Gladiator II on Canal Plus: the ultimate entertainment of Ridley Scott (critic)
Scott replies his cult peplum: the result is a series B denies, a top of entertainment ultra balaise.
Release last October in the cinema, the rest of Gladiator was not a great success at the box office, and she was welcomed lukewarmly by criticism. At first, however, we appreciated Gladiator 2 For what it is: a modern peplum and returned from, designed to entertain us, which never seeks to measure itself the legend of the original film. To see this Friday on Canal Plus (at 9 p.m.) and streaming on MyCanal. Our criticism:
Who wanted to see a sequel to Gladiator ? Person. Not you, not us. Not even Ridley Scott. This is precisely what makes the film very interesting: the fact that its director himself does not turn him as if he made a fantasy of twenty years, but as a job like the others, between a biopic of Napoleon and another of the Bee Gees. It is not white whale fishing. Nor a Legacyquel Designed by an heir obsessed with the first film. That said, you shouldn’t be mistaken: Gladiator II is designed first to satisfy the shareholder office, not any Vox Populi Who would ask for a continuation of head killing.
And what does Scott do? He throws you Gladiator on the face, and gives you a “Are you not Entertahed?” cynical limit. We would almost forget the second part of the reply: “Is that why you came?” You wanted Gladiator ? Are you there for that? (cries of joy of the crowd) Here, and the bleeding, the AOC, the authentic, machined by its creator himself. Like that, no one else is to be blamed, otherwise our own cluttered gluttony for distraction -our will to “Disagreement to die”as Neil Postman wrote in 1985.
By reproducing the structure of Gladiator 1st scenar side (the hero, slave then gladiator, etc.), the sequence obviously demonstrates that the first film was very well enough for itself, and perhaps also the emptiness of infinite reproductions of the futility of the past-basically, that Gladiator II is nothing other than replicant Ultimate, that makes sense – replying being one of the great Scottian obsessions. The animated intro sequence, summarizing the highlights of the first film, is signed Gianluigi Toccangeo, author of the sequence of the Scott Free – continuity of imitations and aftershocks.
The first Gladiator was already a hell of replicant : an imitation of imitation (the peplum of the great era, which imitated spectacular silent cinema, itself imitated by orientalist illustrators, etc.), in which the Romans, having nothing more to conquer (as Maximus says after the Battle of Intro where the barbarians are crushed without surprise, “There is no one left to fight”), find themselves imitating their battles of the past in the arena of the Colosseum (the battle of Zama). Gladiator IIit’s like Italy to House of Gucciwhere nobody makes the difference between authentic handbags and Chinese copies.
In Gladiator IIwhen Lucius (Paul Mescal, pretty good) rubs his hands with the dust of the arena before fighting, he actually imitates Maximus; Not by symbolism but by pragmatism (he will throw the dust to blind a rhinoceros that loads it). No more room for grandeur, for poetry, for “this dream that was Rome”. No birth of a new star (Russell Crowe) by the Renaissance of the Peplum -which said Gladiatorin short. It is decadence, fall, the great fiesta on the ruins of the world, enjoyment before the end.
Precisely: it is first on the field of kif – therefore of the purest pragmatism – that Gladiator II is the most effective. Scott knows that as long as he rebuilds his own film, as much as he is as much like as possible. As much to shoot his hero with opium, as much to put baboons and sharks in the arena, as much to stage Roman emperors like degenerate thugs, closer to Brighton Beach than to the Palatine (Genie du Duo Joseph Quinn/Fred Hechingerall straight from UNCUT Gems). You might as well let the mind -blowing slaughter of Denzel Washingtonwho plays his character from self made man Going to the conquest of power as a replicant by Alonzo Harris rather than Frank Lucas.
Where Alien: Romulus (produced by Ridley) made titanic efforts to lead to a small clone ofAliens, the return,, Gladiator II Also imitates, but not to lead to a clone beast of the first film: the film is a decadent B series because it wants to be – but an ultimate B series, like the peplums of the great era, without meta or contemptuous will. It is therefore a pragmatic film, which does not seek to be something else: in this, it is a form of hacking of contemporary blockbuster, at the same time as a lesson to meditate in terms of great spectacle. No need to die either to do it, just be a good craftsman with the right tools.
Scott turned Gladiator II As usual, like his other films, in time allocated, even below the planned budget, and with the Final cut – which is also ten minutes shorter than the first film. And that’s the work. You are not entertained? That was what you wanted? Cries of joy of the crowd.
