Gladiator Media Assignment

Authors Avatar

Gladiator Media Assignment

In the 21st century film, ‘Gladiator’, the director, Ridley Scott, uses a range of cinematic techniques to express the feelings and emotions of each of the main characters.  Gladiator is a historical film, which is based on a true story, however the director has added a love triangle to add interest.  Although this is a historical film, it is also a typical Hollywood film in the way that the hero defeats the villain and ‘gets the girl’.

In the first few shots of the film, Ridley Scott begins to portray the character, Maximus, as the hero.  We can see this in the forth shot with a medium close up shot of Maximus.  He is watching a red breast robin flying away, which symbolises freedom.  The mis-en-scene in this shot include colours of dark icy blue tones which represents the cold atmosphere of the beginning of the film as he goes to war.  Maximus then gazes into the distance with a look of determination in his face.  This is the first example of Ridley Scott’s impression of hero and villain as in this shot you are able to see Maximus’s face clearly.  Although it is not a lengthy shot it has a great impact.

Join now!

In the next few shots, Maximus is walking through an aisle, with a line of soldiers on either side of him.  Shot 10 is a good example of Ridley Scott’s view of how Maximus should be viewed as a character.  It is a close up shot of him scanning the many rows of soldiers whilst pacing briskly.  The camera is level with the eyes of Maximus, showing that the viewers are equal to him.  Also Maximus is seen also to be ‘on the same level’ as the soldiers through the point of view shot that Ridley has included.  The ...

This is a preview of the whole essay