2000 USA Color 154 minutes

The time is late in the second century A.D., and Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe) is leading his armies to squelch rebellion in the conquered state of Germania. Maximus wants only to finish the job and return home to the wife and child he hasn't seen in three years, but the aging and infirm emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), to whom Maximus is devoted, has other plans. As fine a General as he may be, Maximus is a deliberately poor politician. And so it is no surprise when the prodigal political creature, Cesar's son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), takes the throne with the aid of a little poison and immediately sets about to secure his position.

Once in power Commodus orders the death of Maximus and his family. Maximus kills off his attackers, but is too late to save his wife and son. With no family, no home, no country, he's purchased by a gladiator entrepreneur (Oliver Reed, in his final performance) and forced to fight for the entertainment of the mob.

He quickly rises through the ranks and earns a reputation as a tough bastard, though he's emotionally barren without a will to live. Opportunity presents Maximus with a chance to exact vengeance when he reappears in Rome with the popular fanfare of a celebrated athlete and comes face to face with the new Emperor Commodus, who figured Maximus to be dead. The stage is then set for a bloodlusty fable of revenge as Maximus plots to kill the man who betrayed him and slaughtered his family.

Facts

Trivia

Release date: 1 May 2000

Originally Oliver Reed was one of the movie's survivors. His death forced a rewrite in which Proximo dies. Some of his sequences had to be re-edited and a double, photographed in the shadows and with a 3D CGI mask of Reed's face, was used as a stand-in.

Richard Harris, (Marcus Aurelius) was originally set to play Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) (but left the film due to artistic differences with director Anthony Mann and was replaced by Christopher Plummer).

Originally Oliver Reed was one of the movie's survivors. Reeds death forced a rewrite in which Proximo dies.

Richard Harris, (Marcus Aurelius) was originally set to play Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) (but left the film due to artistic differences with director Anthony Mann and was replaced by Christopher Plummer).

Cast

Ridley Scott

• Russell Crowe .... Maximus
• Joaquin Phoenix .... Commodus
• Connie Nielsen .... Lucilla
• Oliver Reed .... Proximo
• Richard Harris .... Marcus Aurelius
• Derek Jacobi .... Senator Gracchus
• Djimon Hounsou .... Juba
• David Schofield .... Senator Falco
• John Shrapnel .... Senator Gaius
• Tomas Arana .... Quintus
• Ralf Moeller .... Vibius
• Spencer Treat Clark .... Lucius
• David Hemmings .... Cassius
• Tommy Flanagan .... Cicero
• Sven-Ole Thorsen .... Tigris

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