I just watched Gladiator for the first time in a long time a few minutes ago. It really is a terrific movie. We can all thank Ridley Scott for bringing back the historical genre. But if I had to compare the two films (and I'm sure just about everyone feels the need to compare them), I must say I felt a much stronger pull from Kingdom of Heaven. There were two things Gladiator had that Kingdom of Heaven did not. The first is the villainous character like Commodous. The second was the commanding presence of the hero, Maximus (Orlando still did good as Balian of Ibelin). It was also very operatic. But other than those things, it doesn't have anything superior to KoH. Both had this in common. They meant to stress the importance of the places the people were fighting for. This is where I think Kingdom of Heaven was done better. In Gladiator, they went on and on about what Rome was, but they never really showed what was so amazing about it. IN KoH, I really get a magical sense of what Jerusalem was supposed to be. However, after everything I just said, the two films shouldn't be compared for what's better. I almost consider KoH a sequel to Gladiator. And I can also say there would not be a KoH without Gladiator. I hope to see more of these cinematic masterpieces from Ridley.
Review of Kingdom of Heaven
