15 facts about the filming of ”Gladiator”: to the 20th anniversary of the film
When Gladiator premiered in 2000, audiences and critics alike welcomed the slightly old-fashioned but classic Hollywood epic historical drama. The film not only became a box office hit, but also received five Oscars, including in the nominations for Best Film and Best Actor. And although historians found flaws in the tape, it is still considered a masterpiece of cinema to this day. Today, on the 20th anniversary of Gladiator, Lostfilm.INFO invites you to recall 15 little-known facts about the creation of the greatest picture of its time.To begin with, a brief summary. The film tells the story of Maximus (Russell Crowe) - a Roman general close to Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). When the ambitious son of the ruler Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) kills his father for the sake of power, Maximus loses his family and ends up in a gladiator camp led by Proximo (Oliver Reed). Having earned the fame of a fighter in the arena of the Colosseum, the main character begins to plan revenge on the new emperor.  Other actors could have starred in the movie Contrary to popular rumors, the film's director, Ridley Scott, never considered Mel Gibson for the role of Maximus. However, there were other options: Antonio Banderas and Hugh Jackman were almost invited to the main position, and Commodus could have been played by Jude Law. In addition, Jennifer Lopez auditioned for the role of Lucilla (which was eventually taken by Connie Nielsen), but quickly realized that Scott was not impressed with her performance. Scott and Crowe hate each other while filming In 2005, a special edition of "Gladiator" was released on DVD, in which the film was accompanied by commentary by Scott and Crowe. On this recording, the duo recalls how hard it was for them to work together during filming. The director and actor constantly argued over the script, individual scenes and the image of the main character. In retrospect, both men agreed that a difficult relationship helped each of them perform better. Subsequently, Scott and Crowe became friends and worked together more than once.  All props and weapons had to be done manually Until 1999, epic films about Ancient Rome were stubbornly ignored by Hollywood, so the creators of "Gladiator" did not have many suitable props or costumes available. Because of this, the film crew had to manually make 27,000 pieces of armor and double the amount of weapons. Although most of the elements were made of plastic, the army also required a considerable amount of forged metal to equip. Maximus nearly fought the Incredible Hulk One of the most impressive scenes in the film is the fight between Maximus and the veteran gladiatorial battle Tiger, played by Swedish bodybuilder and stuntman Sven-Ole Thorsen. However, in the original cast, none other than Lou Ferrigno, best known for the television series The Incredible Hulk, was appointed to the position. For unknown reasons, Scott decided to withdraw from this collaboration while working on the film. Maximus the dog is a TV star There are plenty of recognizable faces in the film, but one of them may not have been noticed by the world audience. At the beginning of the picture, a loyal dog follows Maximus everywhere, even in battle. The dog named Kite was already well known to the audience from Great Britain: the pet starred in the famous British melodrama "East Endians" for seven years and managed to become a local celebrity.  Crowe went through the path of a gladiator and suffered many injuries Russell Crowe deserved an Oscar even for physical injuries on the set: the actor broke his leg, got a crack in the pelvic bone, torn several ligaments, lost sensitivity in his finger (the sensations returned only two years later). Even the wound on his face at the beginning of the film is real - a bad ride on the horse is to blame. Maximus's family was originally supposed to be alive When making films, it is often necessary to rewrite the script, and the Gladiator could not avoid this - the production of the picture began with only 32 pages of text. This led to some changes: for example, in the original version of the script, the Maximus family survived and even came to the gladiatorial fights as spectators. During the filming, it was decided to kill these characters in order to give the image of Maximus more depth and motivation for revenge.  Crowe wanted to rewrite Maximus' main speech Crowe plunged headlong into the role, dropping almost 20 kilograms and pumping up the relief muscles through training on his own farm. However, the actor was unable to influence some other details of the image. For example, Crowe wanted Maximus to speak with a Spanish accent, but Scott thought that sounded silly. The actor also thought that the gladiator's speech in the arena was too pretentious, but the director dissuaded him and saved one of the most important scenes in the film. Phoenix improvised his most famous line Joaquin Phoenix does not hide the fact that he caused a lot of trouble for the film crew due to his youth. At the same time, the actor's contribution to the film cannot be underestimated: the parricide Commodus turned out to be a real madman. Watch actress Connie Nielsen in the scene where the new emperor shouts, "Am I not merciful?" The way the girl recoiled in shock is not an acting, but a sincere reaction to an unexpected improvisation by screaming at a tense moment of filming.  Crowe described his own home, not Maximus The scene in which Maximus is talking to the Emperor tells about the house and the desire to return there as soon as possible, very touching. It turns out the entire episode was improvised by Russell Crowe and Richard Harris. The leading actor described his own farm in Australia, including even such a detail as the smell of blooming jasmine at night. Crowe and Harris helped calm Phoenix Joaquin Phoenix was 25 years old at the beginning of the filming of Gladiator, and he had never appeared in a film of this magnitude. The actor was very nervous, and this greatly affected the character. Once Phoenix even asked Crowe to hit him before the next take to get angry. However, the older comrades found a way to help the young colleague: Crowe and Harris offered Joaquin a beer, after which the actor felt more confident. Live tigers participated in the filming, but the idea of a rhinoceros was discarded The film won an Oscar for its special effects thanks in large part to the accurately recreated Colosseum. But the most realistic scene is, perhaps, the fight between Maximus and the tigers. They used real animals for her, and Crow was told not to approach them closer than five meters. The script also included a scene of a battle between a gladiator and a rhinoceros, but they turned out to be from it due to the complexity of implementation.  The filmmakers burned a real forest The plot opens with a stunning picture of the battle of the Romans, using fire shells to suppress the enemy. You might think that these are computer special effects, but for filming they really set fire to a forest in England. Take your time to be surprised: the area has already been cleared out, and Scott just saved some money from the local authorities by doing the job for them while creating an impressive scene. The film got a chance thanks to three questions and one picture While the idea was still being discussed, screenwriter David Franzoni met with Steven Spielberg, who asked three questions: will it be Rome, will there be a Colosseum, and will there be swordfight scenes. When Franzoni was able to answer positively to each question, Spielberg gave the painting the green light. At the same time, Ridley Scott was not sure if he wanted to shoot an epic historical drama, but changed his mind when he was shown a painting Pollice verso (Thumbs Down) by French artist Jean-Leon Jerome, depicting a scene of a gladiatorial battle. One glance at the canvas was enough for the director to agree.  The death of Oliver Reed changed the fate of Proximo In the original script, Proximo not only survived, but also appeared in the final scene of the film. Oliver Reed died suddenly of a heart attack when several episodes with his participation were yet to be filmed, so the script was revised. With the help of a stunt double and computer graphics, the filmmakers managed to create a beautiful scene of the death of the old gladiator, and the final speech of the character went to Djimon Houns and became a kind of farewell to the untimely departed actor. The Topic of Article: 15 facts about the filming of ”Gladiator”: to the 20th anniversary of the film. |
