Gladiator (2000)

Composed by: Hans Zimmer

Ridley Scott’s 2000 Gladiator was a rare victory for the long dead swords-and-sandals genre. It’s a loose remake of Fall of the Roman Empire and comparatively more accurate to actual Roman history. Highly ranked Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wants his Spanish general Maximus (Russell Crowe) to succeed him because his own son Commodus (played to sniveling effect by Joaquin Phoenix) is morally corrupt. Commodus doesn’t react well. He kills his father and tries to have Maximus and his family assassinated. Maximus escapes, but is not able to save his family. After passing out, he finds himself enslaved and made into a gladiator. He gains and uses the adulation of the crowd to take on Commodus and the heavily corrupted Roman Empire. Gladiator is one of Ridley Scott’s better films with great performances and a brutal portrayal of Ancient Rome.

Hans Zimmer did the music and this entry really propelled his career. He would do a lot more big-budgeted action and historical drama films in the current century His Media Ventures power anthem style is scaled back, with a focus on more period-authentic music (his Prince of Egypt the previous year definitely helped shape his work in this regard). Synthetic elements add to the ambience of many cues, sometimes to underscore Maximus’ spiritual yearning for home and family. Lisa Gerrard was a major player in Gladiator, lending her voice to several cues and singing the finale song “Now We Are Free.” The soundtrack remains very popular, but does not lack critics. The largest criticism is directed at the perceived plagiarism of classical music. To be fair, many composers have retooled the old maestros’ work, John Williams himself serving as an example. The first accusation is the use of Gustav Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War” as the battle theme. I think Zimmer twists it enough to make it his own. It should be remembered that Mars was a Roman god of war, so even a direct insert of Holst’s music would have been a clever choice. A fairer criticism is Zimmer’s use of motifs from Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Indeed Zimmer was never Wagnerian in his compositions so these references really stick out.