12
A
WEdNEsdAy, M ay 10, 2000
TU e CI ac I camas P rìnt
Russell Crowe takes Roman holiday
ANGIE DASCHEL
A&E Editor
Hey, it ain’t easy being a hero in
the movies. Usually they have to
engage in bloody battles and en
dure extreme injustices just to be
recognized as a hero, while a deli
cate balance of humility, honor and
courage is required for a hero to gain
the audience’s respect. Since Mel
Gibson burst onto the screen as
noble Scotsman William Wallace in
Braveheart, the world has been
waiting for the next real hero in cin
ema. The wait was decidedly ended
when Russell Crowe {The
Znszdbrjbrandished his sword and
took over the Roman world in Gladi
ator.
Crowe plays Maximus, a greatly
powerful general of the Roman
forces in Germania, around the end
of the second century A.D. His
soldiers would do anything for him,
while the emperor Marcus Aurelius
holds Maximus in higher regard
than his own son.
After an extremely violent battle
with the barbarians, the emperor
decides to name Maximus the new
protector of Rome, instead of his
own corrupt son Commodus
(Joaquin Phoenix, 8MM). Predict
ably, this decision does not sit well
with Commodus, who then takes
matters into his own hands and re
gains the throne. Commodus rea
sons that Maximus and his family
are a threat to his reign and there
fore orders the execution of the gen
eral, along with his wife and son.
The skillful general escapes his
sentence and flees to his home near
in the South, where he finds a horri
fying site. From there he is cap- •»
tured by slave traders and sold to a
business man. Maximus and his
fellow prisoners find they are to
fight as gladiators in a small village,
until Rome’s Colloseum comes call
ing. There they will fight in front of
50,000 screaming Romans, who ap
plaud every shriek of terror and ev
ery spray of blood from the gladia
tors. This is Maximus’s chance to
get close to the treacherous
Commodus and seek his revenge,
and he doesn’t waste a minute.
Gladiator is the real deal, folks.
This epic slams the audiences right
into the center of the arena and
doesn’t shake you loose until the
last dying breaths of the film. Ev-,
ery second is filled with electrically-
charged emotions and a sense of
tension and urgency usually lack
ing in big Hollywood movies.
Finally, Crowe has found some
recognition. Al
though he was
nominated for an
Academy Award
for The Insider, the
AuSsie actor was
not fully under
stood as a talent of
mammoth propor
tions, and director Ridley Scott (GI
Jane) did his homework in nabbing
him. Crowe pulls the viewers along
through the tightly-wound world of
Rome, and he does it without pity
or losing the heroic sense of noble
ness.
An epic wouldn’t be an epic with
out the cinematography that
knocks the viewer’s collective socks
off, and Gladiator has got that one
in the bag. Battle scenes were shot
in a grainy, confused light, which
showed the intensity of war, and
how unsure the soldiers where
when faced with such bloody con
ditions.
If the release of Gladiator sig
nals the start of the summer movie
season, then audiences are in
trouble. They will have to scramble
to find anything worth seeing after
being totally blown away by Crowe
and company. How can another
movie even attempt to come close
to Gladiator this year? The only
solution that comes to mind is for
Mel to start filming Braveheart 2.
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liPíRSONNÍL SERVICES.
Fiction
1st Patrick Fuller
"The Fisherman"
2nd S. Myron Wright
"Tarpaper"
3rd Allyn Borland
"Implication" ~
Poetry
1st Bonita Richardson
"Sorting Through Old
Letters/Savings words or holy
fire/...after a photograph of/T.
E. Laurence"
2nd Hank Slangal
"Grey Butte Cemetery"
3rd
Elizabeth Miles
"BluesPeriod:Barcelona"
Honorable Mention
Susan Engstrom
"For Want of Defense"
Doug Pershing
"Vanishing Point"
Bonita Richardson
"Root Vegetables in a
Cast Iron Pot"
Susan Rae McElheran
"Peach Ecstasy"
Essays
1 st Karin Day
"Nightmare"
Elizabeth Miles
'There’s More Than One
Way to Peel a Chicken"
3rd Hank Slangal
"I Never Knew My
Father’s Last Name"
One Act Plays
1st
Blake Peterson
"Marx Wars"
2nd Hank Slangal
"Bringing in the Sheep"
3rd S. Myron Wright
"Valley of the Shadow"
The date for the awards ceremony
will be announced in a later issue.
2nd
What the hell is this?
Well, we know what it is, but this little statement
á
carved into a wall sculpture in Barlow made us chuckle. I
Oh yeah, we do not condone vandalism, yadda yadda.
i
If you have any suggestions for 'What
the hell is this' then email
Angiepoo@dazedandconfused.com.