Gladiator: Extended Special Edition (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Introduction-Ridley Scott (Director) Audio Commentary-Ridley Scott (Director) And Russell Crowe (Actor) Informational Subtitles-Are You Not Entertained?: Historical & ProductionTriviaTrack Featurette-Tale Of The Scribes: Story Development Featurette-The Tools Of War: Weapons Featurette-Attire Of The Realm: Costume Design Featurette-The Heat Of Battle: Production Journals Featurette-Shadows And Dust: Resurrecting Proximo Featurette-The Glory Of Rome: Visual Effects Featurette-Echoes In Eternity: Release And Impact Featurette-Production Design Primer: Arthur Max Gallery-Production Design Gallery Featurette-Storyboard Demonstration: Sylvain Despretz Storyboard Comparisons-With Optional Commentary Gallery-Storyboards, Costume Design Gallery-Photo Deleted Scenes-And Abandoned Sequences More…-VFX Explorations, Trailers And TV Spots
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	163:52 (Case: 172)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (80:07) Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Ridley Scott
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Russell Crowe Joaquin Phoenix Connie Nielsen Oliver Reed Richard Harris Derek Jacobi Djimon Hounsou David Schofield John Shrapnel Tomas Arana Ralf Moeller Spencer Treat Clark David Hemmings
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Klaus Badelt Lisa Gerrard Hans Zimmer

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary English Information	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Winner of a Best Picture Oscar, Ridley Scott's Gladiator is a visceral historical spectacle that delivered a type of sentimental sword-and-scandal extravaganza that movie audiences hadn't seen in decades. With an intelligent blend of exciting, classic heroism and moving human drama, Gladiator became both a monster commercial and critical success (and one of the top selling R4 DVDs of all time). Now a three-disc Extended Edition has been released on DVD, with about 15 minutes of footage inserted back into to the film, and plenty of bonus material for fans.

"The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an empire."

    Set in 180 A.D., the Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe) is a decent and noble family man. He is commanding the Roman army in a final campaign against the barbarians of Germania, which if successful holds the promise of a lasting peace in the Empire. Maximums dreams of the war ending, and returning home to his beloved family and farm in Spain.

    Following Maximus' victory, the frail emperor, the learned and wise Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), privately advises Maximus of his intention of making him his heir, as Protector of Rome, until the Roman Senate can assume control of the Empire. Aurelius wishes his legacy to be a lasting peace, with Rome returning to being a Republic.

    However, upon hearing of the emperor's plan, Aurelius' ambitious and evil son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) murders his father, seizes the throne, and orders Maximus' execution. The cruel Commodus also sends a team of assassins to kill Maximus' wife and child.

    Maximus escapes his captors, but wounded he is (inexplicably) captured by slave traders and sold into slavery. As a slave he becomes a gladiator, where at last he sees a way to travel to Rome and claim his revenge on Commodus.

    The plot of a man revenging the deaths of his loved ones is not new. Indeed, it seems to be the plot line for many of Mel Gibson's better films, such as Mad Max, Lethal Weapon 2, Hamlet, Braveheart, and The Patriot. However, the story is told on a grand scale, and in the sweeping epic style of classic films, such as Spartacus, Ben-Hur and Cleopatra.

    I have always loved these classic epics, and the clash of swords and the roar of the fickle Roman crowd is oft heard echoing from my home theatre. However, where Gladiator excels is that it is far more interested in entertaining rather than preaching to its modern audience. Indeed, the Christian themes that often weighed down the classic sword-and-scandal epics of the 1950s and 60s have been replaced with themes of cynicism, hatred, death, betrayal, and pessimism. However, the epic melodrama, rich characters, blood-soaked battle scenes and dramatic gladiatorial contests all still make for a rousing and majestic tale.

    As Maximus, Crowe is brilliant, and he deserved his Oscar as Best Actor. In the role that made him an international A-List star Crowe brings a sincere nobility and sensitivity to the role, while also managing to provide the strength and courage of a heroic action-hero and leading man. Other actors who also shine include Joaquin Phoenix as the devious and long-suffering Commodus, Connie Nielsen as Commodus' quietly intelligent sister Lucilla, Harris as the frail Aurelius, deeply concerned with his legacy, Derek Jacobi and the noble and caring Roman Senator Gracchus, Djimon Hounsou as fellow gladiator and friend Juba, and the late Oliver Reed as a devious but decent gladiator master, Proximo.

    Of course Gladiator is helmed by one of my favourite directors, Sir Ridley Scott, who as I wrote in my review of Black Hawk Down: Collectors' Edition, time and time again takes scripts and lifts them into being art as film. For example, without his vision and craft, movies such as Alien or Hannibal could easily have ended up as being merely B-Grade schlock horror films. Movies such as Gladiator and Blade Runner have become some of my most played DVDs. Like his brother, fellow director Tony Scott (Spy Game, Crimson Tide, Top Gun), Ridley injects a lot of atmosphere into his movies — swirling dust, turning fans, flags flapping in the breeze; and like Black Hawk Down, Gladiator is dripping with atmosphere, and one can't help but feel immersed into the world he presents.

    Apart from the wonderful acting and commanding direction, the film also boasts a beautifully written script by David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson, Arthur Max's excellent production design, John Mathieson's fluid photography, Pietro Scalia's expert editing, Janty Yates' beautiful costumes, and Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard's moving music. How the script and dialogue ended up being so good is a true mystery, when you consider that the script was re-written a number of times during shooting, and Oliver Reed, who plays one of the main characters, died during the production, which caused another major re-write of the story close to the end of principal photography.

    Director Ridley Scott is no stranger to the Director's Cut. Indeed with Blade Runner, he helped make this concept popular. However, at the opening of this DVD, Scott points out that this is not a Director's Cut, but rather a new version which has added some extra material that "might" be worth seeing.

    So what's new with the Extended Edition of the film? In this version the running time has been lengthened by about 15 minutes. While there are a few new scenes, most of this extra time is taken up by slightly extending a number of scenes in the original theatrical version. The new scenes of intrigue and politicking do add some extra depth to the characters, and to the relationship between Commodus and Lucilla, but there is nothing that notable. In short, there are no extra action scenes or any extra moments of violence or nudity (not that there was any nudity to begin with) - there's now just more talking.

Video

    The two previous R4 DVD releases of Gladiator, the Deluxe Collectors' Edition and the SuperBit edition, were both sublime. This new version is no different, and boasts a beautiful transfer. Indeed, the transfer is magnificent, and close to perfect. As a grand epic film with sweeping vistas, I urge you to watch this film with a projector if you can. The best parts of this film will be completely lost on a smaller screen.

    One thing to note is that Gladiator has a particular visual style. Even with its $US100 million-plus budget, Gladiator's CGI effects never look as impressive as those sword-and-scandal epics from the 1950s and 1960s. Those films were often shot in 70 mm, and featured gigantic, lavish sets and casts of thousands.

    However, perhaps because of the limitations with the CGI backgrounds, the film is often very dark and shadowy. However, Scott is careful to provide a consistent visual style throughout. A style that is new to this genre, and very different to the almost over-saturated tones of Technicolor, or the almost bleached-out sterility often used in past depictions of ancient Rome. Instead, the world of Gladiator is dirty, sandy, and gritty, and usually rendered in earthy tones. Unlike the gigantic sets of the past, often bathed in natural light, Gladiator presents a lived-in look to the world we see, and adds a heightened sense of realism.

    Shot in Super 35, the film was originally screened with a theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The DVD's transfer is very close to this, presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is excellent throughout, for example consider the detailed outline of the rocks in the desert at 42:11, or the cityscape of Rome at 60:53. The black level is excellent, with deep and true blacks. The shadow detail is also excellent - for example, look at the textures in candle-lit scene at 16:51.

    Colour is used extensively in the storytelling, and the hues are magnificent, with a rich colour palette exhibiting the coloured themes of Scott's vision. The skin tones are accurate.

    While some of the film stock appears a little grainy at times, there are no problems with MPEG artefacts.

    I am tempted to say the same for Film-To-Video Artefacts, but some minor aliasing can be spotted at times, such as the slight shimmer at 65:48. It is so minor one has to actively look for it, and I never found it distracting.

    Tiny film artefacts such as small black or white marks appear infrequently throughout. Even when projected onto a large screen, most are hard to spot.

    English for the Hearing Impaired, English Audio Commentary, and English Information subtitles are present, and the English subtitles are accurate to the spoken word.

    This is a Dual-Layer disc, with the layer change (unfortunately) placed during a scene at 80:07. The feature is divided into 28 chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Presented theatrically with a choice of dts, SDDS, and Dolby Digital Surround EX audio, I imagine that a number of fans, including me, were disappointed to hear that the dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) audio that has been offered on the last two R4 DVD releases has been dropped from this one.

    The reasoning is explained on the trivia track: "For this Extended Edition DVD, a similarly extended dts track would simply not fit on a single disc without seriously compromising picture and sound quality. The average bitrate for the Extended Edition is approximately 4.58. With a dts track added, it would have been lowered to approximately 3.83. For a film as visually stunning and editorially complex as Gladiator, this low bitrate would have been unacceptable."

    That said, the English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) audio is stunning in its clarity and level of immersion. An English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) audio track is also provided.

    Although there are some obvious moments of ADR, the dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score is credited to Lisa Gerrard and the great Hans Zimmer, who again has crafted a beautiful and exotic score. As always, Zimmer not only manages to heighten the screen emotion but also transports the viewer to another time and place. Zimmer's evocative and ethnic-flavoured scores for films such as MI2, Black Hawk Down, and Gladiator have really made an incredible impact on my viewing experience of these films.

    With an Oscar for Best Sound, it should not be surprising that the surround presence and activity is impressive and immersive. The film has a wonderful sound design by the very talented Per Hallberg, and the rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score, such as heightening the tension of the build up to the opening battle at 7:08, as well as providing ambience, such as the background creak of the wagon at 12:40. Apart from these moments of subtlety, there is also extensive use of rear directional effects and panning between speakers, and the rears do add nicely to the cacophony of the battle scenes, or the roar of the Roman crowd, for example at 86:23.

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively to support the sound effects, such as the explosion at 8:02 or the thunder of hooves at 88:43.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    As a three-disc set, there are plenty of genuine extras.

Menus

    Animated with audio

Disc One

Forced Anti-Piracy Advert

    Not really an 'extra', but this annoying cr*p plays automatically upon loading the disc. It is then followed by a series of equally annoying and long, copyright warnings and disclaimers.

Introduction to film (0:32)

    Ridley Scott (Director) provides a brief introduction.

Audio Commentary

    Ridley Scott (Director) and Russell Crowe (Actor) provide a chatty and screen-specific commentary, filled with anecdotes and behind-the-scenes trivia. One slightly annoying feature is that Crowe keeps interrupting Scott, and speaking over the top of him.

Informational Subtitles - Are You Not Entertained?: Historical & Production Trivia Track

    These subtitles provide a mixture of Roman history and background trivia about the film.

Disc Two

Featurette - Strength and Honour (196:47)

    Running for over three hours, this comprehensive and detailed featurette would easily be one of the best DVD extras I've encountered. It is divided into a number of shorter chapters, running for between about 12 and 65 minutes each. The chapters are:

• Featurette-Tale Of The Scribes: Story Development - Featuring writer David Franzoni, this looks at how the story was born and developed.
• Featurette-The Tools Of War: Weapons - Supervising Armorer Simon Atherton and Technical Adviser John Eagle guide us through some of the devastating weapons and tactics of the era that appear in the film.
• Featurette-Attire Of The Realm: Costume Design - Oscar winner Janty Yates discusses the characters, actors, and costumes of the film. She also shares the behind-the-scenes drama and difficulties with a production of this scale.
• Featurette-The Heat Of Battle: Production Journals - Ridley Scott shares some of the difficulties with shooting this film.
• Featurette-Shadows And Dust: Resurrecting Proximo - This is partly a tribute to Oliver Reed, but also a fascinating look at how SFX, a body double, and clever editing allowed the filmmakers to finish a few scenes in a film where one of the main characters has died. As an aside, I was surprised at the extensive use of body doubles in this film, which includes the opening shot of Maximus' hand running over the wheat - which is not Crowe at all.
• Featurette-The Glory Of Rome: Visual Effects - Scott and John Nelson provide a glimpse as to how Rome and the ancient world was created through sets , models, and the wonder of CGI.
• Featurette-Echoes In Eternity: Release And Impact - Key cast and crew reflect on the success of the film, both commercially and critically. This chapter also includes some Oscar footage. Interestingly, Scott makes the comment that he doesn't know how a film can win Best Film, and the director not win Best Director.

Disc Three

Featurette-Production Design Primer: Arthur Max

    A short piece where Max describes how he came to be involved with the project. There is also some behind-the-scenes footage of the sets.

Gallery-Production Design Gallery

    Some of the many sketches used in the production and design of the film.

Featurette-Storyboard Demonstration: Sylvain Despretz

    A look at how storyboarding was used extensively in shooting the film. We also see Despretz at work, sketching some designs.

Storyboard Comparisons

    With optional commentary, this extra provides multi-angle comparisons between the storyboards and three scenes from the film:

• Germania Battle
• Chain fight
• Battle of Carthage

Gallery-Storyboards

    A collection of stills of storyboards from the film, and a look at Ridleygrams - Scott's sketches for the film.

Gallery-Costume Design

    Divided by character, there are a collection of design sketches and a few photographic stills of costumes and characters from film.

Gallery-Photo

    Divided by shooting location, there are a collection of stills taken from the production in England, Morocco, and Malta. There are also photos from some of the film's key scenes and some marketing and promotional shots.

Abandoned Sequences and Deleted Scenes

    This extra contains:

• Alternative Opening Title Design, presented by designer, Nick Livesey;
• Blood Vision - a  mixture of storyboard and Super 35mm film of the sequence cut from the film where Maximus escapes his execution, and has a vision of the death of his family;
• Rhino Fight - Mainly comprised of storyboards, if you've seen the extras from the original release, this abandoned idea will already be familiar to you. I'm hoping that one day a new Further Extended edition will appear with this scene.
• Choose Your Weapon - Maximus and Juba talk weaponry before their first encounter in the gladiatorial ring.

VFX Explorations

    A few British VFX people (who don't seem to be named anywhere) show off some of their work from their computers on their desks.

Trailers And TV Spots (11:54)

    A series of repetitive theatrical trailers, teasers, and TV Spots, which seem to be taken from the US release of the film.

    The three-disc Extended Edition of Gladiator has also been released on DVD in Region 1.

    The Region 4 DVD misses out on:

• Choice of watching either the Theatrical or Extended version of the film, via seamless branching.
• French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
• Two trailers: The Ring 2 and Saving Private Ryan.

    The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

• Nothing.

    Apparently the R1 is also packaged with a Slipcase and Booklet with liner notes by Scott. As the review discs came without packaging, I cannot comment about this. Apart from a few minor differences, it seems that the R1, R2, and R4 are all pretty much the same.

    So, is it worth 'upgrading'? While I did enjoy the Extended Edition, to be honest, I still prefer my SuperBit edition projected onto a big screen with dts sound. I don't think that the extra 15 minutes makes this film any better, nor adds anything of note.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is also excellent, but there is no dts track.

    The extras are genuine and plentiful.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall