Ridley Scott is no stranger to crafting visually striking opening sequences - one of the best loved in movie history is undoubtedly the opening shot of Blade Runner, with the rousing music of Vangelis swelling over the sight of a huge eye filling the screen, a futuristic San Francisco reflecting in the iris. Gladiator is no exception to the Ridley Scott rule of grand, impressive opening scenes. It's an epic battle between the Roman army and the Germanic tribes, with Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe in a role perfectly suited to his bullish, arrogant persona - he is reported to have said of the script, "Your lines are garbage but I'm the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good.") leading the charge against the enemy in the depths of the forest. From the tense build-up, in which the barbarians toss the head of a Roman messenger towards the line, to the battle itself - an orgy of violence drenched in blood and coated in mud - it's a truly memorable battle scene which draws the audience into the carnage. What follows never quite reaches the same level of authenticity and raw power. That's not to say that Gladiator descends into a bad movie, but - like the epics of the 1950s and 60s it sought to pay homage to - the narrative becomes a little too ponderous for its own good, with uneven pacing unaided by a politically-charged plot which never quite manages to grip the audience. Nevertheless, it's infinitely superior to some of Scott's later movies, not least the woefully misjudged The Counsellor, which seemed to dispense entirely with narrative logic and cohesion.
