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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Gladiator: Extended Definitive Edition (Blu-ray) (2000)

Gladiator: Extended Definitive Edition (Blu-ray) (2000)

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Released 29-Sep-2009

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Audio Commentary
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Introduction
Deleted Scenes
Gallery
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 170:56
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 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
Case Amaray Variant
RPI $39.95 Music Hans Zimmer
Lisa Gerrard
Klaus Badelt


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
French dts 5.1
German dts 5.1
Spanish dts 5.1
Portuguese dts 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 2.40:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Ridley Scott's Gladiator is a visceral historical spectacle that delivers 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 at the time of its theatrical release. A highly anticipated home theatre title, Gladiator became one of the top selling DVDs locally and overseas. Now in the age of High Definition, an Extended Edition has been released on Blu-ray, with about 15 minutes of footage inserted back into to the film, and a second Blu-ray disc loaded with bonus material for fans. But sadly, Gladiator has become one of the most controversial HD releases, with screenshots of the transfer plastered across the Internet since its release. But is it really that bad?

    "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, (inexplicably) he is captured by slave traders and sold into slavery. He eventually 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, The Patriot, and Apocalypto. 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 over the years, 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 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 Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator and Blade Runner have become some of my most played DVDs and Blu-rays. Like his brother, fellow director Tony Scott (Spy Game, Crimson Tide, Top Gun, Man on Fire, Deja Vu), 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 by different writers 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 shooting.

    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 Blu-ray, 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. From the initial menu, viewers can select to watch either the extended or theatrical versions, via seamless branching.

    So what's new with the Extended Edition of the film? In this version the running time has been lengthened by about 15 minutes to a total running time about 171 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, but this does allow some breathing space for the moments of grand spectacle.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Locally, we have had no less than three stand-alone DVD releases of Gladiator, including a SuperBit edition, and I have bought all three of them! As with the DVD, Gladiator has been a highly anticipated release for Blu-ray and anything less than perfect was always going to disappoint home theatre fans. As widely reported in many blogs, fan sites, and Internet forums, Gladiator has some issues with its video transfer. That noted, the transfer overall is still a noticeable improvement from the DVD, and in my opinion, worth the $37 to upgrade to high definition.

    As with the DVD, the first thing viewers will notice 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.

    The Blu-ray transfer has been mastered in 1920 x 1080p, using AVC MPEG-4 compression. Originally shot in Super 35, the film was originally screened with a theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The High Definition transfer is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1, in a native 16x9 frame.

    While some scenes appear soft, especially those with heavy use of CGI, the sharpness of the image is generally very good throughout. The Blu-ray exhibits a new depth in the image. For example look at the scene under the coliseum at 89:22, which looks like a room one can step in to. The black level is excellent, with deep and true blacks. The shadow detail is also good, for example look at the textures in candle-lit scene at 23:30.

    Sadly, there are some problems: Firstly, the level of grain in the picture seems to vary throughout, and I'm not sure how much of this is due to the original film stock. Regardless, this issue seems more noticeable in high definition. Also, the transfer is plagued by edge enhancement, for example look at the halos around the spears at 69:58 or around the trees on the horizon at 49:51. The other issues commonly complained about on the Internet include the use of digital noise reduction and the 'touching up' of the picture to remove dirt and scratches, which in turn removed some tiny details from the image. Yes, the image often looks very digitally processed, but it always did. As I note above, the extensive use of CGI and green-screen shooting often makes characters appear 'photo-shopped' into their scenes. A good example of this is the scene where Commodus stands on his balcony overlooking Rome at 148:55. So yes, there are some noticeable problems, but apart from the moments of excessive edge enhancement, I never found any of them distracting. What I do find distracting, and I wish they would fix are some of the goofs in framing, such as where the shot is far too wide at 71:50 where members of the crew can be clearly seen on the left of the screen wearing jeans and t-shirts. Since the film was shot on Super-35, why not re-frame these scenes, or digitally fix them?

    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.

    The English subtitles are accurate to the spoken word.

    This is a BD-50 (50 GB Blu-ray disc), with the feature divided into 28 chapters.

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

Audio

   The quality of the audio is simply magnificent, although at times the explosive effects and music creates an aural bombardment. Presented theatrically with a choice of dts, SDDS, and Dolby Digital Surround EX audio, Gladiator’s cacophony of battle arrives on Blu-ray with a superb dts-HD 5.1 Master Audio track.

   Although there are some obvious moments of ADR, the dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English track. The dialogue is never lost in the heat of battle or action set pieces.

    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, The Last Samurai, Kung Fu Panda, and Gladiator, have really made an incredible impact on my viewing experience of these films.

    Winning Oscars for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, 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 as with the DVD, the rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score, such as heightening the tension of the build up to the opening battle as well as providing ambience, such as the background sounds of the party at 19:06. 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, and to the quieter moments, such as the background ambience of the marketplace at 57:00.

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively to support the sound effects throughout.

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

Extras

    As a two-disc Blu-ray set, there are plenty of genuine extras, almost all of which are in standard definition, and ported from earlier DVD releases. The local release comes in a tin container at selected retail outlets.

Floating Menu

    A simple menu structure which can be accessed while the film continues to play.

Disc One

Introduction to film

    Presented in standard definition, Ridley Scott (Director) provides a brief introduction to the Extended Edition.

Audio Commentary – Extended Edition

    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.

Audio Commentary – Theatrical Edition

    Ridley Scott (Director) is joined this time by cinematographer, John Mathieson, and editor, Pietro Scalia, for a more technical commentary of the film, and the challenges of the production and filming.

Deleted Scenes

    Thirteen deleted/extended scenes are offered when the Theatrical version is selected.

The Scrolls of Knowledge

    There is also a BD Live and U-Control feature on Disc One, which enables a trivia track and some interactive features.

Disc Two

Visions from Elysium: Topic Portal

    There are over 200 selections to choose from. Most are short clips of a few minutes each, covering everything from alternate titles to behind-the-scenes footage to short interviews with cast and crew. A lot of this material is repeated as part of other extras below.

Featurette - Strength and Honor: Creating the World of Gladiator (196:50)

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

Image & Design

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 I & II

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

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.

Multi-Angle Comparisons

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

Gallery-Storyboard Archive

    A collection of stills of storyboards from 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.

Photo Gallery I & II

    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.

Weapons Primer: Simon Atherton

    A look at some of the weapons used in the film, both historical and others which have been invented.

Abandoned Sequences and Deleted Scenes

    This extra contains:

The Aurelian Archives

    This is another expansive collection of extras divided into sections:

The Making of Gladiator (25:03) – A general overview of the production of the film.

Gladiator Games: The Roman Bloodsport (50:04) – A look at the 400 year history of Gladiator games

Hans Zimmer: Scoring Gladiator (20:42) – Zimmer discusses the film and his approach to composing the score

An Evening with Russell Crowe (27:15) – Crowe appears on stage at a promotional event answering questions from a crowd

Maximus Uncut: Between Takes with Russell Crowe (8:00) – A gag reel of Crowe playing the fool.

My Gladiator Journal by Spencer Treat Clark – A text-based diary accompanied with some happy snaps.

VFX Explorations: Germania and Rome (23:50) - 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.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The two-disc Blu-ray Extended Edition of Gladiator has also been released in Region 1 (Region A) with the same content.

Summary

    So, is it worth 'upgrading'? Yes. Firstly, the sound is truly magnificent. As for the picture, yes it has some problems, but none so great that I would prefer to watch Gladiator on DVD. This Blu-ray is now the best way to experience and enjoy Gladiator at home.

The video quality is good overall.

The audio quality is excellent.

The extras are genuine and plentiful.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Review Equipment
DVDSony Playstation 3 (HDMI 1.3) with Upscaling, using HDMI output
DisplayPanasonic High Definition 50' Plasma (127 cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationSamsung Pure Digital 6.1 AV Receiver (HDMI 1.3)
SpeakersSamsung

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