough to decide to direct.
Everything, despite the fact that, as the same director said in the book Gladiator: Creating epic There was no script. But the possibility of creating – or, in this case, to recreate – a full universe from the leading to thoughts, it was possible to force Scott to work almost immediately. However, what began as the adventure of the film, Soon this was one of the most difficult productions in the history of cinema.
Filming in the middle of the mess
Step by step began to develop, despite the fact that most of the investment was more or less an act of faith. The original idea of David Franzoni for the film passed up to three different drafts, without any detailed or deep enough. At that time, and although the producers were looking for a decoration and listening were carried out, it was almost not written there – and approved – a handful of scenes. Among them are the famous death of the Mamakes family and a random struggle.
Finally, the story came to John Logan, who rewrote this story, turning on a few foster and certain political contexts. At that time, Ridley Scott had already agreed directly, although he signed a contract that would allow him to get his salary, even if the film was not shot. However, as soon as he read the first vision of Logan about history, He began to work tirelessly to create jewelry and find his main characters.
And in this case it was not simple. Russell Crowe, then a stormy and conflict stormy star, insisted that the script had problems and that he did not like it. So the third writer was hired to retouch him. William Nicholson rethought the scenes, went deeper in turn and found that Maximus, more than revenge, was a desperate father. So you managed to solve The main problem is in history: the main character with whom the audience could empathize.
The world appears from the sand
The decision provided the second air to the project and turned Nicholson into a screenwriter, responsible for adding and polishing the scene during skiing. Thus, at the same time that the tape was shot in Morocco and Malta, the writer accompanied production, creating and erasing the scenes every time it was necessary. And, according to him, there were a lot. Most, in order to ensure great fame to the characters such as Commodus Joaquín Phoenix, and the rethinking the end of the other out of the death of their actor. All in the middle of an increasingly overstated budget and large research requirements.
In Malta and Morocco, Ridley Scott gave freedom of imagination. He restored the idea of an ancient, densely populated world. For the director, this was not only that his actors had a convincing action, but also that the world around him was realistic. Create a market with kiosks full of fruits and fish, which barely appeared in the chamber for several minutes, to the underwear of costumes, including bandages. The British struggled to make the film a high height of a large show.
Slowly, but at a good step, production GladiatorHe seemed to overcome his most difficult moments and seemed to be that the long process of filming would end at the end of 1999. In time, his premiere next year and in the hope of entering the award season. Then the unthinkable occurred: death on the set, again, again, He gave chaos and turned the tape into unpredictable and expensive production.
The main person to understand the “gladiator”
61 -year -old actor Oliver Reed was one of the strengths Gladiator The field especially, because the interpreter, known for its stormy and complex past, gave excellent work in his career. This, the next time, embodying the old slave merchant, who, in combination with the spectacular beginning, ultimately reaches atonement. Reid not only discovered the exact tone between the melancholy, firmness and values of his character. In addition, he gave him a powerful physical presence. Nobody could play Then, like him, Ridley Scott insisted on several interviews of that time.
And this was exactly what happened when, in the midst of enormous drunkenness in Malta, Oliver Reed suffered a heart attack that killed him in place. The actor spent almost 24 years in an infinite gender in a port bar in the city. The tragedy shocked the project, moved the world, but it was also an insurmountable problem for Ridley Scott. Further, it was impossible to exclude from history, and the fulfillment of Reed was impossible to imitate. So the solution was – again – write another scene, change the end Stories and complete the character sequence, with discarded shots and digital retouching.
More, Gladiator He completed the record in the calendar and can be released on May 12, 2000. Immediately the film was not only a cash success, but also an event in the industry. For the award season, he was considered a favorite to become a great film of the beginning of the century. And it was: he received 13 Oscar nominations to the academy, of which he won five, including the best film in 2001. But also, also GladiatorHe did something else: he returned the feeling of an extraordinary epic in the cinema and returned the taste for tireless and moral heroesThe field is something, which lasts 25 years later, and this gives it the height of modern classics. For the history of the movie.
Source: Hiper Textual
