In the opening of the film the producer uses warm colours, like yellow which signifies warmth, but the music is sombre it doesn’t fit in well with the colours. The music make the audience feel cold and the colours make the audience feel warm. The first image the audience can see is Maximum’s hand, feeling the bright yellow wheat fields, laughter is heard in the background, this makes the audience feel happy, sensitive and gives the sense of new life. Gradually the music gets faster and the colours get duller and darker. When Maximus arrives at the battlefield colours like blue, grey and black are used; in the background the audience are able to hear the wind and slight music.
As Maximus walks down the battlefield the other soldiers greet him; in the background the audience can hear the galloping of horses and a lot of voices in the back. The music gets faster when Maximus is preparing for the battle; this builds up suspense. When Maximus rides off and stops to talk to his men the music gets softer.
At the beginning of the battle you can hear a lot of angry voices, fire, swords clashing with one another and music. Later the audience sees arrows lit with fire flying across the dark sky and falling to the ground, this lights up the dark sky. As the battle goes on the music gets slow and soft, which creates more of a violent, adrenaline feeling which was what the director created in the beginning.
The first image the audience sees in the film is a close up of Maximus’s hand in a wheat field. As soon as the colour changes from light to dark the camera moves up and the audience can see all of Maximus’s body. The camera is mainly focused on Maximus when he is walking down the battlefield. When Maximus is making a speech on his horse to his men, the audience sees a side shot of Maximus and the audience can also see the other soldiers beside him. As the cannon balls and arrows are lit with fire, aimed and fired, the camera follows them across the sky. As the battle goes on some of it is shown in birds eye view. At the very end when the music is slow and soft, it’s all shown in slow motion. The camera is mainly focused on Maximus. The camera is very close to the people who are fighting; it makes the audience feel as though they are also in the battle.
The film starts with the title ‘Gladiator’ in big, bold, black writing. Then there is yellow writing, which gives a brief history of Rome. This is to let the audience now briefly what was going on in the time the film is set. At first there is no speech for a long time, this is to build up suspense. The first word spoken is ‘General’, that’s when Maximus walks down the battlefield and is greeted by the other soldiers. The first time Maximus speaks is when he is asking about the Roman messenger. After the galloping horse with the headless soldier on him comes running in, a loud angry voice speaks in Germanium, language. Even though it is not understandable but the tone of his voice indicates he is very angry. Maximus speaks in a very calm way as though he is not bothered but it just shows he is a patient person. As the Romans prepare for battle there is very few voices. Maximus raises his voices so his men can hear him, he then cracks a joke and silence is broken with laughter. During the battle there is no speech just a lot of angry voices and a lot of shouting and screaming.
I think Ridley Scott is on Maximus’s side, because the story revolves around him, Ridley Scott has written Maximus to be the main character. The camera is mainly focused on Maximus. At the end of the film Maximus has victory.
