The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen podcast – Gladiator

Gladiator

Podcast: The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen
Date: 9 October 2026
Hosts: Stephen Fenech and Trevor Long

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[00:01:43] Stephen Fenech: Hello and welcome to The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, our podcast about movies. My name is Stephen Fenech. I’m the movie nerd on the show, and I’ve seen all these movies that I present to my co-host Trevor Long for the very first time. G’day, mate.

[00:01:58] Trevor Long: G’day, Stephen.

[00:01:59] Stephen Fenech: Well, this week there’s a— we’ve got a treat in store for you.

[00:02:02] Trevor Long: This week is an embarrassment because it’s, it’s embarrassing that I haven’t seen this movie.

[00:02:05] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, this is an epic, uh, Gladiator we are watching, released in 2000, starring our man Russell Crowe, Rusty, uh, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, directed by Ridley Scott. So when his name’s attached to something, you know it’s going to be epic. Yeah, and this was epic in every sense of the word. Massive movie, sort of a callback to those epics of the past, you know, like Ben-Hur.

[00:02:31] Trevor Long: I was going to say, is it— yeah, is it— at the time, was it put in that category. It’s like, this is the modern Ben-Hur. Yes. I’ve not seen Ben-Hur, but I’ve seen enough of the shots of a gladiator inside the Colosseum. Do you know what I mean?

[00:02:43] Stephen Fenech: It was large scale, right? I can remember hearing an interview with Russell Crowe when he got the offer for the film, and part of it he was saying, oh, it was pitched to me like, you’re going to be the commander of this massive army. And all the scenes were described to me as— how could I say no to that?

[00:03:01] Stephen Fenech: And it was at a critical time in his career too, because he was— he’d already made The Insider, which we’ve done. And this was the movie that sort of he followed with that. So he started with Al Pacino. So his star was on the rise. He’d done L.A. Confidential with Kevin Spacey and Guy Pearce. And this was, I think, the movie that is his— if the first line of his obituary will be Gladiator star. Yeah, this was a movie that really put him on the map and won him an Oscar too, which we’ll talk about. So huge-scale film filmed Mainly in Malta.

[00:03:37] Trevor Long: You are, you do tell me that a lot.

[00:03:39] Stephen Fenech: Malta and Morocco as well. So, and Russell Crowe since then has developed a love affair with Malta. He goes to Malta a lot.

[00:03:48] Trevor Long: Oh really?

[00:03:48] Stephen Fenech: I’ve heard him even speaking Maltese. Hey. Yeah, so he loves my parents’ homeland.

[00:03:54] Trevor Long: Well, he, I mean, we can get into this, but he’s obviously got a deeper, not affiliation, affinity for this movie because of what it did for his career. ‘Cause I’ve, obviously we’ve talked about this on other podcasts, but I’ve followed him on TikTok lately talking about watches and things. And he’s done some really special things for cast members and other people with a watch that was based around this movie. Like, he, like, he, he thinks of this movie in the highest regard, which is, you know, I think, look, I think actors talk about movies in, in good terms, but this feels like something special for this.

[00:04:26] Stephen Fenech: This is sort of what the, the catalyst for his career sort of really sort of propelled him further and won him an Oscar as well. Yeah. Now, you’d heard of this, of course. Were there any other impressions before you watched it for the first time?

[00:04:38] Trevor Long: You know, the funny thing is, no, I’d heard of it and I could have named Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, but no one else. I had no idea Joaquin Phoenix was in it. And obviously I knew it was Roman Colosseum, Gladiator, sword and sand. I have no idea what the story was, none at all. But what I find most interesting about me looking at this movie was, so you know I watched this twice. I watched it once on a plane a month ago and I felt like that disrespected it because it was on a tablet.

[00:05:07] Stephen Fenech: Most definitely.

[00:05:08] Trevor Long: And so I watched it again this morning on an 85-inch TV with surround sound. Sound, and I was able to respect the movie more. But here’s the thing, when I searched it up, it said Gladiator 2000. Like, that mustn’t be it. Like, I just— it doesn’t feel— it feels like it’s older than that. It feels— it’s such a well-spoken about movie. Yeah, I just feel really old now because that’s like 26 years ago.

[00:05:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s right.

[00:05:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, so that, that’s the thing that kind of struck me was this is— no, this is aged well.

[00:05:36] Stephen Fenech: It has. Yeah, and I think plays just as well today, especially when you watch it right. I know, watch it on a plane and everything, and on a— on an iPad or it’s, it’s still enjoyable, but the sound and the, the whole atmosphere of the movie changes.

[00:05:50] Trevor Long: I think, yeah, I come into this not knowing anything about it, and I think, and I, I’ve thought about this a bit, I think that’s— this is probably one of the first movies I’ve had this consideration more than ever, is like, I think about anyone born from 1990 onwards. Yeah, if you haven’t seen this, this is what— this is what this podcast is for. It’s for us going, guys, yeah, you, you need— this needs to be a movie that you’ve seen. Absolutely. It’s really that way.

[00:06:16] Stephen Fenech: Well, uh, it did well. It was nominated for the Oscars, 12 Oscars.

[00:06:21] Stephen Fenech: Won 5.

[00:06:23] Trevor Long: Okay, um, can I guess? Yeah. Did it win Best Film?

[00:06:26] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:06:27] Trevor Long: Did Rusty win?

[00:06:28] Stephen Fenech: Yes, Best Actor.

[00:06:30] Trevor Long: Ridley Scott win? No. Unbelievable. Cinematography, surely?

[00:06:34] Stephen Fenech: Uh, no.

[00:06:35] Trevor Long: Oh wow, sound?

[00:06:37] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:06:38] Trevor Long: Okay, so what are the others?

[00:06:40] Stephen Fenech: Best Costume Design?

[00:06:41] Trevor Long: Costume, of course.

[00:06:42] Stephen Fenech: Visual Effects? Oh, there were, there were visual effects as well.

[00:06:45] Trevor Long: There were a few.

[00:06:46] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as well. So Joaquin Phoenix lost to Benicio del Toro in Traffic. Nominated for Art Direction, lost to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Cinematography, lost to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Best Director, Ridley Scott lost to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. Uh, that’s like a drug, drug Mexican crime film.

[00:07:07] Trevor Long: Have we got that on the list?

[00:07:08] Stephen Fenech: Uh, that’s coming. Okay, like Traffic, it’s coming, remember. Nominated also for Best Film Editing, that lost to Traffic. Best Music Original Score, lost to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Nominated for Best Original Screenplay, that lost to Almost Famous.

[00:07:21] Trevor Long: I’m gutted that they didn’t win Cinematography.

[00:07:24] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I thought it was—

[00:07:25] Trevor Long: there were so many shots in this that I’ve never seen before.

[00:07:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, remarkable. I agree. Uh, let’s hear what Roger Ebert has to say, shall we? Mate, 2 out of 4 stars.

[00:07:35] Trevor Long: What is he talking about?

[00:07:36] Stephen Fenech: He’s pandered a little bit. Here we go, here’s the, the portion of his review: A foolish choice in art direction casts a wall over Ridley Scott’s Gladiator that no swordplay can cut through. The film looks muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct. Its colors are mud tones at the drab end of the palette, and it seems to have been filmed on grim and overcast days. This darkness and a lack of detail in the long shots helps obscure shabby special effects. The Colosseum in Rome looks like a model from a computer game, and the characters bring no cheer. They’re bitter, vengeful, depressed. By the end of this long film, I would have traded any given gladiatorial victory for just one shot of blue skies. Crowe is efficient as Maximus—bearded, taciturn, brooding. Nielsen shows the film’s most depth as the sister. Phoenix is passable as Commodus, but a quirkier actor could have had more fun in the role. Old pros Harris, Jacoby, and Reed are reliable. Gladiator is being hailed by those with short memories as the equal of Spartacus. And Ben-Hur. This is more like Spartacus light or dark. It’s only necessary to think back a few months to Julie Taylor’s Titus for a film set in ancient Rome that’s immeasurably better to look at. The visual accomplishment of Titus shames Gladiator, and its story is a whole heck of a lot better than the Gladiator screenplay, even if Shakespeare didn’t make his Titus the only undefeated champion in Roman history. Roger’s had a bad day.

[00:09:05] Trevor Long: Yes, Roger’s had a fight with his missus there.

[00:09:08] Stephen Fenech: There’s something going on. He was in an off mood.

[00:09:10] Trevor Long: Yeah, like I’m the biggest critic of visual effects, Stephen, you would argue, right? Yes. And I saw them all in this, but I thought to myself, okay, when you— so when Commodus, is his name, comes in as the Emperor, it’s like, hang on, like, that’s— how could you get that many people together? That’s an effect. I’m okay with it. Of course. Like, it didn’t—

[00:09:30] Stephen Fenech: it didn’t take you out of the movie. I want to see him, for Christ’s sake. It didn’t take you out of the movie.

[00:09:33] Trevor Long: No, I felt the story held it.

[00:09:34] Stephen Fenech: But also, he’s sort of the grim and overcast days. There was plenty of sunshine in the movie. Plenty of it.

[00:09:40] Trevor Long: Not a lot. Well, have you seen those TikToks? I think I’ve sent it to you where they pick the movie by its color scale, like, yeah, all the frames. Yeah, well, this would not have a lot of light in it.

[00:09:49] Stephen Fenech: Of course not. Yeah, it is. Well, because it was very, you know, sandy, beigey movie, you know, that’s the whole setting of the movie. Yeah. Uh, you know, poor Rog.

[00:09:58] Trevor Long: No, I disagree, Rog. Uh, anyway, he, uh, he has—

[00:10:02] Stephen Fenech: he sticks with his opinion there. Anyway, this is your last exit before the freeway. We are going to take a solid sword strike to this Oh hey! Uh, and if you haven’t seen it, you can catch it on Fetch.

[00:10:14] Trevor Long: You can catch it on Fetch like thousands of other movies, um, and you can get so much entertainment on Fetch and all included for just $4.99 a month. 30 streamed TV channels, 50 free movies every month, 30 games to play, plus free-to-air popular streaming apps, movie and TV shore, and premium live and on-demand TV. There is literally nothing you can’t get on Fetch. It’s just packed with entertainment for the whole family. Um, the, the movie box, which is 50 ad-free movies a month. I’m sure that’s up on 30. I think it used to be one a day, but anyway, there’s some absolute crackers in there. You can scroll and look at all those right now, including Erin Brockovich, which is available right now if you’re listening at the time of publication.

[00:10:54] Stephen Fenech: Funny enough, we did that recently. We did that recently. Must be following our podcast.

[00:10:57] Trevor Long: Maybe they are, because I Know What You Did Last Summer is on there, um, Lost La— Lost Lands, King Kong, Knives Out. There’s so many movies on here. I’m just scrolling through looking for more that we might have done. Um, I don’t see any more, Stephen, but I see some that you should We should— have we done Taxi Driver? No.

[00:11:14] Stephen Fenech: I want to do that. De Niro. Yeah, that’s coming.

[00:11:16] Trevor Long: I’ve heard so much about that. Da Vinci Code. We’ve done. We’ve done. We haven’t done The Full Monty. I don’t see that as being one of your best movies. Maybe, yeah, it’s a cult classic. Oh really? It could be there? Yeah, well— Anyway, you can read through all those, but if they’re not available in the Movie Box, which is just a little enticement for you to watch something every night if you want, you can rent and buy thousands of movies, and you’ve got your streaming services as well. So Stan, Netflix, they’re all there. So all of your existing movies that come with your subscription are also there too. To watch. You can find out more and get more details at fetchtv.com.au.

[00:11:48] Stephen Fenech: All right, oh, you have now seen twice, uh, Gladiator, and now give us your impressions after your— or maybe your first or second watch.

[00:11:58] Trevor Long: I’m going to give you my second watch impressions, um, but they were the same as the first. I mean, it’s an epic. It’s, it’s— it felt like an epic. And that’s why I’m so gutted by Roger Ebert’s review. I, I thought the story was excellent. I thought the story was entirely plausible of the time. Yeah, I felt—

[00:12:15] Stephen Fenech: well, it was sort of— we’re going to get into it. It’s semi-historically accurate. Oh, is it right?

[00:12:20] Trevor Long: I never, I never even considered that it was. Yes. Yeah. Um, I felt like you got attachment to both Russell Crowe’s character, the sister. Oh yeah, I, you know, I felt there was good attachment to the characters. And I thought even, even despite the need for visual effects, because it was obvious— like, there was one shot where I thought, come on, mate. It was like a reversal, uh, when Russell got to one of the earlier Colosseum shots. It was like a reversal. It’s this doesn’t look real behind him. But anyway, that was the only thing that I went, but I made— I felt myself fully engaged in it both times I watched it. And the sound is unbelievable. It’s a— it’s brilliant cinema. I just— I think it’s a great movie.

[00:12:58] Stephen Fenech: It’s, it’s the sort of movie that you, you’re kind of not giving it its best chance watching— if not watching it, you know, you know, like a good setup, it’s good sound, nice size screen, Yeah, that’s why it was built for the cinema. Like, uh, it was, it was a very— it was a huge release at the time.

[00:13:17] Trevor Long: It’s weirdly not brutal, even though the brutality is in every way. Yeah, you see some, some—

[00:13:23] Stephen Fenech: you see it, it could be a lot more if it was another director. Uh, there’d be a lot more blood and guts.

[00:13:27] Trevor Long: And to be honest, that’s my favorite thing about this movie is the direction. Like, just the choice of shots in some of these things, those floating shots where they’re like from above.

[00:13:35] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, just Ridley Scott knows his stuff, mate. What’s your social media post here?

[00:13:39] Trevor Long: Gladiator. What a The year 2000 seems so recent, yet it’s 26 years since Russell Crowe starred in this absolute epic. The story is compelling, the acting sensational, and the cinematography is simply outstanding. This is a movie anyone born from 1990 onwards should see for the first time, and everyone else should already know.

[00:13:58] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s great. It was released in Australian cinemas on May 4th, 2000, and I saw it in the cinema. Yeah, it was just before the Olympics came out. Yeah, I saw it in the cinema. I think, well, this is a movie that you had to go to the cinema to watch. If this was really like— there was no streaming services back then, but it had seemed a waste to put it on and release it on streaming. I mean, you got to go and see it on the big— it’s like Top Gun: Maverick. You couldn’t watch that on streaming.

[00:14:23] Trevor Long: You could imagine if COVID happened in 2000, Ridley Scott or Russell Crowe would have gone, no, no, just hold off. We’ll wait. We’ll wait. As Tom Cruise did. Yeah.

[00:14:32] Stephen Fenech: And I’ve seen this a few times. The last time I watched it was on 4K. Nice. 4K, which was sharp as, very nice. Uh, let’s talk about the cast. Russell Crowe plays Maximus, and he was in Master and Commander, which we’ve done, The Insider, which we’ve done, A Beautiful Mind, which we’ll get to.

[00:14:50] Trevor Long: I’m assuming Master and Commander came after this.

[00:14:52] Stephen Fenech: This was after that, yes, correct. Yeah. Uh, and LA Confidential he also did. Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Commodus—

[00:15:01] Trevor Long: I agree with Roger, he’s the weak link?

[00:15:03] Stephen Fenech: Well, you know what, I think he was like, he’s very much a method actor, right? And there’s some things that he did on set that were, you know, he was trying to get into the role. But he was in, did you ever see that movie Parenthood? Who am I talking to? You probably haven’t seen it.

[00:15:19] Trevor Long: Yeah, you idiot.

[00:15:20] Stephen Fenech: Steve Martin. I’ve heard of it. I’m married to Mary Steenburgen. And they’re, they’re, they’re one of the characters. I think the auntie’s son is Joaquin Phoenix when he was young, really young. And he does such a good little part he plays. So he was in that, he was in Joker, of course. He won an Oscar for Joker. He was in Walk the Line playing Johnny Cash, and also in a movie that we’ll do, that we will do, called Her.

[00:15:47] Trevor Long: This is a movie with Siri thing. He has a relationship with, I think I’ve seen it, operating system, as a passing view kind of thing.

[00:15:53] Stephen Fenech: There you have it. Connie Nielsen plays Lucilla. She was excellent. Yeah, she was great in this. She was in Basic, which with John Travolta, which was a good movie. It’s sort of like a military thriller. She was in also One Hour Photo, which is a weird, not weird, it’s Robin Williams playing a serious part. I think I’ve seen that.

[00:16:15] Trevor Long: Does he work in like a Walmart style one-hour photos? Yes, yes.

[00:16:19] Stephen Fenech: And he sees these families’ photos and sort of envies the whole thing and yeah, just things happen. Put it on the list. It’ll come, it’ll come. She was in also The Devil’s Advocate. Remember she was in the, she was sort of Keanu Reeves’ sister.

[00:16:34] Trevor Long: I didn’t remember.

[00:16:36] Stephen Fenech: Remember Al Pacino said, oh, you know, these are, We want you two to be the next generation of the thing. You’ve already forgot that movie. No, 100%. Richard Harris plays Marcus Aurelius. He was in Unforgiven, Count of Monte Cristo, Camelot. Like, he was— he died in 2002, so not long after this, at age 72.

[00:16:56] Trevor Long: Was Joaquin Phoenix with him when he died?

[00:16:58] Stephen Fenech: Um, I’m just— I don’t think so. I know where you’re getting that. Oliver Reed plays Proximo. He was sort of the Gladiator master, you know. He was— oh yes, yeah, yeah, he was in Oliver. Oliver! Oliver! He was in The Brood and died during production. No! Of Gladiator. No! Died halfway through the movie. What did they do? It cost the company $3 million. To change. So he’s— they digitally put his face on different people so that he could still be in the scenes that they had left to shoot. He was 61 when he died. And in— down, down later on, I’ll tell you what, what he did that led up to his death on— during production. Jesus Christ, he was only 61 years old.

[00:17:55] Trevor Long: Wow, that’s quite young.

[00:17:57] Stephen Fenech: Right, before we get to the top scenes, let’s also talk about Hisense. And you know what, Hisense, you know they’ve, they’ve released a lot of really good projector products. They’ve got the XR10, they’ve got their, their laser projectors, but they’ve just released their most affordable projector yet. It’s the P1 laser projector. So this brings Hisense’s premium RGB triple color laser technology into a small portable design, so you can take this anywhere. It delivers up to 150 inches of screen size, 1,000 ANSI lumens of brightness, and a battery, because you can use it portable. Battery viewing about 2.5 to 3 hours, which is long enough to watch a movie. Yeah, long enough to watch Gladiator. Absolutely. So yeah, 2 minutes. It’s designed to take big screen entertainment beyond the traditional home center, from movie nights to the backyard viewing. Even take it on camping trips. You can take it anywhere. And knowing that you’ve got all that technology on board, the RGB triple color laser technology in a smaller form factor, well worth checking out if you want to enjoy your movies on a grander scale, but also wherever you want. Check it out at hisense.com.au. In fact, before we get to the run-through— oh, okay, I meant to ask you, which version did you watch? What? How long was your movie?

[00:19:17] Trevor Long: 142 minutes.

[00:19:20] Stephen Fenech: Okay, so that’s 2 hours 20, because I watched the extended edition, which is 2 hours 50 minutes. But it won’t make much difference. There may be some scenes I refer to that you go, well, I don’t remember that.

[00:19:31] Trevor Long: I’m glad I watched it again this morning, otherwise I would have gone, hey, that was good, and I would have just made it up like I remember.

[00:19:36] Stephen Fenech: Remember it. So yeah, there is—

[00:19:38] Trevor Long: for people that don’t know us well, I, I have a shocking memory. And I said to Stephen, I watched it again this morning and halfway through I went, I don’t know what happens in this movie. I watched it 35 days ago.

[00:19:48] Stephen Fenech: We’re gonna watch Sixth Sense together again. You’re gonna love that one. Um, so yeah, let’s get started here. We, we— it opens in, uh, near silence. We see a hand brushing through. Have you seen that image, the brushing? Yeah, brushing through the wheat. It’s a recurring farming vision that we see, representing home and peace and the afterlife. Now my interjections, I gave it up earlier, are gonna be called sword strikes. My sword strike here, that iconic shot of Maximus’s hand brushing the tops of the stalks of wheat is actually not Russell Crowe’s hand. It’s actually his stunt double, Stuart Clarke. That’s his hand on there, not Rusty’s. Unbelievable. Anyway, fast forward to winter 180 AD, and General Maximus Decimus Meridius preparing the Roman army for the final strike against the Germanic tribes. Now, do you remember in the, in the early parts where he’d— they’re about to go to battle and he’ll pick up some dirt and rub it through his hands? My other sword strike here is that according to the director, Ridley Scott says where— when he picks up the dirt, even smells it, yep, that him— that signifies— this is according to Ridley Scott— mortality and the possibility that he could die there and return to the soil and earth that he occupies at that moment. So he, you see it throughout the film. He does it every day. But he also does it, I think, as a bit of a good luck thing. It’s one of his little routines he does as good luck.

[00:21:16] Trevor Long: It becomes a, yeah.

[00:21:17] Stephen Fenech: Also too, it also relates to the fact that he’s also a farmer. And that’s another thing that he does. He sort of remembers his farming life, his wife and child, every time he picks up a piece of the earth. Yeah. Okay, a decapitated Roman messenger. Remember when it’s just the decapitated soldiers coming back from the forest signaling that we’re ready to go to battle.

[00:21:42] Movie Audio: [Maximus gives his officers the order to launch the attack on his signal.]

[00:21:45] Trevor Long: Famous, famous, uh, yes, famous. So many lines in this that are super quiet.

[00:21:51] Stephen Fenech: You’re about to hear another one. Maximus orders the catapults and the flaming arrows and a cavalry flank. Remember, they sort of flank them. The battle is chaotic and brutal, uh, ending in the Roman victory. About. And this is Russell— well, not Russell, Maximus— talking to his troops.

[00:22:10] Movie Audio: [Maximus rallies his cavalry before the charge, picturing his harvest at home, urging them to hold the line and not fear death, and reminding them that what they do in life echoes in eternity.]

[00:22:47] Stephen Fenech: Boom! Yeah, great line. Didn’t find it interesting that a Roman— or he’s actually Spanish, he’s a Spaniard, as we find out— that he’s got an Aussie accent?

[00:22:55] Trevor Long: How did that sit on you? I love it when— Didn’t really work. Just keep it that way. Yeah, didn’t affect it. It doesn’t affect it. Why put it on? I think it would’ve taken away from it. Yeah. I think accents, unless they are absolutely perfected. And so the other thing is it’s not just him. There’s a bunch of people that speak. Yeah, it’s all different, like British, American, yeah. At one point I did think about it and you know what I went? It’s the empire. Yeah. Like I didn’t even associate Spaniard. I just went, it’s the empire, this, you know. That’s, well, of the time.

[00:23:23] Stephen Fenech: That line, he said, uh, what we do in life echoes in eternity. That was when Souths won the 2014 Grand Final. You know, Russell Crowe’s part owner of Souths. Yep. Someone had that as the, the burrow. Oh nice. What we do in life echoes in eternity. That was the big sign they had in the burrow. It was awesome. Yeah. Righto, uh, the frail and dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius, uh, heads, comes to the battlefront, embraces Maximus as son, while his actual son Commodus and his daughter Lucilla arrive at the camp as well.

[00:23:54] Trevor Long: And I think what’s interesting about this scene is you’ve got this, you know, brutal general leading the troops. You’ve got this emperor who, you know, shouldn’t be in the battle, but he’s, he’s appeared at the front lines, uh, to greet his general. And then you’ve got the daughter and this son, who we see is clearly thinking he’s about to become the emperor, in this, you know, solidified carriage, you know, to be protected. Pampered and protected, you know? And then I think he comes along and he rides his horse in to find his father. It’s like, mate, just, you’re not— What are you doing here? You’re an imposter.

[00:24:29] Stephen Fenech: Commodus learns like his father didn’t invite him to the war front until they knew the battle was won. Marcus Aurelius, we know that he views him as unfit to rule because we find out in this next scene that, Marcus Aurelius asked Maximus to become the regent, the protector of Rome. He’s talking about the corruption and how they’ve taken over, restore power to the Senate, and he wants to bring, uh, reform Rome into a republic.

[00:24:55] Movie Audio: [Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus to become the protector of Rome after his death, to give power back to the people and end the corruption. Maximus is reluctant and suggests a senator or prefect instead, but the Emperor explains that Commodus is not a moral man and must not rule, and that Maximus is the son he should have had.]

[00:26:10] Stephen Fenech: So that’s pretty cool. Yeah, because you got to remember that his plan was to go home to his wife and son in Spain. Yes. And he was— I think earlier in that scene he says, oh, how long since you’ve seen your family? And he says, 2 years, 256 days, and this morning. So he’s counting the days literally till he’s home. So he’s thinking, well, maybe I’m not quite suited to this task. But Commodus, Marcus Aurelius, sees his son and tells him of his decision. Yep. And it doesn’t go well.

[00:26:41] Trevor Long: No, it doesn’t go well at all. Like, he turns his head to him like he’s— yeah, he’s gutted.

[00:26:46] Stephen Fenech: But you think he’s sort of coming in to embrace his father. What he does, he actually strangles him, smothers him. And, and so So yeah, so he claims the throne and then we—

[00:26:57] Trevor Long: And there’s these little moments where like when Maximus leaves the tent, he runs into the sister and he doesn’t tell her what just happened. Yes. If he had of, the whole, like a lot of changes, you know? Of course, yeah, of course. But yet that moment does important because I think later on in the movie, she reflects on that and realizes that did happen. Do you know what I mean?

[00:27:14] Stephen Fenech: So also that little bit of familiarity also, and we learn later that they were sort of, they grew up together, Lucilla and Commodus. They sort of knew each other growing up. So Commodus has now claimed the throne and he asked Maximus for his loyalty. So he’s now, he knows, well, hang on a minute, I was talking to this bloke an hour and a half ago.

[00:27:34] Trevor Long: But he knows it’s a risk ’cause he says, I’ll only offer it once.

[00:27:37] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, true. And but so he turns his back. Maximus says, nah mate, I’m not doing it.

[00:27:43] Trevor Long: So, well, he instantly goes, hang on a minute, this isn’t right. ‘Cause he says, how did he die? He turns and he instantly goes out and he goes, right, we’ve gotta rally the troops here. This is not good. Like he’s ready to walk out, get his men, his troops to essentially, I reckon, take on and kill Commodus.

[00:27:59] Stephen Fenech: Definitely. Uh, one other sword strike here. The wounds, you know, that he’s got, like some cuts and scrapes on his face after the opening battle scene, they were actually real. When his horse, uh, was— his horse got startled and backed him into some tree branches, so he actually had stitches in his cheek. Oh geez. And, uh, so when he’s telling Commodus that he intends to return home, you can actually see this. Oh wow, the scar on his face. Uh, meanwhile, um, so Max Commodus knows, okay, this bloke’s not going to help me, so we need to get rid of him. So Quintus, which is Maximus’s former second-in-command— remember that guy at the start of the movie that he said, on my command, unleash hell? He reluctantly orders Maximus taken into the woods for execution.

[00:28:41] Trevor Long: Yeah, but also Commodus, like, he’s like, you look after— he says to him— sorry, not Commodus, he says to that, that guy, what’s his name? Yeah, that sends him off. Quintus. He says— Maximus says to Quintus, look after my wife and family, assure me they’ll be right. And he says, you’ll meet them in the afterlife. Yeah, I know, which is like saying I’m about to go and kill them as well, like, which is wild.

[00:29:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so what he does, he overpowers the captors, steals a horse, and bolts to be with them.

[00:29:07] Trevor Long: He does get cut pretty heavy on the shoulder.

[00:29:09] Stephen Fenech: He’s got a massive wound on his shoulder, but he rides furiously to reach his farm in Trujillo, Spain, but arrives too late. The guards have crucified and burned his wife.

[00:29:21] Trevor Long: They knock down the sun in a stampede and And then, mate, this is one of those cinematography moments where I go, how did this not win an Oscar, right? Russell Crowe gets there and you know what’s happened, you know they’re dead, right? You’re across it. But the way it’s revealed, Russell Crowe’s walking through things, he gets up to the point and he looks up and he collapses. And then the camera comes up and just shows the tips of their toes. Their feet. Yeah. It’s just this little zoom out and raised. Oh, mate.

[00:29:46] Stephen Fenech: No, they don’t show less rather than more. I’ve got another sword strike here for you. In that scene where he sees, he’s sort of standing in front of their corpses. Ridley Scott’s idea was to do a dignified, you know, tear down the cheek sort of thing. But Russell Crowe goes, “No, mate, seeing that, it’s gonna be, he’s gonna be out of his mind.” And so you realize then, and this is how he put it, it was a full-blown snot fest. Remember he was snot and spit coming out of his mouth. And that’s what was in the movie, ’cause he was, you know, you didn’t wanna have like a dignified tear. He wanted to be absolutely terrified.

[00:30:25] Trevor Long: 100%, no, no, it was well played.

[00:30:27] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so that’s what happened. So they, he’s sort of there, wounded slavers discover him, an unconscious Maximus, and drag him off.

[00:30:36] Trevor Long: Again, another amazing shot. The shot, the top-down with Russell Crowe’s head. He’s floating in the air. He’s floating, but then you realize it’s on a carriage. It’s on a buggy, yeah. But that shot down, which is used again later on, It’s really smart.

[00:30:49] Stephen Fenech: No, it is good. I do like his—

[00:30:51] Trevor Long: ‘Cause it’s like a transition. Yeah, yeah.

[00:30:53] Stephen Fenech: So he’s gone from being the head of the Roman army to now a slave.

[00:30:57] Trevor Long: Yeah, well, we don’t, I don’t really know that yet. I don’t know what’s happened to him. As a first-time viewer, you don’t understand what’s happened. Has he been rescued? And are they looking after him? ‘Cause one of the other guys, you don’t realize they’re enslaved. One of the other guys is helping him with his wound and stuff. So it’s not obvious. It’s obvious very soon, but it’s not obvious in that moment. Moment what’s happened to him.

[00:31:16] Stephen Fenech: Okay, but no, well, he’s discovered by slavers and he’s sold to Proximo in the Roman province of Zaccabar, which, uh, uh, that was in North Africa. Yeah. And the slave trader sells Maximus and then an Aemilian named Juba— that’s the guy that you were talking about was treating his wound— yep, to Antonius Proxima, a former gladiator who now runs a gladiatorial school.

[00:31:43] Movie Audio: [Proximo addresses his newly bought slaves, telling them he paid for them only to profit from their deaths and that he will be with them at their end, before saluting them as gladiators.]

[00:32:29] Stephen Fenech: You see, he was clapping his hand.

[00:32:30] Trevor Long: That was— yeah, honestly, the way they talk here about just this, you know, die, you’re just being sent off to battle, like it’s it’s something that you don’t hear in any other place. Like, often war movies, it’s like, you might die in this war, we get that. But the concept is you’ll go to war and come back.

[00:32:45] Stephen Fenech: You are going— this is like, you’re going to die, you are going to die, and I’m going to profit from it. Yeah, like, it’s the wildest thing. Absolutely. Yeah, but initially Maximus refuses to fight, remember?

[00:32:55] Trevor Long: And he’s trying— he’s trying to find out which ones are good and bad, and he’s labeling them in colors. Yeah, but I think Proximus sees something in him, because after the first couple of hits he goes, you know what, just leave it, let’s work out.

[00:33:07] Stephen Fenech: He was chained to Juba in a sandpit, and he uses his— he’s military, right? So he’s tactical. He uses them to disarm his opponents and quickly earns the nickname the Spaniard. The Spaniard. Now, in a short, brutal fight, Maximus just slaughters an entire team of opponents. And then, see, remember he threw his sword into the crowd? Yeah, into the viewing box. This is one of the great— Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you were here? And then they start cheering for him.

[00:33:49] Trevor Long: And he’s like, what, they’re cheering for me now? Like, I think— He’s like a hero. Because again, he would have— Oh, and again, it’s a hard thing to understand, but he— anyone of the time would be aware of these gladiatorial battles. And the fact that there are these people who are just sacrificed for entertainment. But having, he doesn’t strike me as the kind of person that would’ve watched and gone to one. Yeah, of course not. ‘Cause he’s just a farmer who does his thing and then fights in battles, right? So for him to experience that cheer would’ve been a very weird emotional rollercoaster. So, which he’s also told later on to embrace and embrace that.

[00:34:21] Stephen Fenech: But his skills were developed in the army, so in battle. And then he’s thinking now, hang on, I’m doing this to entertain you? Like, you’re right, it’s a massive transition.

[00:34:30] Trevor Long: And that line, So good.

[00:34:33] Stephen Fenech: Are you not entertained? And the shot of him with his arms out, that’s been a famous shot.

[00:34:37] Trevor Long: These are lines that even I can remember. Yeah, because we talk about famous quotes and things, but are you not entertained is, oh my God, outstanding. One of the lines of the movie. Yes.

[00:34:45] Stephen Fenech: Now Commodus is, uh, one of the lines of Hollywood.

[00:34:47] Trevor Long: It’d be up there, wouldn’t it?

[00:34:49] Stephen Fenech: It’s a great line. Absolutely. Commodus is made a parade entry into Rome, but the Senate and the populace receive him pretty coldly.

[00:35:03] Movie Audio: [Commodus and Lucilla argue about the Senate. Commodus dismisses the senators as talkers and says it takes an emperor to rule an empire, and declares he will give the people a vision of Rome’s greatness so they will love him and forget the old men of the Senate.]

[00:36:23] Stephen Fenech: Now I’ve got a really hot take about the movie and what it could be compared to. And you’re gonna laugh. This has got a lot of elements that Star Wars has. Oh, for Christ’s sake. No, no, listen, hear me out, hear me out, right? So you’ve got— Stop. You’ve got a bunch of rebels, right? Yeah, you’ve got someone like an evil empire, you’ve got a Senate that sort of has the political maneuverings in place as well. You know, Commodus has sort of become like Darth Vader.

[00:36:50] Trevor Long: Is this a whole thread on Reddit somewhere?

[00:36:52] Stephen Fenech: No, it’s not. It’s just me observing, and as I watch the movie, I’m thinking there’s sort of callbacks to how the plot points sort of relate to, to that, to Star Wars. That’s— they’re tried and true plot points and stories that in any environment would work. That proves that you can set it in a gladiatorial setting or in space.

[00:37:13] Trevor Long: Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen Fenech.

[00:37:16] Stephen Fenech: Righto. Now, to win the affection of the masses, Commodus announces we’re going to have 150 days of gladiatorial games.

[00:37:25] Trevor Long: Just can we do the numbers on that for a minute? I mean, it’s like having an Olympics. Yeah, but how many people are we sacrificing? Well, so here’s your new emperor. Yeah. Deciding to send, I don’t know, 1,500 people to their death. Yeah, for your entertainment.

[00:37:38] Stephen Fenech: Slaves. Yeah, what the hell? Yeah, it’s crazy. Uh, back to him. He tells Maximus that if he wants to win his freedom and reach the Emperor, he must stop just killing his opponents and learn to win the crowd.

[00:37:54] Movie Audio: [Proximo reveals that he won his own freedom when Marcus Aurelius touched him on the shoulder. Maximus says he too wants to stand before the Emperor, and Proximo tells him he was the best not because he killed quickly but because the crowd loved him: win the crowd and you win your freedom. Maximus vows to win the crowd and give them something they’ve never seen.]

[00:38:56] Stephen Fenech: Right, they arrive in Rome because remember the games are gonna— 150 days of games. Yeah, Proximo’s gladiators arrive at the towering Colosseum.

[00:39:09] Trevor Long: Oh, and look, I still— if I go back to Roger, no, they’re not horrible. This is 20, 25, 26 years ago. Um, I just— yeah, I, I don’t think you get See, the thing is, the— it’s all distracting. There’s so much going on that you don’t get fixed on one or two little things, which you could if you— I think if I watch again and went, okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna pull apart the effects here, I, I would see some things, you know.

[00:39:33] Stephen Fenech: Can I remind you—

[00:39:34] Trevor Long: I don’t think you’re meant to.

[00:39:34] Stephen Fenech: Can I remind you it won the Oscar for visual effects? Yeah, it won it. And, and Roger Ebert’s review came out well before the Oscars. Yeah, as well. So yeah, for the time, I think it was— it stood up.

[00:39:47] Trevor Long: No, I agree.

[00:39:47] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, uh, the gladiators ascending to the arena styled as the barbarian hordes destined to lose to the charioteers in a historical reenactment of the Battle of Carthage.

[00:39:59] Trevor Long: Because this is fantastic, right? The— it’s, it’s, it’s some of the best gladiators who’ve been put into a reenactment. Yes, which is hilarious because you think of a reenactment like in these days, it’s, you know, you go to Boston, they’ll do a reenactment of the Tea Party.

[00:40:13] Stephen Fenech: No one dies.

[00:40:14] Trevor Long: Trust me, I’ve seen it, um, and no one dies, but there’s, you know, they pretend They pretend, right? But this is thousands of people and their emperor watching a reenactment where people are meant to die. Yeah. Honestly, it’s crazy.

[00:40:28] Stephen Fenech: Maximus though, he’s tactical and soldier-wise.

[00:40:33] Trevor Long: Even before they see the charioteers.

[00:40:36] Stephen Fenech: He says, look, we’ve got to work together, single column, lock shields. And they actually defeat the charioteers. He says, whatever comes at us, Yeah, we’ve got to do work together. It’s brilliant. And Commodus, he was astonished by the wind. And doesn’t he turn to the guy, goes, don’t the barbarians lose?

[00:40:54] Trevor Long: I don’t know that my history is this perfect, but I don’t think they lose.

[00:40:59] Stephen Fenech: So he comes, he enters the arena floor to meet the leader of the gladiators. Yes. Now Commodus demands that the gladiator reveal his identity, but Maximus—

[00:41:09] Trevor Long: I’m blown away by this at this point because I assume the reveal would come much later in the movie. Movie. And so this is one of those moments— it happens to me a lot in these movies— where I, I arrow down and go, how far in am I? Yeah. And you realize this is not far enough in. No, but there’s so much more to go. And so I was blown away with this reveal.

[00:41:29] Movie Audio: [Commodus praises the Spaniard in the arena and demands he reveal his real name. Maximus turns his back, then removes his helmet and declares his full name and titles as the general of the armies of the north and loyal servant of Marcus Aurelius, vowing vengeance for his murdered son and wife in this life or the next.]

[00:42:30] Stephen Fenech: Boom! What—

[00:42:31] Trevor Long: there’s so much about this minute and a half of the movie that’s brilliant because, yeah, when he, when he comes in, they, they kneel down as if to greet him and he grabs like a spearhead because he’s going to kill him. He’s going to, he’s going to stab him right here because he can. But then the little kid Lucius comes out and he’s like, I can’t stab him in front of the kid because I just met this kid.

[00:42:46] Stephen Fenech: But then the crowd starts, you remember those crowds, guys, live, live, live, live. So he’s not going to kill him then. Yeah. And then he laments later to his sister, he goes, oh, he’s more powerful, and if I kill him they’re going to hate me, and if I don’t kill him, it’s, you know. So he’s in a dilemma. But speaking of the sister, she secretly visits Maximus in his quarters Yeah, they conspire with Senator Gruchus to hatch a coup.

[00:43:12] Movie Audio: [Lucilla visits Maximus in his cell and tells him that today a slave became more powerful than the Emperor, because the mob is Rome. She asks him to meet a senator who opposes her brother. Maximus says he is only a slave who may die at any moment, and when she recalls the noble, principled man he once was, he replies that her brother destroyed that man.]

[00:44:38] Stephen Fenech: That was a striking scene, that one.

[00:44:43] Trevor Long: Yeah, um, because that’s the first time he admits to the sister that he wants the bloke dead. Yeah, like He’s not, he’s not here for anything but.

[00:44:50] Stephen Fenech: Even to Proxima, remember he goes, “Yeah, I wanna meet the Emperor one more time.” Remember he was saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:44:54] Trevor Long: And he knew what he wanted.

[00:44:55] Stephen Fenech: Another sword strike here for you. There was initial notes in the script that maybe Maximus and Lucilla have a sexual relationship in the movie. Yeah. Ridley Scott said, “No, not really.” And Russell Crowe agreed. He said it would decrease the need. So do you know how he wants to be in the afterlife with his murdered wife and son? Yes, yes. Because that would sort of cheapen that. So they decided, yeah, it wasn’t in his character to do that. Because you know what, another director might have thought, you know, more blood, more sex, that could have been the section that you got it. But they said, no, no, less is more. The restraint, I think, works. Yep. Commodus arranges a match between Maximus and Tigris of Gaul, an undefeated gladiator brought out of retirement. Tigers on chains.

[00:45:43] Trevor Long: It’s not exactly a fair one, but yeah.

[00:45:45] Stephen Fenech: But he wins. He slays the tigers, defeats Tigris, and just as he’s about, you know, Commodus demands his death, Tigris’s death, he doesn’t. Maximus says, ‘No, mate,’ spares his life. The crowd cheers and dubs him Maximus the Merciful, which just makes him—

[00:46:01] Trevor Long: oh, Commodus is just getting more and more mad.

[00:46:04] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so it’s quite the situation.

[00:46:08] Movie Audio: [Commodus confronts Maximus in the arena after the fight, frustrated that he simply won’t die. Maximus says he has only one more life to take. Commodus cruelly taunts him about how his son and wife were killed, but Maximus refuses to react and coldly replies “Highness”.]

[00:47:20] Stephen Fenech: How does he keep it together then, bro? Like, that would have triggered—

[00:47:23] Trevor Long: that would have tweaked anyone.

[00:47:25] Stephen Fenech: But he says, you know, even calls him Your Highness at the end, and biding his time. Like, he’s just so— just trying to crack track him. Uh, my other sword strike here is about the tigers. You know, they— there were 5 tigers used in that scene, uh, in the arena, and there was a vet on set with a tranquilizer dart the whole time in case one of them got loose. And for safety, uh, Russell Crowe was kept at least like 5 or 6 meters away from the— from the tigers so they can still film it like he was close but not— not too close.

[00:48:01] Trevor Long: Yeah, it looked epic. Yeah, it looked real, so I’m glad to know it was.

[00:48:05] Stephen Fenech: So Maximus, uh, is planning to escape Rome with the help of his former servant Cicero. Remember, he saw him in the crowd. He goes, where are the men? He joins— he’s asked about— they said they’re stationed at Ostia. And, uh, he goes, they want to march on Rome to depose Commodus.

[00:48:24] Movie Audio: [Maximus asks to be smuggled outside the city walls with fresh horses so he can reach his army at Ostia, promising to return within two days at the head of 5,000 men, confident they remain loyal to him.]

[00:48:42] Trevor Long: Love that.

[00:48:42] Movie Audio: [Senator Gracchus objects that no Roman army has entered the capital in a century and he won’t trade one dictatorship for another. Maximus insists the time for half measures is over, promising that his soldiers will stay under the Senate’s command and that he will kill Commodus and leave the fate of Rome to them, as was Marcus Aurelius’s dying wish. Gracchus agrees to trust him.]

[00:49:40] Stephen Fenech: So The wheels are in motion, but Commodus is no dummy. He notices— remember his little nephew Lucius? There’s just that little kid who came up to you, goes, ‘Oh, you are— you’re the one they call the Spaniard.’ He goes, ‘I will cheer for you.’ You remember that guy, that little kid? That’s, that’s Lucilla’s son, right? I know. And, uh, he’s playing gladiator and sort of talking about he wants to be like the Spaniard.

[00:50:05] Trevor Long: And yeah, he’s thinking, ‘Savior of Rome.’ He says it to his uncle, for Christ’s sake.

[00:50:09] Stephen Fenech: So So he’s thinking, hmm, that’s interesting, and sort of his sister’s there and he sort of manipulates her.

[00:50:15] Trevor Long: I think there’s a line here where he says, have all the senators followed? So that’s how he finds out what’s been going on.

[00:50:22] Stephen Fenech: And eventually forces Lucilla to confess the plot as well. So the guards raid Proximo’s gladiatorial barracks. Proximo sacrifices himself here and his men to hold off the guards while Maximus escapes. Outside the city walls, Maximus meets Cicero, but the Praetorians ambushed him. Cicero’s hanged. Remember, he’s on the back of the horse. They hang him. Maximus is captured again. Crazy. So we’re now down to the final duel. To win back the crowd, Commodus challenges Maximus to a duel in the Colosseum.

[00:50:55] Trevor Long: You’re thinking, mate, even, even Maximus thinking, what are you talking about, you idiot? That’s insane.

[00:50:59] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so, but it’s not a fair Absolutely not. Before entering the arena, Commodus visits Maximus in the tunnel.

[00:51:14] Movie Audio: [In the tunnel beneath the arena, Commodus recounts Maximus’s story from general to slave to gladiator, says only a famous death will do, and challenges him to fight the Emperor himself. Maximus tells him he has been afraid all his life, and Commodus taunts him about his father’s death before calling him brother.]

[00:52:37] Trevor Long: Stabs him in the back with a dagger and then just tells the guards, cover it up and put his armor on.

[00:52:49] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So despite him losing blood, he get in there, they get into the arena and he manages to—

[00:52:54] Trevor Long: And this is really well played by Russell Crowe as well because he’s fighting, but he plays limp really well. And it seems like an equal match because he’s a punsy little guy versus a guy with a stab.

[00:53:07] Stephen Fenech: But in the movie, remember he, they remember in the Germania battle, remember he saw him practicing with his swords. Remember he saw him, Commodus was handy with a sword. Sword. I think they put that scene in so this doesn’t seem so pathetic.

[00:53:20] Trevor Long: Yes, yeah, that’s true. Yeah, yeah. So the—

[00:53:23] Stephen Fenech: despite him losing blood, he does manage to disarm him. But then Commodus cries out to Quintus and his guards to draw their swords, but Quintus says no, she keep your weapon shield. So they’ve turned on him. This is—

[00:53:35] Trevor Long: remember, Quintus, I thought that was Quintus, uh, not just respecting— not— I didn’t see it as him going on Maximus. I saw I saw it, he’s respecting the battle, which is, you’ve chosen to do this, bro. You’ve chosen to battle this out. Your call. I’m sorry, mate, that’s how it’s gonna happen.

[00:53:52] Stephen Fenech: But Commodus has got a little hidden blade, but Maximus overpowers him and forces the dagger backward into his throat and kills him. Kills him. Yeah. Dying from his poison stab wound.

[00:54:02] Trevor Long: This is the real upset of the movie is that Maximus doesn’t get up and limp away. He’s dying and dies on the ground. Maximus.

[00:54:11] Movie Audio: [The dying Maximus instructs Quintus to free his men, reinstate Senator Gracchus and realise Marcus Aurelius’s dream for Rome. Quintus orders the prisoners freed.]

[00:54:30] Stephen Fenech: And from that point, he just collapses backwards on the sand, and in his vision, he’s walking through the sunlit wheat fields and he sees his wife and his son. Lucilla carries out his wishes, ordering Maximus, uh, carried in the arena as an honored hero.

[00:54:48] Trevor Long: And this is awesome because like the senator’s the first guy to come up and go, who will help me carry him? The little Lucius is there to carry— like, it’s— meanwhile they’ve left Commodus. There’s a wide shot, they pick him up, they go to a wide shot of him being paraded out, and Commodus is just lying there.

[00:55:01] Stephen Fenech: I love it. That’s a great shot.

[00:55:03] Trevor Long: And then again, yeah, I don’t care about the visual effect of the Colosseum him. The effect there is you get this alone, there’s a body. That’s it.

[00:55:09] Stephen Fenech: That’s it. And that night, Juba returns to the empty floor of the Colosseum. Remember, he had the little small figures, carved figures of his wife and son, and he says goodbye.

[00:55:19] Trevor Long: I don’t think he buried them deep enough.

[00:55:20] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I could have. I thought the story—

[00:55:22] Trevor Long: I’m just like, mate, you need to dig a little bit deeper.

[00:55:25] Stephen Fenech: I thought exactly the same thing. Here’s another sword strike, the final sword strike. Among the changes that Oliver Reed was supposed to do that. Proximo was supposed to survive to the end. Oh right, he died, remember? So they killed him off earlier in the movie. He was supposed to bury it because remember he said, I’m going to profit from your death, and that was kind of him sort of saying, well, yeah, you’re dead, but here you are, you were a good fighter, whatever. Yeah, he was supposed to do that, so he had it rewritten so that Juba buries them. Wow. Yeah. Now there’s a— I’ve got a couple of lines here. The really nice line, really poetic line from—

[00:56:01] Trevor Long: I respect the fact that you’ve used the best lines in them, in in the run-through.

[00:56:03] Stephen Fenech: Oh yeah, of course.

[00:56:04] Trevor Long: But there are a couple of others that would be like, why didn’t we play that?

[00:56:07] Stephen Fenech: No, no, no, the best ones get a start. But here are a couple of others that I think needed to be as well. And this is a really nice, it’s quite a poetic thing from Marcus Aurelius.

[00:56:18] Movie Audio: [The dying Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus, who has never been to Rome, that he wonders how history will remember him — as philosopher, warrior, tyrant, or the emperor who restored Rome — and describes Rome as a fragile dream he could only whisper, which he fears will not survive the winter.]

[00:57:06] Trevor Long: That’s a great thing because it’s like you’re fighting for something you’ve never seen. He’s never been to Rome. He’s fighting for the concept of Rome. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:13] Stephen Fenech: And just following Marcus Aurelius. Yeah. Here’s another one with Juba, which is the guy at the end of Memory of Berenice. Oh, is it?

[00:57:21] Trevor Long: This is when he and Maximus are talking about their families? Yes. And the afterlife?

[00:57:26] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:57:26] Movie Audio: [Juba talks about his wife and daughters back home and wonders whether he’ll ever see them again. Maximus asks if he believes he’ll see them when he dies, and tells Juba that his own wife and son are already waiting for him.]

[00:58:18] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, that, that was a nice kind of theme of it, of the movie.

[00:58:24] Trevor Long: And one other thing I wanted to touch on too, did you pick up on the, the Commodus-Lucilla kind of, uh, dude, almost incestuous sort of, uh, I mean, she’s, she’s not slapping him because she’s got this weird respect.

[00:58:39] Stephen Fenech: She’s scared of him too, don’t forget.

[00:58:41] Trevor Long: She also has to have the respect because he can just order her killed, right? Dude, anyone but your sister, mate. Yeah, come away. What are you doing? Like, he asks, he says to her at the end that she has to give him a child of full blood.

[00:58:53] Stephen Fenech: I wanna come to you, yeah, I wanna come to you, yeah.

[00:58:55] Trevor Long: Anyway. Like, he asks her to have a baby with him so that they’ve got a full blood heir to the throne.

[00:59:01] Stephen Fenech: Crazy. Jesus. Plot holes, how did that happen? How did that happen? One of them’s gonna be about Oliver Reed, but first of all, the plot hole in the research of this, remember early on Marcus Aurelius The officer says Rome was founded as a republic. It was actually a monarchy, right, long before it became a republic. So it was a republic. Now let’s talk more about Oliver Reed. Died of a heart attack in a bar, a Maltese bar, right? He’s in Malta. Now, he apparently, he in that, on that night, drank 3 bottles of Captain Morgan’s Jamaican rum, bro, 8 bottles of German beer, numerous doubles of famous grouse whiskey, and a Hennessy cognac. I assume he wasn’t on the call sheet the next day. Well, he also beat 5 younger Royal Navy sailors at arm wrestling, so he was having quite a night. His bill, his bar bill, was 270 Maltese lira— they weren’t euros at the time— which is about $600 US dollars, was his bar tab. Permanently tabbed. Yeah, I permanently tabbed it. So yeah, the speaker workout.

[01:00:15] Trevor Long: Now, dude, I’ll tell you right now, in my rewatch this morning— yes. And so to be clear, I didn’t sit and go, I’m going to watch this whole— I just thought I need to remind myself of the story, right? And so for the first 30 minutes, I was just like letting it happen while I was kind of sitting at my desk and doing stuff. But I— so I didn’t intend to sit and watch. Yeah. But I’m sitting over there and my surround sound speakers are just near me. So mate, I’m hearing these— of the spears and the— I was, I got up and I sat and I watched the whole thing again because, yeah, dude, the surround sound on this is excellent. I reckon that opening battle is probably, it’s epic, the best of it.

[01:00:49] Stephen Fenech: But also the battle scenes are great. The subwoofers kick in like, my, I couldn’t watch this at night. I had to watch this late afternoon because little, my grandson would have, was asleep right above the theater.

[01:01:00] Trevor Long: He would have woken straight up.

[01:01:02] Stephen Fenech: But yeah, the music, music was good too.

[01:01:05] Trevor Long: I thought that the sound during the battle scenes, the somber sound, the somber music, it’s all well done. Very—

[01:01:10] Stephen Fenech: like I said, won an Oscar for best sound. Uh, thank God I got a big screen. The cinematographer was named John Mathieson. Yeah, the battle scenes, shots of Rome, the Colosseum, just— but not only just the sheer scale of it, but like you mentioned, sort of the shot selection and sort of the framing. It was—

[01:01:29] Trevor Long: it really drew you in. See, what I thought about was, I thought it’s not just an edit, it’s its direction, because in the edit you don’t get that top-down view of Russell Crowe. In the edit you don’t get that frame back of the feet hanging instead of seeing it early. You have to think of that before you shoot it. Absolutely. And that’s the genius of Ridley Scott, I think.

[01:01:50] Stephen Fenech: And look, the look of it, it was shot in Malta, so you get a lot, there’s a lot of places that you see that are not instantly recognizable, but you can tell the bits that were shot in Malta just have that, has that, yeah, Malta could be anywhere. Anything. Could be a modern— could be a modern city, could be an ancient place. Yeah, it looked epic, put it that way. Now, the business— let’s talk about the gladiators. Yeah, games began around 264 BC, and it was a religious rite to honor wealthy dead Romans, acting as a substitute for human sacrifice.

[01:02:25] Trevor Long: So over time— how’s it a substitute?

[01:02:27] Stephen Fenech: Well, instead of them just sacrificing someone, they said, let’s make it a battle, let’s make a battle out of Fun with the sacrifice. The politicians and emperors used the spectacles to gain public favor and display power, which is exactly what communists did. By the late Republic and early Empire, events turned into massive multi-day commercial productions. So it was the, the sport of those, at those times. Yeah. Wow. Uh, if the movie was made today, would it be, uh, well, I think with the effects— not that the effects were—

[01:02:58] Trevor Long: though they won an Oscar. There’s no doubt you would do a bit more polish. There’s no doubt, no, no question. But you don’t change a thing about this movie. Why on earth would you make this again? No, you wouldn’t.

[01:03:08] Stephen Fenech: Although we’ll talk later about a sequel and a potential prequel, but, um, more on that. Every day is a school day. What are we learning from this one?

[01:03:16] Trevor Long: Uh, don’t be a gladiator, um, if you can avoid it, because you’re definitely going to die.

[01:03:20] Stephen Fenech: Well, I think the thing— the words that come to mind: mortality. Yeah. Uh, your legacy.

[01:03:26] Trevor Long: Uh, legacy is a really good one, you know. Yeah.

[01:03:29] Stephen Fenech: Afterlife, you know, I think, well, you know, is it, is there, is that, is that your belief system that there’s an afterlife, there’s an Elysium waiting for you? Yeah. It’s also too a great story about power and corruption too. Like how— For sure. Power, absolute power corrupts absolutely sort of thing.

[01:03:45] Trevor Long: Which you could put into any setting of current day.

[01:03:48] Stephen Fenech: So it’s all, it’s all a power. It’s all, well, that’s why Commodus killed his old man for power. He wanted the power. Yeah. And then the other theme I think is vengeance, like duty. Where does duty end? And honor. And he, he served the Romans for so faithfully and then suddenly flipped it to—

[01:04:07] Trevor Long: and the other part of that morally is, you know, Maximus in this storyline, yeah, could have taken power. He could have killed Commodus when he reached for that arrowhead with Lucius by his side and just killed him right there and then. And taken power, didn’t he? Yeah, but he didn’t because he wanted to fulfill the obligations of Marcus Aurelius. Fair enough. Best use of the pause button—

[01:04:29] Stephen Fenech: I’ve even got pictures to illustrate this, which I’ll show you.

[01:04:31] Trevor Long: I do worry about whether this is like the, uh, the cutting in half of the woman. No, good, right? Okay.

[01:04:37] Stephen Fenech: Best use of the pause button: during the Rome v. Carthage battle, remember they had the chariots? Yep. A chariot slides sideways, it hits a wall, and a little blanket lifts up and reveals a large tank with pipe fittings in the back. I’ve got a picture picture of it. Oh my Lord. Oh wow. You’ll see there’s like a tank, like an air tank. Yeah, like a pneumatic, um, a tank with pipe fitting on top of it on the back of the train. Wow. But there’s one other one. Do you remember the ‘Are you not entertained’ scene?

[01:05:06] Trevor Long: Yes.

[01:05:07] Stephen Fenech: If you look closely, and I’ve even given you the time, the time marking, 1 hour 11 minutes and 50 seconds, pause it and you’ll see to the left of the screen, a person wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. It’s next to a camera.

[01:05:25] Trevor Long: So the camera is definitely not meant to be there. Yeah.

[01:05:28] Stephen Fenech: So some interesting little things. And there are other little mistakes too where he makes, um, that you see like people wearing— I think there was a scene where someone’s wearing glass sunglasses.

[01:05:38] Trevor Long: All right.

[01:05:39] Stephen Fenech: And other people in the background— I’m trying to— oh, there we go. I’m trying to make my script the right size again. Uh, so yeah, a couple of things. Yeah.

[01:05:46] Trevor Long: If you pause at the right time, when you’ve got that many extras and that wide shot, stuff’s gonna happen. Bound to happen, right?

[01:05:52] Stephen Fenech: Things you might not know. Do you remember early on in the movie where Maximus— I think Marcus Aurelius asks him, he goes, what’s home like? And he says how the kitchen is arranged and the smells and the light, and that was ad-libbed. And he was actually describing his own home in Australia. Remember, he had a property up in Lake Macquarie, up north. The other thing you might not know, that originally Maximus was supposed to to fight Proximo in the Colosseum after being captured as a penultimate blow from Commodus. But Oliver Reed’s death said, well, we need to write that part of the script, rewrite that part.

[01:06:28] Trevor Long: That’s why they brought the other dude back.

[01:06:29] Stephen Fenech: That’s why, like, another gladiator, another one back. Um, flawless. Now, the real-life Commodus— remember I said this is sort of partly true in history— was the only Roman emperor to fight as a gladiator in the arena. So that was fact. Commodus fought as a gladiator, but he did it a few times, not just once. But he was not killed in the arena. He was strangled in his bath by an athlete called Narcissus. Narcissus, which is, you know, narcissist. Yeah, that’s where that comes from. Really? Yeah. Ridley Scott insisted on including the scene of Maximus seeing Commodus. Remember I told you this, practicing his sword fighting? Yes. So that way later in the movie, it was good. Yeah, he could handle himself. Yeah. Uh, in the original drafts of the script, the main character was not Maximus, but his name was going to be Narcissus— Narcissus, the name of the man who actually killed Commodus in real life. Oh wow. Yeah, but they thought, no, Maximus.

[01:07:24] Trevor Long: No, good call on that one.

[01:07:26] Stephen Fenech: Uh, did you notice a couple of things here? The— when Maximus takes off his helmet at the end of the Rome-Carthage battle, look closely at his helmet, and you see that his fingers are making indentations in it. You can tell it’s made of rubber.

[01:07:41] Trevor Long: It’s made of rubber. Yeah.

[01:07:43] Stephen Fenech: And during the chariot battle, there’s a woman standing and clapping near the center of the screen above the entrance. She’s wearing modern sunnies as well. Yeah, whoopsie. And during the fight with the tigers, Maximus falls and rolls over, and he reveals he’s wearing lycra shorts under his under his costume. Yeah. All right, what’s the meme? Well, I’ve got, I’ve got 3 for you right here. What’s the meme? Are you not entertained? Isn’t that a good meme? You know, he’s— are you not entertained?

[01:08:13] Trevor Long: Oh, I feel like I want that in my GIF arsenal.

[01:08:16] Stephen Fenech: On my signal, unleash hell, which is pretty cool. Yeah, for sure. And what we do in life echoes in eternity. Can you think of any others better than that? Honestly, they’re so good. By any other name? Gladiator is a good name, or could it have been a cool—

[01:08:31] Trevor Long: it could have been called Maximus.

[01:08:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I want to watch that. Or what about The Spaniard? It could have been called The Coliseum. The Coliseum, yeah. Or what about something really out there like Echo in Eternity, like, like he says?

[01:08:44] Trevor Long: I’m not going to see that, mate.

[01:08:47] Stephen Fenech: You think that’s a bit wishy-washy, right? Oh, the one thing you want, I mean, the, the breastplate with Maximus’s armor. Yeah, I’ll take that, no question. His helmet, remember the one with the that he took off. Now that actually sold through the prop store in 2024 for £225,000 British pounds. Jesus Christ, that mask. So what’s that, about half a million Aussie dollars? Pretty solid. I wouldn’t mind the Commodus’s dagger. Remember the one he stabs him with near the end?

[01:09:17] Trevor Long: Maximus’s sword, that ivory handle. Yeah, beautiful sword.

[01:09:20] Stephen Fenech: Or the figures that of his wife. Oh wow, yes. The one he buries.

[01:09:24] Trevor Long: I’d have those. Oh yes, that’d be cool. I’d want them in the dirt though. Yeah, like in a—

[01:09:28] Stephen Fenech: okay, presentation box with dirt in it. Okay, 100%. Righto, 3 questions for Trev. Hit me. Did you consider the film having a happy ending? Meaning like he meets his wife and son in the afterlife, does that constitute a happy ending for you?

[01:09:44] Trevor Long: Hmm, because he died. That’s really, really interesting. Yeah, I think it goes back to that point about there not being a sex scene with between the sister in him. I think it helps with that. Yeah. No, no, I don’t think it’s a happy ending. Yeah, well, I know it’s hard. That was him semi-happy, him being taken out as a hero. Yeah, with old mate lying dead. Yeah, no, I’m going happy ending. Yeah, okay, good, because yeah, it’s not the afterlife that does it, it’s the way he’s respected.

[01:10:11] Stephen Fenech: Uh, it’s the afterlife that does it for me. His wife and son are there waiting for him instead of— they’ve reunited, you know. Okay, question 2: too long Too short or just right? Now you watch the 2-hour 20, I watched the 2-hour 50. It wasn’t much difference. I think there’s the scenes, the sort of scenes were longer and other things, but no, that’s, that’s, you know me, I love it. Yeah, you love a short movie. So 2 hours 20 was good?

[01:10:32] Trevor Long: I’m okay with it.

[01:10:32] Stephen Fenech: Oh, okay. I’m okay with it. What about sequel, prequel, or leave it alone? Leave it the hell alone. Well, I’ve got news for you, they did make a sequel. Gladiator 2 is out. Denzel Washington was in it as well as some others, and it actually was a a bad movie. There are ties back. I think Connie Nielsen, Lucilla, is in it, and the son— the, the— I think there’s a tie back to Russell Crowe’s not in it, but there’s a tie back to Maximus in the story. You think, oh my God. But a prequel was considered, but it was changed into a sequel that would play later, so which was just a couple years ago. And the focus of the prequel was going to be on Lucilla’s son Lucius. Russell Crowe showed interest in reprising his role as Maximus, but, uh, a script was written which followed Maximus in the afterlife, but he thought that was abandoned because it didn’t feel like it was in the right spirit of its predecessor. Fair enough. So they thought, let’s shelve that. Alrighty, that is Gladiator. Give us your wrap-up and rating. I thoroughly enjoyed that movie.

[01:11:37] Trevor Long: It’s a great story. It was beautifully shot. Yeah, I could watch it again now. I could watch it again right now. Really enjoyed it. It’s a 9.5 for me. I wanted to go 10, but I just— 5? I just feel like generous. Yeah, 9.5. I’m a 9, right?

[01:11:51] Stephen Fenech: You’re a 9? Okay. Yeah, um, it’s like near— it’s a near-perfect movie. Uh, yeah, I mean, you know, I don’t give 9s out lightly.

[01:12:00] Trevor Long: Well, I don’t give 9.5s out lightly, my friend.

[01:12:03] Stephen Fenech: Okay, so you’re a 9. 9.5. I’m a 9. All right, uh, let’s talk about next week. All right, hit me. Next week, solid gear change. Really? We’re watching, uh, it’s a comedy called Little Miss Sunshine. Okay. Came out in 2006, right? Uh, starring Steve Carell. Okay. Toni Collette. Okay. Alan Arkin. Greg Kinnear. Had some success at the Oscars as well. Oscar-winning film. Sunshine. Yeah. Okay, I’ll tell you this, the story is about a family, a dysfunctional family, and the— it’s like a road film where they’re taking their, the young daughter to a beauty pageant, a young beauty pageant, and the whole stuff that unfolds in the journey.

[01:12:45] Trevor Long: Okay, good movie.

[01:12:47] Stephen Fenech: Sunshine, you’ll enjoy it. Okay, uh, now how many Oscars did it win? Was it A, none, B, 1, C, 2, or D, 4?

[01:12:57] Trevor Long: I’m gonna give you 2 because it feels like— correct. So Success means more than one.

[01:13:00] Stephen Fenech: Two, it won Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin, which is the old grandfather, and it won Best Original Screenplay for Michael Arndt. So there you have it. I’ve nailed that. That is next week, and that’s a nice short film. It’s an hour 40. I love it. Yeah, so that was, uh, well, that was Gladiator. I’m glad you enjoyed that, but we’re going to have a solid change next week.

[01:13:20] Trevor Long: A little bit of sunshine. Honestly, this is— Gladiator is a movie you you should tell your friends to watch if they have, if they’re young. Absolutely. And listen, I’m going to say to Jackson, mate, you’re 20. Yeah. You should see this movie.

[01:13:31] Stephen Fenech: Watch it. If you haven’t seen this, then listen to The Best Movies You Never Seen podcast. Righto, see you, mate. See you, mate.