Cinematography Homework

Cinematography Homework: Gladiator (2000)

This scene is probably one of the most powerful and captivating scenes throughout the film and great cinematography is used to convey emotion and also to attract the audience to Maximus. The first thing I noticed about this scene was every time Commodus is shown on screen there is a cleverly positioned shadow cast across his face so half of it is covered. This is used to portray duplicity/split personality. Commodus is clearly a dictator and we quickly see a different side to him later on in the film so the use of this shadow works perfectly.

At first when Maximus turns his back on Commodus and starts to walk away the camera is shown in an almost ‘POV’ shot as if the audience were one of the soldiers next to Maximus, this makes us emphasise for him and without us knowing it encourages us to like him and be on his side. As soon as Maximus takes his helmet off and turns to face the camera the cinematography drastically changes in an instant. Scott chooses to use a ‘close up’ shot of his face to show his emotion and lead the audience to believe what he is saying, I think this works extremely well with the partnership of the ‘background blur’ because my attention was automatically attracted to his face. He then starts to move closer to Commodus and the tension starts to increase. When he reveals his identity the ‘foreground’ and ‘background’ are both in focus to show the reactions of everyone in the shot. When he continues to walk closer and says that he will have his vengeance the camera switches to a ‘medium close up’ of Commodus with a ‘background blur’ to grab the attention of the audience and direct it to the fear and intimidation all over his face, also to focus our attention to his lip quiver that clearly highlights his vulnerability which is very unusual for someone as powerful as he is. Commodus certainly feels threatened by Maximus and calls upon his soldiers for the execution of him. The camera then switches to a ‘very wide shot’ to show the location of the soldiers swarming in preparation to attack, this camera shot also reveals the gap between the powerful leader and the gladiators that immediately portrays the dangerousness of these so called slaves .The crowd that fills the stadium then react intensely chanting to save the life of this gladiator and in fear of letting his people down he is left with a dilemma that he is forced to think about before making his decision. Every time the camera is on Maximus from this point on he is always staring straight at Commodus to show us the determination and hatred that he has for him. The camera is directed to the crowd and a slow ‘tilt’ shot is used to show the unbelievable reaction of the crowd and to show the position that Commodus is left in, it then switches to ‘medium close ups’ of the gladiators and Commodus to show their reaction to the crowd. Commodus fears what Maximus is capable off but he also fears having his people turn against him so he makes the final decision to spare Maximus, one that he will later regret.