Gladiator 2000.

[candelabra]

Увидеть этот фильм впервые было невероятным зрелищем, и останется таковым в будущем.



From the outset, Ridley Scott made it quite clear that this "sword and sandals" movie
would not feature any of the genre's clichés of people lounging around eating grapes and drinking from goblets.
He intended to create a more realistic vision of ancient Rome.

Joaquin Phoenix got so involved in the scene where Commodus murders his father that he actually fainted afterward.

Historically speaking, the real Commodus himself did fight in the arena.
Unbeknownst to him, the soldiers preparing the gladiator to fight, would stab the opponent in the back
to weaken him in the same way that Commodus himself does to Maximus in this film.

The real-life Commodus was in fact the only Roman Emperor in history to fight as a gladiator in the arena.
However, he did it several times, not just once. Also, he was not killed in the arena
but was strangled in his dressing room by an athlete named Narcissus.

In the original drafts of the sсript, the name of the main character was not Maximus,
but Narcissus, the name of the man who killed Commodus in real life.

Russell Crowe began shooting for Gladiator a few months after The Insider wrapped.
He had gained upwards of 40 pounds for his Oscar-nominated role in The Insider and yet lost it all before Gladiator began.
He claims he did nothing special other than normal work on his farm in Australia.

On visiting the real Colosseum, Ridley Scott remarked to production designer Arthur Max that it was "too small,"
so they designed an outsized "Rome of the imagination" which was inspired by English and French romantic painters,
as well as Nazi architect Albert Speer.

Maximus' (Russell Crowe) description of his home (specifically how the kitchen is arranged
and smells in the morning and at night) was ad-libbed - it's a description of Crowe's own home in Australia.

During filming, director Ridley Scott wore the red cap worn by Gene Hackman in the movie Crimson Tide,
which was directed by Ridley's brother, Tony Scott.

The film had surpassed its $103,000,000 budget within 2 weeks of release.

During filming Russell Crowe became friends with Richard Harris.
However, it was the opposite with Oliver Reed who took an instant dislike to Crowe
and at one point challenged him to a fight.

Mel Gibson was offered the lead role, but turned it down because at 43 he felt he was too old to play Maximus.

This is Russell Crowe's favorite of the American films that he has done.
He also cites Maximus as his favorite character that he's played so far.

Russell Crowe was continually unhappy with the screenplay, rewriting much of it to suit his own ends.
He would frequently walk off the set if he didn't get his way.
The famous line "In this life or the next, I will have my vengeance" he initially refused to say,
telling writer William Nicholson "Your lines are garbage but I'm the greatest actor in the world
and I can make even garbage sound good".

Ridley Scott initially thought that writer David Franzoni's dialog was too "on the nose",
so he hired John Logan to rewrite the sсript. Logan rewrote much of the first act and made the decision to kill off
Maximus' family as motivation for the lead character.

Like modern day athletes, ancient Roman gladiators did product endorsements.
The producers considered including this in the sсript but discarded the idea as unbelievable.

Oliver Reed suffered a fatal heart attack during principal photography.
Some of his sequences had to be re-edited and a double, photographed in the shadows
and with a 3D CGI mask of Reed's face, was used as a stand-in. The film is dedicated to his memory.

In the original sсript Proximo (Oliver Reed) survived.
After Reed died of a heart attack during filming the fate of Proximo was changed.

Some shots of Oliver Reed had to be faked with CGI after his death, at an estimated cost of $3 million.

On the Special Edition DVD, the making-of documentary, Strength and Honor: Creating the World of 'Gladiator',
at nearly 3 and a half hours, is an hour longer than the film itself.

In the Colosseum scenes, only the bottom two decks are actually filled with people.
The other thousands of people are computer-animated.

The wounds on Russell Crowe's face after the opening battle scene are real, caused when his horse startled and backed him into tree branches.
The stitches in his cheek are clearly visible when he is telling Commodus he intends to return home.