The Rewatchables - ‘Gladiator’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Shea Serrano, and Jason Concepcion

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

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Visit DCUniverse.com slash hellopod and enter code rewatchables. At checkout valid for a monthly subscription only expires 630, 2000. Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the emperor of Rome. Gladiator coming up next. The general. What we do in life? Echoes in eternity. Who became a slave.

You should not have defied the emperor. The slave. Win the crowd. Fuel and your freedom. Who became a gladiator. They said you were giant. I shall cheer for you. The gladiator.

At my signal. Unleash hell. Who defied an empire. Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the emperor. From director Ridley Scott, Russell Crow, Gladiator, rated R. All right, we are trying a four-man rewatchables on Zoom. Don't try this at home. Only the experts can do this.

It's not amateur hour time. This is the experts. We put a lot of time and thought it to this. Chris Ryan, Jace Concepcion, Shea Serrano. We are going to break down. Gladiator, which has its 20th anniversary, this month. This is a great movie. It's not on TV enough.

I think it's because it's too long. I'm going to start here. I'm going to start with Shea. Is Russell Crow the number one choice all time to be in this movie? Could you think of any other actor at any other point in their career who would have been a better choice than Russell Crow in 2000 for Gladiator? No, absolutely not. Because he could do all of the things you need the gladiator to be able to do. He needs to be noble.

He needs to be fearful, ferocious, inspire you. And Russell Crow is one of the like two or three actors who can do all of those things without compromising any of the other parts. This movie caught him at the exact right point in his life for this to come out. This is one of the movies where you watch him. I don't know if this is the top level of movie stardom, but it's somewhere up there where you watch him in this movie. And as soon as it's over, you're like, oh, I need to see him in another movie right now. Like I want to watch him again. He's incredible in this role.

Jason? Yeah, I agree. He's, he's, he covers so many bases. He's big enough to sell that he's this Roman warrior, but he's not like so big that he's not relatable. He's funny. He's warm. He can be fearsome. He's, one of the things that really struck me about this is like, especially in an age where we've got a lot of actors who are playing these larger than life roles. And so they have to wear like the lift shoes where, you know, like Tony. Stark or the Irishman. There's the scene in Gladiator after the first big debut in Rome where they're coming down the elevator and everyone's going Maximus Maximus and he's surrounded by his dudes. And they're all like a foot taller than him, but he still is emanating that like energy of, I am the leader of this entire crew of huge burly guys. And I think only Russell Crow in that moment could have sold that where he has the physical

presence despite like kind of being the smallest of all the other gladiators and the acting chops and all of that like it was Russell Crow in this moment. He was the perfect fit. Chris? Every alternative you could think of that has a problem with it. So they're including the people that were up for this role originally around Crow like Mel Gibson who declined because he was too old, Hugh Jackman, Antonio Banderas. I think you could make an argument for Javier Bardem could have maybe done this in a different world. But honestly, in a weird way, that, that generation is the last one that I would have felt comfortable playing this role. Like, all the guys after that have something that is just unbelievable or not realistic about being this. Like, I can't imagine

the rock doing it. I can't imagine Vin Diesel doing it. I can't imagine a Hemsworth doing it. So, yeah, this is, this is like, it was a perfect marriage between the role and the performer. You know, it's funny. So Mel Gibson turned to. it down just to step on a casting. What if from later? Because he felt like he was too old. He was 43 when he turned it down. To me, Mel Gibson is the only other guy who could have done it. But I'm going way earlier, Mel Gibson, like lethal weapon one, maybe somewhere between lethal weapon one and two, Mel Gibson, is the only person I think could have pulled off the charisma of the leadership. Because we saw him basically do it in Braveheart and the Patriot to some degree. But I think

that's the only other one because you have to be watching this and not only feeling like in the opening scene that he could be, you know, win this whole battle, be in control of this whole army. But then later is when he's a slave and the other slaves are just gravitating to him. Yeah. Jason, did it remind you at all of Jamie Lannister before he lost his hand? Little shades of Jamie Lannister. In terms of like the fighting prowess and the leadership. Jamie Lannister. Jamie Lannister was was respected, but like widely reviled. Maximus just generates respect from everyone who is around him. He just has that magnetism.

So I would say that Maximus like is far surpasses Jamie Lannister in terms of like the respect that he garners from his compatriots and the, and the leadership that he exudes. And I was thinking from a Christmas stampout. Go ahead, Shay. to your point about Gibson, I don't think Gibson can pull this off because Russell has a bulk to him.

Like there are a couple of scenes when you see him with his shirt off and he's got like the big back muscles where he's just sort of holding it forward. Gibson, Gibson, and Braveheart, for example, he's too small. He just, that's like a soldier, but you need a different body to be a gladiator.

You need strength. The bulk is important because it's like he's big, but he's not like the rock. You're not chiseled up. He's big in a way that you look at him and go, I could imagine being that big if I just kind of like ate a lot of meat and then worked out, but didn't jog. You know what I mean?

Like it looks like an attainable kind of big and I think that's really important for this role. Yeah, I hate the fact that like in 300, all the guys look like they have like PX90 classes and stuff. It's supposed to look like you've lived in a tent in Bavaria in 190 AD, man. You're not supposed to look like you have a personal trainer. Right. Well, he had a way of carrying, was he Australian or New Zealand?

Who's Australian, right? He had a way of carrying himself, like, the way he lived his life in real life. You could just see, like, at the bar at 2.30 in the morning, like him, somebody's looking at him cross-eyed and he's like ready to go with the guy. This has, we've talked about the Russell Crow, the kick-ass stretch that he had where you have from 99 to 03. First he does the insider before this. He puts on 40 pounds, finishes that, loses the 40 pounds.

And I researched like, oh, I wonder what he did. It was like nothing. He just was back on his farm. Goes to Gladiator. goes to Proof of Life, which we've covered on the rewatchable somehow before this one, which is, I think,

an iconic crow performance because there's really not a lot going on, and he's so good, he's at the peak of his powers, goes from that to a beautiful mind, and then master and commander. Shea, you wrote movies and other things. For just five movie stretches,

that's on the short list, I feel like. I'm sure there's some Tom Hanks one we can dig up and a couple other ones, but just those five in the different kind of roles, that's got to be on the short list. Yeah, it is. He has a run like that. Omar Epps in the early 90s has a run like that.

I'm serious. I'm agree with you. I'm just enjoying that you said it. I just want to make sure, like we should respect the Omar Eps. He has a run like that. Denzel has a run. Julia Roberts has run.

Like all of your favorite actors, they have to put that stretch together where they're like, oh, like this person was running shit for a while. Russell's here was fucking shit I mean honestly you could have

put any other four movies you wanted with Gladiator and it's so good that it's just like he's gonna pull it into the conversation yeah Jason

you like Master and Commander more than this movie what I really do I listen gladiator is a gladiator gladiator is a sensation

and I and I understand what the fuck is a happening right now and I understand why it is a beloved and utterly rewatchable action movie. Master and Commander is a better story.

It's a better movie. His acting performance is incredible. Not only the kind of like warrior at sea leadership qualities, but like there's warmth the way he interacts with his crew members, many of them who are children, like the cinematography at sea. I watched it last night because, I'm like, I got to get into the crow vibe.

People don't understand what an incredible movie master and commander is. An incredible film from start to finish. I don't want to derail, but it's a better movie. You and Chris right now sound like when the Jordan doc is playing, and people are like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Was Scotty Pippin actually better than Michael Jordan? No. That's what you two sound like right now.

This is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Chris, where do you stand? A Master and Commander versus Gladiator? Yeah. I actually think Master and Commander is a better made film. Yeah. It's a more interesting movie.

What's happening right now? Guess how many shots of a guy touching wheat are in Master and Commander? Zero. I think one of the things that happened with Master and Commander was that Crow had made so many good movies. And then there was, you know, all of a sudden, going backwards with action movies and it got lost in the shuffle a little bit for when it came out. And sometimes that happens. I will say this. I will say this. And we, on a broader scale, Gladiator is a more rewatchable movie. Yes, 100%. Gladiator kind of gets back to some of the

original DNA of this pot. And I know that people really love giving us feedback on whether or not something that we've chosen to do, whether it's rewatchable or not, whether it's Gen X or not. But this is a movie that I would say goes into a very special rewatchable character, which is basically the, hold on, just give me a second movie. It's when you turn to your significant other or your buddy, but when you're about to leave the house, when we were allowed to leave the house. And this movie's on and you're like, hold on, I just need to see the first battle. Hold on, I just need to see this fight with the tiger. Hold on him and comidus are about to talk. And that's like a very special kind of movie where it has like six.

scenes that are so good that no matter what else is going on, you're like, oh, fuck, you know, can you just hold on just a second? Because they're about to get surrounded by the like, the African cavalry, you know, guys. And like, I just need to see that one scene. Then we can go, I promise. Yeah, it was tough to narrow down the rewatchable scenes to 10 because you're right. It, it calms down. Then there's another one. Then it calms down again. Then there's another one. The pace of it. Just to go back to 2000 for a second, this movie was really ahead of its time. Like people really didn't fuck with Roman era anything or, you know, Spartacus had come out 40 years before, I think. But for the most part, it was considered to be kind of a movie suicide mission

to go back in time like that. And when this came out, you know, Crow had been, a lot of people had Russell Crowstock in the 90s. He was, he had that buzz of this is the next. guy. And then finally, you know, he went head to head with Denzel. He went head to head with a couple other people. Then LA confidential happens. That movie's a big hit. But it still hadn't totally happened. And then when this movie came out, I remember seeing this in the theater. I was still living in Boston. And, you know, the buzz was there. It was really expensive. The movie cost $100 million to make 103. And it was just so fucking satisfying. You know, and it was just like, oh my God. this is and you know the widescreen of it where we lost that when it was running on cable over

and over again this is like a great widescreen movie and a great lots of shit going on movie and you didn't really get that with the square TVs but in the theater this is one of those I remember seeing in this in the theater movies yeah you left that movie thinking Russell Crow is the biggest star in the world like this would have been a Tom Cruise movie gone wrong um and really by the way thank our lucky stars Shay what does Tom Cruise in this movie. Are we buying it? Do they have to cast all five foot nine gladiators to how do they do that? Tom Cruise cannot cannot pull this off. I watched this movie in the movie theater too. This is one of like 10 movies in my life that I watched multiple times in a

theater because like what you were saying, Bill, when the trailer came out and you saw it and I was like, I don't really like historical movies like this. I'm not so interested in it. And I was in college at the time. My mom had come to visit and she wanted to go see it. So I was like, all right, I we'll go hang out and go watch this movie. And you're just sitting there like, holy shot. I've never seen anything like this before in a movie in my life. And then as soon as she left, I called Laramie. And I was like, Laramie, we have to go see this like on back-to-back days.

And then we watch it. And she felt the exact same way. She don't like any sort of like violent movies. But this one, you just, it's a better story than master and commander. What the fuck are you talking about? It's a better story. It has perfect set piece action scenes that, are eminently rewatchable.

But, like, Mastering a fan is a better story. Get out of here. I don't want to talk about it. Fine. Me neither. I don't talk about it. The only way this can get worse is if someone's Zoom bomb best with it naked, naked from the waist down. All right.

We have to talk about Joaquin Phoenix. Hell yeah. So here's the history with him. He's River Phoenix's brother for a little while there, where it's just like, oh, yeah, that's River Phoenix's brother. and he's in parenthood. He's the little kid who becomes obsessed with porn. And it's like, oh, this guy's not bad. He's in to die for with Nicole Kidman.

Yep. It's like, oh, River's Bro can kind of bring it. Then he does, inventing the Abbots, U-turn, Return to Paradise, Clay Pigeons, resurfaces in a movie that at some point we're doing on the rewatchables, 8mm. 8mm. I don't know who's with me. 8-millimeter baby.

movie. And he's working in a porn shop, helping Nick Cage find who made this stuff film. And he's not in it that much, but it's one of those performances where you're like, wow, this guy's really doing stuff. Then he does the yards. Then he does Gladiator. And he becomes a big, big star. Now, I found out the research, Jason, your guy, Jack Gleason, 2011, models Joffrey after

Commodus in this movie. It's just he's basically just stealing Comedus. It makes a lot of sense. I would argue that Comedus is the best movie villain of the last 20 years. Like, better than the Joker, better than who we don't know where he comes from. We don't know what the Joker's whole thing is. Comedus is a fleshed out character who you feel kind of bad for on a certain level. Like that, the opening scene where he's, He's talking where he's, you know, he's arrived at his dad's tent and he's, and he's just been told that he's not going to be the emperor. And he's like, I just wanted to, you know, I just did all these things so you would love me

and why, why don't you love me? And then, and Mark Zareli's gets down on his knees and is like, all your wrongdoings are because of my failings as a father. And they embrace and you're like, you know, I get it. I understand where you're coming from. You're going about it in a completely wrong way, but I get it. And I think that is why he's so good. Like there's like a core of weakness to Comonus that is just really fun to watch.

And it makes him so hateable. Like when everybody starts chanting for Maximus and then they cut to that scene of commonus back at his appellate. He's like, everybody loves him. It's so petulant. He's so petulant. I remember watching that scene in the, watching that scene in the, movie theater and everybody just started laughing like oh my god this fucking guy it just he's so

hateable and it's so great it in much of the same way in joffrey was hateable chris if your dad looked at you and said all of your faults are my fault i i did this to you does that make you feel better or worse in a way it actually make you feel worse yeah i mean maybe that explains the master and commander thing uh it's a it's a great it's a great moment and richard harris is is obviously an absolute icon actor. The thing that Phoenix does in this movie, and it's really, I guess, a credit to Ridley Scott, too, to kind of see, because they're all essentially

in two separate movies for a lot of it, is he is just the perfect foil for Maximus. He is like, because the cool thing out about him is commonest is all training and no experience. Like, he's actually built, he can fight a little bit. He's not like, he's being an asshole at the Senate meetings, but he's not like completely unfamiliar with it. He's like just twirling his sword.

That's such a great little bit. And I just love how like he has lived a life of no consequences. When he's watching a gladiator fight, he can be like, yeah, yeah. And nobody's like that's not, it's kind of rude. These guys are dying. He has never been told no. He's never been told he's wrong except by the one person that would actually matter. And that's his dad.

And it just basically breaks him in half that and the fact that he's in love with a family member. But that's, you know, aside from that. It's Rome. I mean, like, whatever. But yeah, it's just such a perfect foil for the Maximus character. And it's such a perfect performance because Russell Crow is so classical. Like, he is kind of doing an elevated, different modern version of Kirk Douglas. But Joaquin Phoenix is doing James Dean.

He's doing the like nervy, I'm neurotic. I have tons of anxiety and hangups. It's such a perfect juxtaposition. Shea, comitist versus Don Trump Jr. compare and contrast. Fucking, they're both the worst in the world. They're just both miserable. And I hate them both.

Combinous would be a fun nickname for Trump Jr. I'm going to give you the best supporting actor, Shea. And you tell me if the right person won. By the way, incredible category this year. This is the 2001 Oscars for the 2000 movie season. Joaquin Phoenix. Albert Finney and Aaron Brockovich. the only one I don't have any history with here is Willem Defoe and Shadow the Vampire.

I don't really remember that performance at all. Jeff Bridges in The Contender, one of my favorite president performances ever, if not number one. I really loved him as the president. I would take him right now. And then Benicio del Toro wins for traffic. Is that the right choice 20 years later? No, Cometheus should have won. Joaquin Phoenix was incredible.

That's how I feel. For all of the reasons that Jason and Chris are saying, this is my favorite walking Phoenix performance that he's ever done ever. It's just so nuanced and cool. And when you rewatch it and you know where he's going to end up by the end of the movie, it's really neat to see him sort of snake his way in that direction because he never goes in a straight line there. Like when Jason said when he meets his dad in the tent,

he's not mad at first. He's like genuinely hurt. And like, why are you doing this? why are you saying this to me right now? And all of a sudden he has to confront this stuff. And you see him snap and make the decision, okay, fuck it. I'm going to go for this.

And then, yeah, he just gets slimier and slimier as it goes. It's unreal. I think that there's something we could actually start to do on this podcast more frequently, which is essentially Oscar swap. And I would Oscar swap. Joaquin gets the gladiator Oscar,

and Benicio gets an Oscar for Sicario. Oh, now you're just. I'm in Now you're just catering to Shay Jason I'm in I'm in Thumbs up Sign me up

You just covered that with gravy And fed that to them Come on That was ridiculous You know there was one Somebody got screwed To the best supporting actor I just wanted to mention

Because this is the year You Can Count of me Came out, the Laura Linney movie And And Mark Ruffalo Did not get nominated So I don't know I don't remember enough

About Willem Defoe's performance But I would have thrown Ruffold in there too. Crow wins for best actor. He beats Javier Bardem in Before Nightfall's. Tom Hanks and Castaway. Tough one for me. Ed Harrison Pollock and Jeffrey Russian Quills. I don't know what the fuck was happening in that year. But the crow wins for that. Then he wins with beautiful mind. Does the old twofer. Did not get nominated for proof of life, Chris. Yeah. They sent it to the Oscar committee and they were just like they were just like, No way. But that was interesting. So that, that was also the year, Julia Roberts one for Aaron Brockovich. And then Gladiator wins for best movie. It becomes the first best picture Oscar winner in 51 years to win for best picture, but not for writing or directing, which is something that happened more frequently this century. But at the time, it was always a lock. Ridley Scott really quickly. I don't know if you guys know, there's Tony Scott's brother. Just found, just kidding. Just kidding.

We knew that. He kind of slumped in the 90s. I'm not sure what happened here with him. He, if you go backwards, he does Stelman Louise in 1991. And before that had had a couple big ones, obviously, including someone to watch over me. Where do you guys stand on someone to watch over me? I stand and I salute it. I stand at attention.

Tom Berger, Mimi Rogers, great premise. I would recommend anybody out there listening who's like, what 80s movies still really hold up? I would highly see. Peak Mimi Rogers. Peak Mimi Rogers, really good. So, and he does Black Rain, a Chris Ryan favorite, Michael Douglas.

I love Black, Ray. Incredible. Leather jacket. Oh, could there be a Black Rain Rewatchable? I didn't realize. You have a motorcycle with a sword. If there's a guy on a motorcycle with a sword, I'm in. Sign me out. Great Andy Garcia.

Yeah. There's a decapitation. It's got everything. it's great. So he does just kind of falls apart. He does 1492. He does white squall, which isn't a bad movie,

by the way, G.I. Jane. Good. And then three years between G.I. Jane and Gladiator, and then Gladiator puts him back on the map.

And he's kind of all over the place. But I would say this is probably his great achievement, right? Yeah. Ridley Scott is one of the few directors I knew when I was in my 20s because he did Gladiator. And it was like, oh,

pop up. And then you find out, oh, he did G.I.J. And I really like G.I.J. And then Hannibal and then Blackhawk down. And then Match Dickman. It was like five movies in a row that I just, they were all the things I liked. Fucking incredible. Yeah.

This is his, I mean, clearly like, I think his most popular movie. But this is a guy. I mean, he directed Alien. You know, he directed Blade Runner. He is a giant. One of my favorite filmmakers. Yeah. So maybe Blade Runner is probably, like, if it, when he's not dead yet,

When he dies, I wonder what the first movie in the obituary is. It probably goes Blade Runner Alien Gladiator, right? Yeah. If they're listing him. Yes. Chris, I have Ridley as a minus 220 favorite over Tony Scott. Who are you backing from a gambling standpoint entire IMDB? Oh, can I hedge?

Come on. Do I have to do this? No, you can. I just hire somebody to actually bet both so that I have like an anonymous like emissary. You're on a desert island. You can only have the DVDs of one director. I think honestly,

given the last year and a half or so of podcasting about Tony Scott that we've done, I'm like, my mind kind of works more on the Tony Scott level, although I think Ridley's highs might be higher.

I think Blade Runner and Alien might be like above everything, but I think that on a movie to movie basis, I'm more entertained, and I'm more stimulated by Tony. Yeah. Tony took, like, more chances and took more shots.

And in a lot of ways, like, his stuff is interesting in ways that Ridley's movies aren't sometimes. But I, in terms of, like, their entire canon, but, like, I go Ridley as well. I think the highs, to your point, the highs are higher. Shea? Yeah, I'm a Ridley guy. Tony did, some of the movies that Tony did that I, really liked where the probably the movies that Chris Ryan did not like like deja vu was like that's the first Tony Ryan a Tony Scott movie I think of give me that one give me fucking top gun and

deja vu those are my two favorites a man on fire I guess those three but if I'm just if I can only watch one I have to pick whatever gladiator is in really Scott wins I'm in the Tony Scott camp that's my guy I think he might be if you're like what one director would I want all the DVDs on if I was on the Desert Island for five years. He's at least in the conversation for me. Because he made, he made so many movies that have just enjoyed. How many have we done of the rewatchables at this point, Chris? At least four or five, right? Yeah, top gun. We've done unbreakable. We've done enemy of the state. We might have another one coming soon. Like, we've done a bunch. Well, we could say which one we have coming soon. We're doing Crimson Tide.

Oh. All right. Quickly, 103 million dollar budget grossed 187.7.7. million in the U.S. 457 million worldwide. This was the second highest grossing movie of 2000. I did not realize that. I didn't realize this was that much of a monster. There's some sad news though. Our guy Raj, Roger Ebert, not a huge fan. Two stars. Yikes. Some actual two stars. Shea, he's dead so you can't fight him, but you might want to fight him anyway. Some actual quotes here from Raj. The storyline is rocky on downers. Gladiator lacks joy.

It employs depression as a substitute for personality and believes that if the characters are bitter and morose enough, we won't notice how dull they are. They killed his family. What do you want him to do? They crucified his family. And he's like, oh, come on, man. Take it on the chin.

Keep it moving. The film looks muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct. This is all wrong. Every single thing is wrong. That's wrong. That's objectively wrong. This is Raj telling on himself that he bought like a VHS tape of this in like a off a street quarter.

Well, then he went on Charlie Rose and kind of stood by it and was like the special effects are bad. I don't know what happened to Raj. I think actually for 2000 the special effects were incredible. Oliver Reed dies during the making of this film and you don't know. You don't notice it. Right. Because of the special effects.

We're going to take a quick break, then we're going to do the categories because we have a lot to get through. Hey, I want to tell you about two new ringer podcasts. One is actually like on an old feed, but it is new. It's behind the billions. It's with Brian Coppillman and David Levine, the showrunners and co-creators of Billions. After every Billions episode, they will be on our recapables feed, breaking it down. So Sunday nights, Billions is on on Showtime, 9 p.m. and then you can listen to our Behind the Billions podcast.

Where those guys, it's basically like a director's commentary. Also, to try a free month of Showtime, go to Showtime.com, enter code BS. That offers for first time subscribers only. It expires May 31st, showtime.com with code BS. So that's one thing. Speaking of TV, TV concierge, our newest podcast, which you can find exclusive on Spotify, 12 to 15 minute reviews and previews of either shows that just launched, new seasons of shows that launched or shows that are coming.

I went on there twice last week, broke down Little Fires Everywhere with Amanda Dobbins and Ozark Season 3 with Ryan Rissillo. So if you like the rewatchables, I'm pretty reasonably certain, you will like TV concierge. Check both of those out. Back to this pod.

All right, we're doing the categories. Chris, just before we get into this, I know how much you enjoy when somebody's called the Spaniard. You like in soccer and in basketball and the Argentinian, the Spaniard. It really elevates the level. The opening scene...

With your hair right now, we should start calling you Billy the Italian. The half Italian. Yeah, just call me that. Most remarkable scene. The opening battle scene, Chris Ryan texted us last night and said it was face melting.

Yes. Yeah. So you have an AD 180. This is according to Wikipedia. Hispanic Roman and General Maximus leads the Roman army to a blowout victory against their Germanic tribes.

I put in the word blowout. What was the point spread? 120 to 85. They were favored by 37 last guys standing. And I think they had what about 55, 60. So I do think they covered. There's a cool film speed change in this. What else do you like about this, Jason?

The realism, the real realism that you felt watching. Like I remember being blown back in my seat by that opening scene and just being like, you know, I don't. know what it was really like what the actual Roman infantry tactics were, but all I know is that looked good to me. That looked like what it was actually like. Do the Romans actually have like catapults that shot exploding like oil canisters? I don't know, but that looked absolutely realistic to me. And the scene when when we meet Maximus for the first time and he's doing that like paths of war walk down the trench.

And all the soldiers are like, you can tell how much they respect him and he's stopping and giving all of them a little moment. He stops with one centurion and gives him like a little punch in the stomach. That one scene sets up everything about this character. You buy from that moment that people will gravitate to this person. It doesn't matter that he's wearing a uniform or what or he's wearing the uniform of a slave, you just buy it in that moment that that is a magnetic leader.

Yeah, it feels like when you're just through the screen as soon as it starts. It's incredible character building without really saying any words. He's just like, I don't know what this guy is, but I know he's special. And that's such a hard thing to pull off in a movie. And Russell Crow, to his credit, does it instantly. Like as soon as you see him and his hair is down and he's got those weird. His eyebrows are like scary but not scary at the same time And he's always looking up under his eye

Out from under his eyes And you're like fuck yes I'll follow this guy wherever he's going Let's go I think you can make the argument That no one has ever Fucking 360 tomahawked a line reading Like Russell Crow does

On my command of Leach Hell I have my signal Unleash hell I right now If Russell Crow walked into my door and said, on my command, Unleash Hell, I would go play free safety for the Chargers. And I would play against zoo animals.

I don't care what the circumstances were. If I was in Bavaria in the winter in 180, I would just be like, let's go, boss. You got it. You got it, man. Whatever you need for me, you want me to get my arm chopped off. Probably not going to get saved in surgery

because they haven't invented surgery yet. Let's go. I'm ready. Yeah. Because he says that when they're talking, he's like, probably some of y'all are going to die. Don't worry about it. And they're all just like, ha, ha, you're right. And they just keep on going.

What, uh, what do you think of the bear costumes of the guys that they fought, Shea? Whatever, the bear, bear fur or whatever. Like, just kind of, kind of lame, right? Bad uniforms. No, I disagree. There's no, there's, if, if anybody walks into a room inside of a bear that some of you immediately have to take seriously. And there's a, they have fewer guys. they've got to do some stuff.

This is the same as like, you know, war paint or whatever. They're trying to put their feather down. It's got to be a hindrance to the fighting, though. You're wearing a fucking bear on you. I don't know. I would rather personally have armor would be my move. I don't know. The heavy bearskin wouldn't be what I was looking for.

Jason, you love when dogs and when dogs pretending to be wolves are involved in action scenes. One of your favorites. Well, you know, I was a little worried. Do we really need, like, what are, is the lifespan of these Roman war dogs has got to be like weeks? Yeah. I mean, it's not, it's not a good look.

When they say spay and neuter your pets, they're like, it's all right. They're not going to last that long. They're not. One other thing I really like about this scene is I think scenes like this over the course of this century became two CGI'd. And this felt, for the most part, pretty authentic.

I mean, there's some chicanery in there. But for the most part, it really did feel like guys were fighting. And I think we lost that a little bit as this went along. All right, the next scene for most rewatchable scenes, man, we have a few to get through here. We talked about earlier, but the king played by Richard Harris telling Maximus, he wanted him to be the king. And he says how comidus cannot rule. He must not rule.

And comodus? Comedus is not a moral man. You have known that since you were young. Comediths cannot rule. He must not rule. You're the son that I should have had. I think one of the things I like about this scene, and we'll go into the history of how they made this movie

and we do half-Fest and her research, but they really spent a little extra time making sure they had a couple scenes where the characters are connecting in some way. You know, in this scene, it's not just a, hey, I want, want you to rule. I can't my son's a fucking maniac. I can't give it to him. It's set up with Russell Crow. It's like, so how's the family? He's going, well, you know, and they, they obviously,

they established in like three minutes that these guys really like each other and that that Richard Harris is a father figure to him. And it's subtle shit like that that I think they miss sometimes with action movies or things where they don't have those little moments. Like in the Godfather, My favorite scene, The Godfather is that scene with Michael and his dad when his dad's near death. And he's talking about they're going to come at you, whoever tries to range the meeting is a trainer. And you need those movies like that. And I just like that. It's Russell Crow and Richard Harris, who, you know, now it's 2020 and probably people under 40.

Richard Harris was one of the all-timers. You know, he was one of the best actors of a certain generation. Yeah, I think that really quickly, there's just something. thing that's a nice like undercurrent secondary meta text to this movie, which is like the passing of a torch from a generation of actors to another. And you have like Derek Jacoby in the movie, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed. And then you've got Russell Crow and Joaquin Phoenix. And so much of the movie is about like leaving behind a legacy, which obviously actors can do because you can watch their movies forever. So I always thought it was really cool the way they kind of have those

cross generational talks about that stuff. Next scene. Oh, do you want to put in, I guess we have to put in Maximus, not Maximus, uh, commonus killing his dad. That seems pretty amazing. It's at the most rewatchable scene.

I don't really dial that up on YouTube that much. I have to, I have five minutes before this meeting. I think I'll watch commonest kill his dad. Has to be mentioned. I had this improbably an answerable question. Shea out of your three sons, who's the most likely to do the comitist dad murder to you?

Oh, wow. Oh, the youngest one. There's no, there's no question about it. Is that the hug that turns into something more? As soon as you started asking, I was like, he's probably out there plotting on that shit right now, right outside the door with a knife. Next one, Maximus escaping the execution order. Just wiping out a bunch of dudes.

And then it's like, I got to get on the old, can you give me the noble soldier's death? Nope, actually, I'm going to kill all of you. and then hops on the horse. Unfortunately, this scene ends in a not so rewatchable way with the wife and son being a... You have to stop it immediately. Yeah, he kind of can't stop. As soon as he kills the last guy, you're like done.

What I really love about this scene, Bill, is that you and I very much love taken, and we very much love the part where Liam Neeson takes the bullets out of the gun and the guy doesn't realize it because he's not done it in a while. And we get another version of that in this scene with swords, though.

the guy's trying to take the sword out and he must not be a soldier because Maximus is looking at him and just with total disdain and he's like, it's the frost. Sometimes it makes the blade stick and you're like, oh fuck, you're dead. You're so dead.

You're never stood a chance. You didn't even know about the frost sticking. You're fucking done. The frost. Sometimes it makes the blade stick. I have all four gladiator fights as rewatchable scenes. So we'll just go through them quickly.

And then we could pick which one we thought was the best one. The first gladiator fight, which is a shorter one, but ends with demon, how do we say demon Hinshu? Jiamen Hintu. Jiamen Hintzu. Those guys collaborating on the chain clothesline.

Yeah. It's great. It's good shit. Also opens with the guy pissing himself, which is a cool, like, and Max, like, oh yeah, this is scary. And disgust.

This one is really, really great, Because I don't know if this has happened to you, but sometimes what will happen is if you're at the park and you're playing pickup basketball, like you just go by yourself or with maybe one other person and you get your next. And you have your like group of guys and you start playing. You don't really know anybody.

And you're not certain how it's going to turn out. And then it turns out you've got like two or three guys who are really fucking good. And you just, when you just destroy, like that's what happened here. They all, you've got Juba. You've got, what's the other guy's name, Hagen? and Maximus all separate of each other.

They don't know each other or anything about it. As soon as the fight starts, they all realize, okay, this other guy knows what he's doing. They're like the original big three. They were the first big three. Just fucking came through those poor gladiator, the people that were fighting, they had no clue what they were walking into.

That was an deleted scene on the DVD when they were playing pickup basketball. Those three guys? Yeah. It didn't feel out of place because they didn't have basketball. Well, back then. Second gladiator fight has the Russell Crow doing the Are You Not Entertained? Yes, that's a classic.

Clutch. And he goes out and he goes, he goes, he goes ISO ball in that one, right? Yeah, he does. One on three, I think. No, it's like six. Is it one on six? It's like six guys. One on six gives us the, are you not entertained speech?

And then throws his sword into the stands. You could have killed another guy. And everybody's like, fuck yeah. Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you were here? You know that people were coming back from the Coliseum that day,

we were like, man, I was at the arena. Holy shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The dude killed six guys, yelled at all of us for watching it, and then threw his sword up into the stands. This is the difference between a guy who has been killing for his whole life versus some guys who were just hanging out outside.

They had cool costumes on cool outfits. But when he came walking down that tunnel and they get that great shot of him from up under like a superhero, the stuff is falling down. You're like, oh, here we go. I was trying to think what NBA player over the course of history came the closest to the, are you not entertained performance during a basketball game. And I think it was LeBron James in game one of the 2018 finals when he basically was beating the Warriors by himself and then J.R. fucked it up right before the end and it went in overtime.

But the way he carried himself that whole game where he's basically, it's just him against this great Warriors team. And he's putting up 50 and destroying them. And he's like staring at the crowd. And he had just kind of fully embraced his evil MJ at that point. LeBron is a good comparison here because in the very next battle is when he puts a mask on the first time. And you remember LeBron put that black mask on? Oh, yeah. 40% more intimidating. The great, like, when he throws a sword and he's just mad, like, I really like when a person is disgusted that they have to do a thing.

Because this is like a common thing in movies. You have Maximus, he has this feeling about fighting in Gladiator. Tommy Conlin and Warrior. Do you remember Warrior? Yeah. And he's at, every time he fights, he's just like,

fuck this bullshit. And he just leaves immediately. Monroe Hutchins and undisputed. He's like, he don't want any part of this underground boxing ring in the, in prison. Like, it's such a good,

good trick to do. Just have this guy really good at thing. But he don't want to do it. And you're making him do it. And now everybody's got to fucking pay for it. I am a big, I'm a big fan of Warrior and Tom Hardy's performance in that movie. And there is some shades of,

there's some maximus. in that one. The third gladiator fight, we moved to the Coliseum. There's gambling. I saw the gambling odds board, and I got like the shakes because I haven't made a sports bet.

Like three months. I was like, can gamble on this? Can I get Hagen minus 240? We have the slaves basically turning the tables on the barbarians. They had to be like, I don't know, plus seven.

50 underdogs. They flip it around. They win. Comedus has the, wait a second, aren't the barbarians supposed to win one liner? And then he does the, I think I'll meet him. They call him the Spaniard,

sir. I think I'll meet him. Yes, sir. And in the movie theater, if you hadn't seen this movie before, and Crow's got the mask on at this point, so Cominus doesn't know who he is. And when he says,

I think I'll meet him, it's like, Oh no. Uh-oh. Yeah. Where's this going? And it's just such a great five, six minutes. And then it leads to...

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance in this life or the next. Ending with I will have my vengeance in this life for the next,

which became, I would say, the most quoted kind of movie line, multiple movie line thing of a couple years there. Yeah. The I Will Have My Vengeance was just like a go-to throw it into everything. This whole movie is a real staple center movie. They just like pump scenes from this like during Lakers games or during like you know, you just see this at arenas where whether it's only sheners. I will have my revenge in this life.

Like you just, it just gets you really jacked. You know, that's a good point because that's, Jason, wasn't this right around the time when they started ripping those clips and running them on the Jumbotrons?

I remember going to Seltic games. It was early 2000s. And it was this. It was Braveheart. Miracle. Yeah, Miracle. Hoosiers had one where the Hoosiers clap. And there was probably like,

I don't know, seven or eight OGs. for that. I mean, among the many things that this movie is, it's a great sports movie from a certain point of view. This was sports in 180 AD. And you feel that feeling when they're in the Coliseum and the fans are chanting. The gambling, as you said, it really feels like a sports movie. And you would understand why teams and pro athletes would want to co-opt that message in those scenes. I think for, for me, me that this gladiator fight is, this is the most rewatchable scene for me. The one, when they come to Rome, come to Rome, play in the Coliseum, because it's like, it goes on for so long. First of all, it's a perfect set piece. The buildup is incredible when they're out there. And Maximus is like, okay, is anybody in the army? And most of them, a bunch of them say yes. And one guy's like, I serve with you. And then he starts giving orders. And they're like, and you can

tell immediately that he's going to take control of this situation. And then the action is unbelievable. And you have all those like cutaways to like, uh, to commonus mugging in the box, which are amazing. There's the one where, where, uh, Juba throws Maximus his sword towards the end of the fight and he catches it and spins it around his hand. And then commonus is up in the box doing like this hand motion and going, ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you have the whole speech. And then it keeps going. You have them going down in the elevator back to where all the gladiators hang out and the chanting that's just shaking the whole Coliseum.

I mean, that's a scene that gives me chills. And walking through that crowd as all of them are like, oh, my God, this is the dude. This is our LeBron. This is our MJ. This is, we never expected to see a warrior like this. like all these hardened gladiators giving that kind of respect to this guy. It's a chill-inducing scene. Yeah.

When they do the last dance about Maximus, I think this would be the best episode. Also, they did a nice job with the Coliseum, too. When they do Comedus's 48 hours in Vegas. If I knock on the door and he's in there, he's in there with his sister. drinking cocaine. People are on Twitter the next guy going, I didn't realize communist was so cool. Yeah.

What a great guy. The fourth gladiator fight includes tigers. It includes Maximus killing, really a spirited fight with a guy with an eyes wide shut mask that he ends up finally taken down but not killing. And then commonus comes back down to try to really taunt him. because at that point he knows he can't kill him because the Spaniard is too powerful

and he does that whole thing like they tell me your son squealed like a girl and they tell me your wife moan like a whore and Max Smith's like you can see his temples pulsating so we got that one and then we have all right so out of those four gladiator fighters

we all think the third one is the most rewatchable The third one is the one where he organizes everybody right? Yeah and the chariots and yeah, everyone chanting. That moment where he's like, has anyone here served in the military? You're just like, fuck, what is he going to do? Yeah.

What I really like about this one, a couple of things, is when he starts doing that hole who served in the military, he's already getting everybody ready. And he says, whatever comes out of these gates, we've got a better chance of survival if we were. Now, this is the guy who you just saw by himself kill six guys in front of you, like no problem. And you can see he's a little bit nervous about,

I don't know what's going to come out of here, but I know it's going to be bad. And it immediately sets the stakes. Here we go. But that's also the first time that he fights in front of Comedus, and he knows Comedus is there. So you know he's fired the fuck up. You know there's no way he's going to lose this battle.

You've got a bunch of great. You've got the woman who gets cut in half. You've got the horse, the guy that crashes into the wall. Like all of these really great, great things. And then the one shot, the one, is my single favorite shot of the entire movie is when he's on the horse. and he's like spinning around and he's looking

and he's like single column single column and they're all going and you feel it your whole body your thighs are tingling and you're just like

let's fucking go like kill them all kill like it's so much this is the one this is hands down all of the other battle scenes are great I love watching them

go one on six I love that first scene when you realize he's got some guys who can fight with him it's cool watching them shake off a tiger in the middle of a fight

it's cool seeing him get injured and still put Cometus down very much like Isaiah spraying his ankle and still putting up 25 but ultimately losing the game like but the third one that's that's the one right yeah bill I don't know if you have other scenes to recommend but this one almost has like flight of the Valky's problems where it's like the movie peaks here it's it's almost tough it's almost tough for the movie to climb back in terms of intensity because it can't get any better than that The only other ones for rewatchable I had was when before Communists and Maximus

had their big fight when Communists goes up to him. That's great. He's in the handcuffs and he does the... The general who became a slave. They call for you. The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor.

Crow is like, you would fight me? Yeah. He's like, why not? Do you think I'm afraid? And he goes, I think you've been afraid your whole life. It's a fucking dagger. You would fight me. Why not?

Do you think I'm afraid? I think you've been afraid all your life. Your whole life. And I'm a fucking dunk on him. This is such a beautiful scene because this is supposed to be Comedus's domain. Like, he's the talker. He's the guy who should be able to just shit talk you into oblivion. And he gives everything.

He's got at Maximus and Maximus just shrugs him off totally. And you know right there. You know how this movie's going to end in that exact moment. Like, okay, you got to die. Jason, what was his injury, you think? Stabbed him like under the breastplate? For sure. He got him pretty deep in the shoulder,

but I think it's clearly a poison dagger. So he was feeling some stuff. Yeah, clearly some kind of illegal substance on. the dagger. And that was more than anything else what was causing Maximus to lose it. Chris, where would you put it against the flu game? Maximus winning. I mean, if the flu game are we to believe is actually the hangover game, you know, Maximus actually not only bleeding out, but never calls for a doctor, never has any gatorade, just kind of like tries to stop the bleeding with one hand while going.

going after him with the left. So I think it tops a blue game. This was the poison game. All right. So we have the third gladiator fight when he reveals his mask and all that as most rewatchable. What's age the best? I like when Maximus says to the king at the beginning, there's no one left to fight, sir,

and the king goes, there's always someone left to fight. Just a matter of fact. But by the way, great point. Not wrong. We've learned that over the next 2,000 years. The dad bearer, wanted to mention that again. I really enjoyed the gladiator fighting combine

before the first fight. Yeah, yeah. I thought Rich Eisen maybe could have been there in announcing and doing the 40-yard dashes and stuff. Michael Irvin, just having Michael Irvin sweating. Being like, this Maximus guy who reminds me of myself into you.

When we first go to the gladiator combine, if you look in the background, there's like, it might be Hagen or someone, like throwing a spear into someone else's guts. It killed them. Fulting killing it. Oh, that's, you hate to see that at the combine this early. Somebody gets speared this early.

We'll have to get him off that. It's just crazy that it's trading. They're just straight of spearing dudes. Immediately. Give me, oh, he's yellow. He's yellow. We needed Daniel Jeremiah there going, Maximus, you know, the Spaniard.

He's the total package, Chris. He's five to a guy. He can run. He can hit. Now, why is he letting Hagen just beat him with the wooden sword? Do we have any idea what the strategy is here? Yeah, very weird, but I'm sure he has a plan. Right.

He's trying to drop it. Well, you know, a lot of people have surmised it. He's trying to drop his draft stock. He probably has a side deal with a specific team. He doesn't want to show what he has right away. Anotherwood's age the best. The, am I not merciful when he screams at his sister, Comedus, apparently ad libid by Joaquin Phoenix, and that's why she's so startled and frightened when it happens.

I just want to say really quickly that we'll get into this probably at half-ass-in-research, but this movie went through so many rewrites that the about of people who take credit for lines in this movie is really stunning. It's like every good line, it's like, oh, yeah, I just kind of made that up on the set. It's like, you came up with Unleash Hell on set in front of Ridley Scott, and then that was just it. I like that, though. When a script is in complete chaos,

everybody could just create whatever reality they want, right? Like any extra given like, yeah, you know, I was talking to Russell, we're having a cigarette. I was like, what about this? How would somebody prove you wrong? I also like when, when Joaquin Phoenix says, he shouldn't be alive.

It vexes me. I'm very vexed. I never heard vexed use in a movie like that. Any other what's age the best for you guys? overall, Joaquin Phoenix's performance in this movie is flawless. Like there's not one single line,

there's not one single word he could have said differently. There's not one single face he could have made differently that would make this any better. This is as good of a showing that you get in a movie that you will ever get for your entire life. I really like that. I also like the line when, after they realize that Maximus is alive

and he sees his, he sees, what's the guy's name? Tommy Flanagan is his, real character's name. Quintus. Quintus. Yeah, yeah. Something like that.

Cicero, sorry, Cicero. Cicero. And he's like, tell the men their general lives. I just, I remember that. I got that same message. Bill, after they let you go or you left ESPN. And then I heard that like a week later. Tell them, tell them men, they're general. I was like, yeah, he's a lot.

I should have sent that email. Yeah, that's it. I should have phrased it. It should have been the subject heading. What's it? You know what? In a post-game of Thrones world, I'll tell you what's age of the best. Incest, suggestions of incest, the incest community.

The incest community is out here and they are proud. They're prouder today than they have ever been. It's not like it was in 2000 when this movie released and Cominus had to skulk around in the dark. He could have been just out there on Front Street. Like, yeah, guess what? Pure blood. Pure blood. Me and Lucilla, we're keeping the blood pure.

and people be like, yes, good, brave. I love when Danny wanted to do that with John Snow. Pure Blood is a good one. That's a really good one to drop there in a movie. Chris, any other What's Age the Best before we move on? No, this is the best sword and sandal fight scenes I've ever seen. So the fight scenes in this movie. What's Age the worst?

You could probably shave 15 minutes out of this movie pretty easily. Maybe 12, but it does. there is some kind of laborious. All right, let's get to the next part thing. That if, you know, could this have been a really, really tight 125 minute movie versus two and a half hours? Like, yeah, maybe. But it's part of its charm too.

So I don't know. It's a slight what's age the worst. I find the, uh, the elizium stuff and like the cutaways to the greeny field, grainy fields where like horses are running. And that's just kind of a crutch. And that, that was like the most obvious. like we're writing this script as we're shooting. And so they have to go in and be like,

you know what we need here? A quick shot of wheat? Maybe a horse running through a field. Maybe a castle nobody knows about. And then that's like heaven. So I get it. And I get like the idea of like your name ringing out through eternity and being reunited with your family.

It's very meaningful. But I feel like it on the 15th viewing of this movie on cable, you're just kind of like fast forwarding past the heaven stuff. Yeah. It's like, oh, so he has like a psychic connection where he can, he knows what's happening. with his family. I agree. I don't, it's not like I hate it, but I do think that those kind of like weird interstitials where he's, he's seeing his door to his house and touching the wheat and

seeing his family calling to him. I thought that was, that stuff is a little, it doesn't quite hit for me. I would also say to Chris's previous point of like how the movie really kind of peaks after the first gladi your fight in Rome, you know, like the, the Roman Republic stuff and we have to save the republic and particularly like the latter like after he dies like who will carry him this kind of like grasping for like a bigger message about democracy that stuff kind of misses for me like that's to me it's just about maximus and his quest for revenge against this villain comidus um all the rest of it like how will we how will we reinstitute the senate yada yada yada that stuff is kind of hit or miss um i'm with you

you guys. Oliver Reed's last scene looks super fake. I mean, kudos to them, though, for pulling off even had to have him in the movie after he was dead. They did not have the technology do this in 2000. So they used, they used a deleted clip of a different scene. They're going and to kill him. And then all of a sudden, he's just like almost in a different setting. And he says some weird line and they kill him. But yeah, it looks pretty shaky in 2020. One of the great last call performances too. Like, what a heat check to just go out talking about queer giraffes and just be like, ah, Maximus!

What a, this dude absolutely chewed, mauled the scenery. Like, he was the very first time you meet him, he's grabbing a dude's nuts and squeezing and talking about his giraffes. He comes in like so hot and it is an unbelievably hammy performance by all. ever read. One last thing I'll ever read. And I have this as a what stage is the worst because I think it would have made the movie slightly better.

Maximus was supposed to fight Proximo in the Coliseum after being captured as like the kind of semifinals fight before he fights Comedus. And they had Oliver redid. They had to rewrite that. But I think it would have been fun to watch him. Proximo sells him out when he's trying to escape and then they fight in the Coliseum and he kills him. That would have been cool.

casting what ifs. We mentioned Mel Gibson and Antonio Barris and Ben Derrison, Hugh Jackman considered, who knows if that's true. But then the other one that's interesting, Russell Crow had just filmed the insider with Christopher Plummer, who he really liked. And he really pushed for Ridley Scott to cast him as Marcus Aurelius. And Ridley Scott was like, yeah, cool.

I got Richard Harris. We're good. But apparently they went back and forth on that. Best couple of quick acting cats. categories. Best that guy, a.k.a. the Joey Pants Award. We mentioned Tommy Flanagan as Cicero. That's my guy. That's my guy. Very loyal to Maximus. He was the guy with the big scar on his face. And then the guy who played the giant gladiator guy who was hitting Maximus at the beginning and then ended up becoming like a real ally for him. Kind of his Horace Grant, I would say. I think that guy's name is Ray Farrant.

Ralph Rave Moeller, rife or Ralph Moller and he's been in a bunch of bad action movies that Shay's probably seen. But I think, I think Tommy Flanagan gets this because he's, if I see him in anything,

I'm like, oh, the guy from Gladiator with the scar on his face. Like, that's kind of who he is. For me, it's the opposite.

I'm like, oh, it's Chibs from Sons of Anarchy. Right. He had a whole run in that, right? Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. The Vincent Hanna,

she's got a great ass award for overacting. We had a reader suggest why was it, the Vincent Hanna, they knew award because Mark Ruffalo was the winner said they knew. Yeah. Well, he was just like, just call it the Vincent Hanna. She's got a great

ass award because then you could scream, she's got a great ass every time you do the category. Chris, you want to take the honors this time? Because she's got a greatest. Nailed it. Nailed it. I am, I'm giving this award unless you guys disagree to Oliver Reed. As Jason mentioned, shoot up a lot of the scenery

as the Dana White of Roman gladiator stuff. He's dialed it up a couple times. Absolutely. The stick this into another man's flesh line is just elite. Trust this into another man's flesh. Lord, I love you for that. You may begin to love them. So in the research, apparently Russell Crow became very close friends with Sir Richard Harris during the film.

but Oliver Reed took an instant dislike to him and at one point he challenged Russell Crowe to a fight. That's just in the half-ass internet research. I don't know if it's true. I think Russell Crow wins that one though. The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check. Is it wrong to give this to Richard Harris? He's in two or three scenes and he's fucking great.

He's awesome. I don't know if it's an unusual Deanne Waiters Award because I think you actually could have potentially seen him nominated for Best Supporting Actor or something. Other than that, I don't have any other ideas for this. I mean, where do you put John Honsu in here? It's fine. I don't feel like he's simmering.

I don't feel like it's like a Dion waiter's performance. The only other guy that I have for Dion is the German general who holds the head. Yeah. Because he's like, I'm going to be in this movie for nine seconds. And they're going to remember me. I'm hooded this. I do like Ralph a lot, the guy you mentioned earlier. He's a...

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. For me, the first time I saw him was this movie called Best of the Best 2. He plays his character named Brockus. He's like the main bad guy. And they did like a gladiator style fight. And this was one of those times

early in my life where you see them in a movie and you're like, oh, I like this guy a lot. And he has that great scene when they're all sitting together and Maximus, they call him for his food, a general. And they give him the bowl and he's just sort of looking at it. And he's so much bigger than everybody else. He just reaches over and spoons it,

see if there's poison in there. And then he, like, makes a joke just in the middle of this, like you're a gladiator death fighter, but you've got jokes, he just starts laughing. They all starts my sweet. That's my pick. I got to get my guy on there. Jason?

Richard Harris or Hagen? Hagen. I'm going to go Hagen because we've never seen him again. You just never seen him again. Where has he been? I always love a character switch, you know, like a character turn when there is that, whenever there's a character,

who is against the hero for a particular period of time in the movie, but then all of a sudden gets one over and that's Hagan. Hagen all of a sudden is just like, well, he saved me. He didn't have to after I had the arrow through my leg. And then he laid over me when the chariot wheel blade went over us. This guy's okay, I guess. All right. I'll go with Hagan.

Recasting couch. I'm just going to throw this at you guys. What if we put Angelina Jolie and the Connie Nielsen part here is Lucilla. Can't do it. Lucilla? You think Connie Nelson, Connie Nielsen's just perfect. Can't do better. She's great.

She's great. And I also think that Angelina Jolie almost overpowers Comitus. Like, it's kind of hard to imagine Comitus, like having it, making her feel like she's living in a prison of fear. Yeah. Connie Nielsen, you don't really know a lot about her. It kind of works. But with Angelina Jolie, you'd be like, she's going to stab him in the throat and

take over. Yeah. Yeah, you need somebody who can look terrified. This is a really good scene when Comedus is. like finally going to make his move and he lays down with her. Yeah. And she's just like stiff as a board. And she's just staring up and he's like,

open your mouth. And she just looks petrified. You need somebody who can do that trick right there. Angelina Jolie after you see her in like wanted or whatever, like, you never again. All right. We'll go with plan B for this thing. Kevin Garnett and the diamond his shoe part.

No. Yeah. Oh, yeah. See, I knew Chase would be with me. Yeah. Yeah. KG. Because he doesn't have a lot of lines. He has got to be able to fight with Russell Crow.

I just throwing it out there. Here's the issue. Now, here's the issue, though, especially when you're doing period movies set in antiquity. You have to be able to do that classical, i.e. English accent. You have to sound like you're from somewhere else long ago. And can KG, can KG pull a stage? English accent, TBD, but if he can do it, then I'm on board. But I have that caveat. I would have loved to have seen it. All right, we're going to take one more break, then do

half-ass internet research. Hey, if you love movies, wanted to tell you about the big picture that Sean Fantasy's podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. Right now, he is cranking out content left and right because we have a lot of movies that are just video on demand releases and things like that. And they're also doing some fun top 10 all-time different gimmicks and things like that. So if you like Sean on the rewatchables, don't forget to check out the big picture, the smartest movie podcast around that is on the Ringer podcast network. It's available on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. They spent an extra $3.2 million to fake some of the Oliver Reed footage. In real life,

Marcus Aurelius, not murdered by, by Comedus. He died during the Antonin Plague in 188. A.D. an epidemic that swept through the Roman Empire. Comedus was known as the gladiator emperor would routinely just go in there and fight people and kill them. Didn't seem like a great guy, according to Wikipedia, often took people with missing limbs or other disabilities into the arena, tied them together and clubbed them the death. So that after a while, people didn't really like that that much. And it says, initially revered for his hunting and combat prowess, the populace, the populace turned against him. So he ruled with his dad for three years. His dad died. Combinus took over for the next 12 in real life and then was strangled in his bath by the wrestler and narcissists. That's how he died.

I don't know what happened. But I don't know why there hasn't been a WDWE wrestler named Narcissus. What a fucking great name that is? Maximus, fictional or non-fictional? What do you guys think? He's real in my life and also is Russell Crowe who did it. That's right. As I said earlier, after seeing the opening scenes of this movie, I believe that all of this is historically accurate. That's right. Chris? Yeah, no, I don't, I don't care.

I believe it's accurate. I don't care. It's the fake news of Rome. Yeah. Well, they made him up. He was a fictional character. Lucilla implicated in a plot to assassinate her brother in 182 AD, along with her steps on exile, then executed by his order.

So that's how she died. That's less good. So they used that one. Russell Crowe injuries during the movie. Lost all feeling in his right forefinger for two years during one of the sword fights. Aggravated an Achilles tendon injury. Broke a footbone, cracked a hip bone, and popped a few bicept tendons out of their sockets. Also got hurt during the opening battle scene and actually got cut when he landed somewhere and had stitches that you can actually see.

one of the scenes. So there you go on that. Bill. Yeah. Can you imagine the blog posts in ancient Rome about load management? Guys, guys, I don't know if we really need to be mindful about whether our gladiators are getting enough sleep. You know? And then like maybe we could do like trend pieces like why peanut butter is sweeping the gladiators.

Hagen is not fighting in this particular. gladiator bout, taking a home match off. This is unprecedented, but he says he's tired. Yeah. All these people from the Greek quarter, they paid to come to the Coliseum to see Maximus. And now they're going to be told that he's taking a night off for load management. Also, read my article about how water is the newest sensation among gladiators, drinking water, non-sewer water. Then Henry Abbott zags and blames the owners for the gladiators. Why aren't we looking higher? What about the owners who condone this gladiator violence?

So the gladiator effect apparently was real, according to a giant New York Times piece, because for whatever reason, nobody gave a shit about any of this era for years and movies. And then it made a huge comeback. And we saw a whole historical epic genre run with movies that were mostly bad. Troy, Diallo, King Arthur,

Alexander 300. That was a win. Kingdom of Heaven. Robin Wood. Robin Hood. And Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the Clones, apparently stepped into this, Jason. Wow. I don't know.

It wasn't on my radar. I don't know. Troy. There is a fight in a gladiator arena on an alien planet in that movie. Troy is good. I just want to make sure that we're saying Troy is good. You said Troy was not good. I greatly enjoy Troy.

I was disappointed by Troy But I felt the opposite As I did with Gladiator Where I was so pleasantly happily Delightfully surprised by Gladiator And with Troy That was like when the 2010 Miami Heat came together Where you're just like this

They have to win 70 games I just don't feel like Troy won 70 games They did they didn't They're like a second round playoff team I'm going to change everyone's life Who loves Sword and Sandel movies and is like, what's another good one? Kingdom of Heaven,

directors cut. Also Ridley Scott. This is the clutches of clutch calls. Folks, rent it now on your streaming channel of choice and enjoy. Okay. There you go. There's a lot of sequel talk about this movie. We even were texting about it a little bit last night.

There's been 15 years of sequel talk, including at one point in the mid-two-time, thousands, them trying to figure out a godfather to going back and forth in time where you could have basically a prequel with Maximus and then a postquel with Lucius. Yeah, post-quel. That's just a sequel. Or a sequel, whatever you want to call it. And now, even the last couple years, they were talking about a Lucius sequel built around Connie Nielsen's son. How old is Ridley Scott now, like 80. He's still cranking him out, man. Yeah. Don't rule him out.

Can I do five seconds on the Nick Cave sequel? Yeah, do it. Okay, so at one point, producers and Russell Crow approached the musician and soundtrack composer and also very accomplished writer Nick Cave, but you may know from the birthday party or Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds, just incredible bands, Grinderman too. And he was asked to write a sequel for Gladiator and came up with Gladiator 2, which would involve Maximus being resurrected from hell to come back and fight for Rome and then time traveling through the years fighting in like World War II and eventually ending up as like a Pentagon

General in modern times. Nick Cave said that he wanted to call the movie Christ Killer and it was deemed like the one of the more crazy scripts that's ever been written and you can find it online now if you search for Nick Cave gladiator script you can read it. It is bonkers. Jason, if you were going to to become a screenwriter, would you be you or would you just take the pseudonym Nick Cave? Because I can't imagine a better byline than Nick Cave. Are you a writer? What's your name?

I'm Nick Cave. I'm Nick Cave, no longer with the bad seeds. I will say, like, one of the things that really struck me rewatching this is the level of quality of action that this movie gives you, we're just not used to in, 2020 seeing this kind of action movie and not having it be teed up for sequels. Right. You know, like if they made this now, if Gladiator came out in 2019, 2020, it would be get ready for Gladiator 1 for 2 and 3. Yeah.

Immediately. So they would probably have made the deals for the first three. Absolutely. It would have been like over the course of five years. Yeah. That's a really notable thing and a really interesting thing going back to rewatch this. It's like, wow, it's just over part of the power of this. movie is that he dies at the end.

And that just wouldn't happen if you saw an action movie of comparable quality that came out today. Apex Mountain, Russell Crow? Yes. I vote yes. I vote yes as well. I think he peaks. And he also coming out of this movie has as much career

cachet to do whatever the fuck he wants, including steal Meg Ryan from Dennis Quaid. Like he's really, it's an all-time heat check after this. I think this is also Hans Zimmer Apex Mountain. Oh, great call. Oh, wow. Hans Zimmer.

Yeah. Can you give me your favorite Hans in order? Okay, it's this. Any number of the themes. No, a guy's name Hans, not Hans Zimmer. Hans Gruber. So it's Hans Gruber one, Hans Zimmer, then Hans from Hans and Franz,

and then it's the field. Can we put Hans solo in there? or is it Hans or Han? No, it has to be Hans. You got to put Hans from Inglorious Bastards at least in third place. Shea, you could have gone, you could have gone Hans Serrano

for one of your kids, I feel like, potentially. Maybe, maybe. Moray Pex Mountain, Connie Nielsen, unquestionably, yes. Gladiator movies? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, do you think that this is better than Spartacus?

I think Spartacus might have been bigger. Yeah. I like this better than Spartacus. Bill. I'm just saying for impact in the moment, I think Spartacus might have actually somehow been bigger than this. Yes. I think people went and saw Spartacus like 12 times.

Yeah, and I think Kirk Douglas came out of Spartacus as the biggest star in the world for a few years there. Incest, no. I think it peaks later in Game and Thrones. How about touching wheat? I was going to say that, yes. This is taking a move that happens a lot in Days of Heaven.

They do this in Days of Heaven. They touch wheat a lot. You know, like in the late 70s, early 80s, touching wheat starts to go mainstream, but it really, really goes pro in Gladiator, where touching wheat becomes a signifier

of being completely connected to the universe and nature and like the time continuum. And now it's just like everybody touches wheat. Terence Malik is like the velvet underground of touching wheat. Yeah. So yes, Bill, great call.

Great call. That was Chris's original name for his Johnson Billups blog. Touching. It didn't catch on. He had to audible. Any other Apex Mountain? That's all I have. Picking Nits?

I mean, if we're really in real life doing this, he's just killing, he's killing the Spaniard immediately after that fight. He's not letting this guy live for five minutes. No, wait, wait, wait. You take some bad PR for like two days. And then you don't worry about it. Yeah. Why do they tell him to ride till dawn?

Just kill him outside the tent. What's the big deal? He's having an accident. If this guy murdered his father, I'm pretty sure he's okay with killing Maximus within three minutes. The geography is a big knit for me. So he's fighting in Germany. Then he rides to Spain over how many?

Like, how long is that trip? And he gets there. When you see that, if you rewatch that scene, I didn't notice it until this last time. His hair is like crazy long. in that one scene when he's on the horse. And he's like, how long has he been on this fucking horse?

I think the only way we know was a long time was the horse literally collapses. The load management of the horse was not handled properly. Any nitpicks for you, Chris? No, I mean, there's a couple of, so this guy can ride a horse from Germany to Spain. And, you know, like that kind of stuff where it's just like, that's some, that's, we're talking like nine months, you know, to get to get across Europe. So there's a few things like that. But my biggest one is like in the beginning when they're going to have him assassinated

is taking him out way into the forest. That just doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah. Okay. Best quote, we mentioned a bunch of them. I like what we do in life. That goes to eternity. Oh, you are in Elysium. And you're all right.

Brothers, what we do in life. That goes in eternity. Good senior year, but quote. at my single unleash hell. It's, we mention most of that. That one wins. Could this be remade as a 10 episode Netflix show? I would be upset if they did this.

It was. My advice would be not to do this, but of course, but I'm saying we do this specific thing. Just be like, we've blown out the Russell Crow movie as a 10 episode. They haven't done that. No, but they did Rome a couple years later. And I think that, and I honestly, like the more that we've talked about it over the course of this podcast,

I bet Benny Off and Weiss crush this. movie before they made Game of Thrones. Oh, I had that in unanswerable. Well, let's just go there now. So I did gladiator paved the way for Game of Thrones. We mentioned Joffrey and Comedus. Maximus has a pet wolf. Incest.

Set in older time where there's big, big-ass battle scenes. The battle scene, especially the first battle scene, very similar to some Game of Thrones. What else, Jason? Any other similarities? I mean, you know, swords and mysticism and all that stuff, but I think you've covered it. Also, the globe trotting going from like Northern Europe, Celtic kind of vibes to North African to European, Mediterranean. Like having all that stuff in there is a real game.

Geography issues. Yeah. A little boy in danger. Yeah. I guess that one's there. Yeah, you can feel a little. Shea, one of the, I always ask you. you one great question when we do a rewatchable

together. I'm ready. And I never prepare you either for the question. I'm ready. So you're about to fight in the Coliseum and you're in the locker room and they have all the equipment there and people can pick all these different masks. They can pick armor, like all these looks.

What mask would you have gone for? Do I have to pick one out of the gladiator world or can I pick like any mask? No, no, no. It's just what they showed, they basically you have the helmet armor. thing where you can see your face, you have the Russell Crow cover thing, or you have that giant fucking helmet thing. I think those were the three, right?

Was there another one? No, they have like an animal helmet that you can pick as well. Yeah, I would not. I didn't like the animal helmet. Seems sweaty. My problem that I make oftentimes, and I just made this recently, is I, I foregoal practicality and I just like, I'm going to pick whatever the coolest looking thing is. So I think if I found myself in the situation, I understand.

up taking the big gladiator mascot he pulls down because I think that one looks cool. But then as soon as you put it on, you realize you can only see something if it's right in front of you. Like if a little to the left or the right, their eye holes don't work, you're fucked. But that's what I'm going with. And I'm just going to keep on. I'm going to do this shit over and over again. Jason, I feel like you go no helmet.

Like the hockey players in the late 80s. I feel like my vision, my vision, field of vision would be much more important than some facial protection. If I get crunched in the face with an axe, it's going to hurt regardless and I'm going to be done. So, like, I want to see what's going on. Chris, baseball hat?

No, I probably get a mask of my own face just for the memes, you know? And it's just like, take the mask off and it's my same face. Just like sting. Yeah, I would just want to go viral. We mentioned this earlier. I had this ring down.

Does this qualify as a sports movie? Yes. Yeah, for sure. Not mentioned as a sports movie, but I kind of feel like it should be. It's got training montages, halftime speeches, and championship games. And a gladiator combine. Yeah. Jason, this question is for you.

Communists, more of an incest guy or a pedophilia guy? If you have to say, like, what really floats his boat the most? I think a clear incest guy. I think, you know, his interest in his sister. son, his nephew, was just mainly because he wanted to have a nuclear family with his sister. Yeah. It's mainly just about, he's, he's an incest guy. I think he's also like a guy.

He doesn't relate to other men as much as he does to younger boys because he's kind of like, his development. He's tantalized. Yeah. So probably two-thirds incest guy, maybe one-third. I never got pedophilia from, from Joaquin. That didn't, that wasn't something that occurred to me either. Yeah. Yeah.

He's standing over the bed, staring at him. the kid and the sister comes in horrified. Like, oh my God, I'm glad I got here at times. He's considering killing them. He's like, how do I manipulate this kid? He's not like, how do I kiss this child? He's like, what can I do with this kid? I don't know.

I felt like everything was on the table with Comedus. The, just a random thought, random thing I put in the wrong category. The wife of Maximus in this movie, played by Gianina Fasio, married Ridley Scott in 2015. Damn. Didn't know that. All right. Didn't know that. Weird.

Forgot to mention that. Last one. Maybe I'm the one to answer this one. What WWE plot was this? With Maximus. I was thinking it reminds me of Stone Cold Steve Austin with Vince McMahon. He's working for Vince McMahon, but then he's feuding with them

and the crowd is moving towards Stone Cold. And it's basically, the weird thing is it's two years before this movie. So I don't know if it inspired a gladator. Any other unanswerable questions? I have none. Who won the movie? Russell Crow.

Russell Crow. Joaquin Phoenix. Wheat. Oh, I knew Shea was going to do that. I knew it. Fields of wheat. You knew it. It's like when the year when they voted Carl Malone for MVP.

She just had the zig. He had the zig on us. Everyone else was zagging. That was your Carl Malone vote. All right. Gladator, we did this. Wow, in less than an hour and a half with four people. I'm really proud of you guys.

Out of way. That's great stuff. Shea, Chris, Jason. Always a pleasure. Talk to you guys. Thank you. See you in eternity. Yelp.

That's it for the rewatchables. We have another one coming this week. I'll give you the movie now so you have time to watch it. Groundhog Day. 30th anniversary. It's going to be me, Sean Fantasy, and a very special guest, a celebrity who has never been on the rewatchables. And you probably won't guess who it.

is? If you do, I'll be impressed. See you next time.