Having grown tired of waging costly and wasteful wars, nations have decided to organize international peace games instead. Teams of young soldiers from a variety of countries uphold the honor of ideological blocs by flattening each other in "games" reminiscent of the gladiatorial spectacles so beloved by ancient Rome. Cold-eyed generals oversee the proceedings, while punishing any attempt at backsliding...
"Gladiatorerna" is an interesting anti-war movie, situated somewhere between satire and science fiction. Here, warfare (large or small, open or disguised) is an operation which benefits only a tiny elite of rich and powerful men. The poor deluded fools who do the actual fighting are just cannon fodder, fungible and expendable ad infinitum. Within the logic of such a system the ultimate heretic is the rare soldier who shakes off the weight of his indoctrination and recognizes the enemy as a fellow human being ; hence the draconic punishments for crimes such as fraternization or desertion. For what would happen to civilization if people of various nations, creeds and colors grew to LIKE each other ?
The movie also condemns the use of real-life violence for entertainment purposes, which demeans both the sufferers and the spectators.
So "Gladiatorerna" certainly has a clear viewpoint, which it expresses with a lot of emphasis and conviction. But sadly the movie is not without its flaws. For instance, the characterization tends to be shallow and one-note. Since the viewer doesn't get to know the various characters as fully-rounded personalities, he doesn't mind too much if some of them, or indeed all of them, get blown up or beaten to a pulp. (For an anti-war project this is somewhat ironic.) Moreover, the passage of time has robbed many of the elements of their red-hot topicality. Subjects like the French student revolts or the hippie "Make love not war" counterculture throbbed and hummed with relevance in the late 1960's, but nowadays...
"Gladiatorerna" is an interesting anti-war movie, situated somewhere between satire and science fiction. Here, warfare (large or small, open or disguised) is an operation which benefits only a tiny elite of rich and powerful men. The poor deluded fools who do the actual fighting are just cannon fodder, fungible and expendable ad infinitum. Within the logic of such a system the ultimate heretic is the rare soldier who shakes off the weight of his indoctrination and recognizes the enemy as a fellow human being ; hence the draconic punishments for crimes such as fraternization or desertion. For what would happen to civilization if people of various nations, creeds and colors grew to LIKE each other ?
The movie also condemns the use of real-life violence for entertainment purposes, which demeans both the sufferers and the spectators.
So "Gladiatorerna" certainly has a clear viewpoint, which it expresses with a lot of emphasis and conviction. But sadly the movie is not without its flaws. For instance, the characterization tends to be shallow and one-note. Since the viewer doesn't get to know the various characters as fully-rounded personalities, he doesn't mind too much if some of them, or indeed all of them, get blown up or beaten to a pulp. (For an anti-war project this is somewhat ironic.) Moreover, the passage of time has robbed many of the elements of their red-hot topicality. Subjects like the French student revolts or the hippie "Make love not war" counterculture throbbed and hummed with relevance in the late 1960's, but nowadays...