As we near the peak of awards season with the announcement of the Academy Award nominees later this week, I find myself plagued by a particularly potent case of Oscar fever. We cinephiles have a fickle relationship with the Academy Awards: on the one hand, we spend countless hours tracking the critics circles and guild awards, speculating which films will be nominated and eventually win, and of course, watching the ceremony in droves. But on the other hand, we can’t seem to stop complaining about the results, particularly after the dust settles.
Every year around this time, articles start cropping up listing the “most overrated Best Picture winners” – films that were huge smashes the year they were released and gathered enough support and momentum to eventually win Best Picture, only to go on to be all but forgotten in the years following their big win (in all honesty, does anyone actually remember Slumdog Millionaire anymore, or The Artist?) However, there is one film* that consistently shows up on such lists that I simply couldn’t disagree with more: Gladiator, which won Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Award ceremony in 2001.
Why is this film so derided? Perhaps people haven’t seen it in a while, and are feeding off of the strong-voiced opinions of the film’s detractors. Perhaps it’s because other films from that year have proven themselves to be more culturally significant in the decade that has past since their release (films such as Requiem for a Dream and Memento – neither of which received Best Picture nominations that year).
Whatever the reason, in this article I hope to try and change that opinion, burst the bubble of negativity, and maybe even convince one or two people to give the film another look, and hopefully see in it what I think makes it not only deserving of its Best Picture Oscar, but also one of the best films of our time.
*another film that often appears on these lists is American Beauty, which in my opinion is actually the forgotten masterpiece of the 90′s and one of the best films of all time. But that is a whole other article.
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12 Comments
Great article Oren. I couldn’t agree more. “Gladiator” is my all time favorite movie. I’ve liked alot of movies before it and alot after it, but it is (till this day) still number one on my favorites movie list. From production value to cinematography to score, this film simply has no equal IMHO. Thanks for an awesome article.
None of this means anything; reviving a dead genre in no-way makes it a great film; the score is one of the best of all-time? Are you serious? Have you not heard any other score? Being historically accurate is its duty; Action sequences – ooh; Career bests from mainly inane actors; they don’t make em’ like it anymore because they’ll suck, too.
It’s fine to have your personal opinion that the score in itself isn’t among the best of all time, but the facts of it’s popularity state otherwise. It has been one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time and has been continually used in trailers and professional montages ever since, from videos for London’s bid for the olympics (back in 2005) to the most recent trailer for Man of Steel….it’s clear cultural primacy cannot be denied.
Agree that it is still an amazing film, but not sure how total adherence to a cliched story structure is part of what makes it great. Imagine a world where all movies followed one of these “flawless” structures. Booooo-ring.
One of my all time favorite films. Who cares if its “a cliched story”? We’re you not entertained? Is that not why you’re here? Seriously-any literature class will teach you that there have only been 10 stories ever written-the idea is how to make it original and make it fresh. Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and Avatar all tell the same story- yet they all feel totally unique from one another. Hans Zimmer’s score may not have been the best ever-but it was damn good and a new idea. How many times have you heard that same chant style singing for countless other films? How often did you hear it before? The score for inception may not have been the greatest-but it was innovative. Everybody uses that deep fog horn time now. Did someone above really call Oliver Rees and Richard Harris “inane?” Seriously? Russel Crowe is inane? He’s a gruff, stout, macho kind of dude-what different roles would you have him play? He has a fantastic ability to show emotion. How many tough guys do that? And you can’t argue that it definitely revived a genre. How many epics were made in the 90′s that weren’t on Syfy? I think the haters need to get over their hipster pretentiousness and just enjoy things a little more. Seriously. Stop picking things apart and just enjoy it. Life is so much better when you cease to find the misery in it and instead seek out the joy.
@ T:
Is it really the film’s duty to be historically accurate? It’s a movie, not a documentary. And this is coming from someone who has studied medieval and ancient history for many years and can be quite pedantic about it- but can you tell me why you feel this film has a duty to be historically accurate? Marcus Aurelius & Commodus were both real-life historical heavy-weights but again I say this is a movie, not a documentary about their lives.
@ Oren:
Enjoyable article. I was surprised to see you say that this film is derided though-I don’t know many people who would say this is bad movie. It’s an all-time fav of mine, and one movie that I could watch again and again.
@ Bill:
Agreed. People are so pretentious about movies nowadays. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? IS THAT NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE?! Made me chuckle. Lighten up folks!
Haha! I’m glad someone got it lol!
In all honesty, I don’t think it ever stopped being a ‘great’ film. Can’t say I’ve seen (m)any lists claiming it to be an undeserving best picture winner….
Great that you picked up on Zimmer’s score (a crime that it didn’t win the Oscar that year, though Tan Dun’s work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was pretty sumptuous) and his back catalogue, though personally I’d say his stuff from 2000 onward deserves more attention. In addition to the ones you mentioned, his scores for The Last Samurai, King Arthur, the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Sherlock Holmes are all fantastic. (Hasn’t helped that a number of those films weren’t themselves received that well….). Can’t wait to see/hear what he does with Man of Steel later this year!
Bravo! I continue to praise this film to this day and it’s become my go-to movie for my Blu Ray player and TV to show off!
So glad to see everyone participating in the debate! Honestly, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that there are more people out there that agree with me that this is a fantastic film – I was actually expecting more comments in line with T’s (like I said in the article, I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince EVERYONE…) I guess I had just seen the film appear on numerous “most overrated Oscar winning films” lists (I’ve provided links below to a few examples) and sort of got the impression that a lot of people thought the film was cliched and outdated. Which it most certainly is not.
In response to Clint: This could be the topic of an entirely different article, but there really is a big difference between “formulaic” and “cliched”. As I mentioned in the article, Gladiator adheres pretty strictly to the structure laid out in Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a Thousand Faces” – tracing the hero’s journey back from The Odyssey and through Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and countless other novels and films. But adhering to the hero’s journey does not inherently make something cliche, and I would certainly argue that the circumstances drawn out in the film and the three-dimensional characters it creates are very far from cliche.
Benji and dave, here are some examples, just to hopefully show that I’m not completely crazy:
http://www.starpulse.com/news/Andrew_Payne/2009/02/16/overrated_aamp_underrated_oscar_winners_
http://reeltimereport.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-5-most-overrated-movies-of-all-time_30.html
http://themoviecheese.com/2011/03/01/top-10-most-overrated-movies/
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/CB-Top-5-Worst-Oscar-Winners-7918.html
http://cineversegroup.blogspot.com/2011/03/most-overrated-oscar-winners.html
And Dave: I agree, Zimmer HAS delivered some truly incredible scores this past decade as well (Sherlock Holmes is one of my personal favorites). He truly is one of the most inventive and innovative composers working today, but I still think Gladiator is his masterpiece.
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