Gladiator was a massive success of a movie, winning Oscars for, among other things, Best Picture and Best Actor at the 2000 academy awards. It starred Russell Crowe as a general in the Roman Army named Maximus, who, at the beginning of the film, is leading the army against the last expansion of the Roman Empire under Emporer Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris) in Germania (which is now Germany and the surrounding countries). Marcus Aurelius is dying and trying to convince Maximus to become the leader of the Empire, having made the decision that his powers will not transfer to his immoral son Commodus (played by Joquin Phonix). Needless to say, things go sideways and Maximus ends up becoming a slave and forced to fight as a Gladiator in the servitude of Proximo, a former Gladiator played by the noted English actor Oliver Reed. The main cast is rounded out by Connie Nielsen who played Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius, and Djimon Hounsou, who plays Juba, another slave in servitude to Proximo.
The 4k Blu-ray set is actually a three-disc set. The UHD disc has both the theatrical version of the movie and the extended edition (which adds about 20 minutes to the total run time). The 4k transfer was done very well, and the movie looks and sounds great in the UHD format. On the UHD disc, the only extras are the commentary tracks. The commentary track on the extended edition of the movie includes Ridley Scott and Rusell Crowe, and on the theatrical version, the commentary track includes Scott, the editor, and the cinematographer. All the rest of the extras are on the "regular" Blu-Ray discs. On each version of the movie, there is an option to watch an in-movie experience in which facts about the movie pop up at the bottom of the screen. On the left side, there are video clips that are made available as the movie goes along that gives topical information and/or behind the scenes clips, and on the right side, there is a list of topics that you can select to be played when the second disc (with just special features on it) is played.
The second disc, as I said above has just special features on it. And there is a shit-ton of features. The topic portal will play the behind-the-scenes and making-of clips from the topics you chose while watching the in-movie experience (or you can select them on that screen). If you play them all, it is about six hours in length. Although some of the same clips and soundbites are used for multiple topics so it does get a bit repetitive. Then, there is a three hour and twenty minutes long series of making-of features, with some material repeated from the topic portal clips, but some of its own material as well. Then there is a journal that Spencer Treat Clark (who played Lucilla's son) made during the production of the movie. It is not a video journal though, so you have to actually read it on the screen and flip through multiple pages. It is just a massive amount of bonus material if you like going through it. My favorite features were the ones detailing how they finished the role of Proximo when Oliver Reed died with about three weeks left in production, the pains that arose during production of the movie, and the stand-up comedy/Gladiator Q&A set that Russell Crowe did a few years after the movie come out.
Overall, the movie has been around long enough now that most people will know if they like it or not. For most people, the decision is really going to be whether to invest in the 4k UHD upgrade (especially for those who, like me, already double-dipped for the original Blu-Ray release). Personally, I think the A/V upgrade made the triple-dip worth it for me. The movie looks and sounds great on UHD, and is a noticeable upgrade from the blu-ray transfer. It is a great movie, with a great story, and, if you love bonus features, this has about as much as any movie has put out. I highly recommend the movie and the 4k UHD upgrade.
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