So. If you’re here then you’ve watched Gladiator in its entirety. If you haven’t, then get out of this post, or I’ll unleash hell. And I’ll say those words in an Australian accent that should be English (sorry Russel Crowe, your overall performance is top-notch, but it went a bit off here. Don’t shout at me like you shouted at that interviewer during that awkward Robin Hood interview).
There’s plenty of great scenes to be found in Ridley Scott’s ancient award-winning epic, but nothing hits the feels quite like the final sequence. Maximus has finally achieved vengeance by defeating archenemy Commodus, despite being deceitfully stabbed by the villain only minutes before behind closed doors. As Maximus lets Commodus’ corpse drop to the ground before a shocked crowd and stares into the distance, Lisa Gerrard’s rousing ‘Now we are Free’ begins with graceful force as Maximus has visions of the afterlife, where he opens a door. Before venturing further, however, Maximus gives brief orders to Quintus to free his men and bring about the dream of Rome. Now near death and touching fields of wheat, Maximus succumbs to his injuries as he falls and Gerrard’s tones slowly rise, with the dying man only making sure that Lucius is safe before exhaling his last breadth, finally being reunited with his wife and son in the great beyond.
It’s a powerful end to a powerful film, no doubt in thanks to the final emotive tune. The first image we see in Scott’s film is Maximus’ hand touching wheat, and it is one of the last as Maximus reaches paradise. Zimmer described this moment as poetic, and noted in a behind the scenes clip that ‘It’s music that gives you license to the poetic’. While the rousing speeches in the finale have great effect, the poignancy as Maximus finally reunites with his family would never have the same emotional gut punch without Gerrard’s moving tones. According to Zimmer, a member of the production originally played a Dead Can Dance CD in which Lisa Gerrard sang, with Zimmer ultimately hiring her, and she went on to produce many of Gladiator’s most memorable themes. The film’s central theme, which Gerrard referred to as ‘The Earth Theme’, plays an important narrative role throughout the plot, becoming both foreboding and relaxing, with Zimmer turning it into ‘a thousand different emotions’.
If you’re interested in some fun facts, that amazing Colosseum doesn’t look quite as amazing in real life; the building that was created was an impressive 52-feet high, but the rest of it was all CGI, with the ultimate expenses for the building totalling an estimated $1m. And you probably didn’t know that only the crowd on the bottom two decks of the Colosseum are actually real; the majority of them are computer generated, and roughly 400 of those figures are cardboard cut-outs. Fun facts, right? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?