Gladiator extended editon - worth buying

The commentary is decent, nothing fantastic. Scott wimped out and didn't include all the deleted scenes in the film. That said, I found it's worth the purchase.

Sure it is. Commodus gets indeed more screen time (love that execution by arrows scene) and so does Derek Jacobi's Gracchus, a character I thought got pretty much the shaft in the theatrical release.

All in all, I personally think this is a movie worth buying in its two editions, though it doesn't cover much new ground in the docus department or the commentaries one. The first ed was pretty much complete for me, thank you very much.

BTW, Subotai. It's been long since I checked my olde Gladiator DVD, but what were the deleted scenes Ridley wimped out to put back in?

For one, the scene where the lions eat the Christians in the arena while the crowd watches. In the original story, that was a vital scene because it drove Maximus to overthrow Commodus. It was followed by the scene where Maximus is shouting "The is not it! This is not it!" Too tough for the audiences, I guess.

Question: Did Scott ever "fix" all of the random things that appeared in the film? Like the airplane and the gasoline can in the back of the chariot?

I've seen the gas can flub, as well the as denim jean clad warriors, but what scene is the airplane in? I can't recall.

Near the beginning of the film, I believe. During the big battle sequence.

Wimped out? Hmm.

I thought this was the GLADIATOR: Extended Edition DVD not the GLADIATOR: Everything But The Kitchen Sink Edition. I'd also like to think that this set has the first really in-depth look at the making of the film with the new 3 hour documentary STRENGTH AND HONOR. But, hey, what do I know?

While i'm sure the Strength and Honor doc is brilliance as is the set you have to see that he did say it was worth the purchase Hellboy.

Sad he didn't include the lions bit because Maximus's reaction to it was great (the dummy was a bit iffy though) and like Subo alluded to it leads to the " this is not it " bit perfectly.

However how the pretorian execution sequence was ever cut i'll never know. Such a brilliant scene and easily Joaquin at his best.

If not for lack of sufficent funds i'd already own the set.

I've had the single-disk version for some time. Should I grab the 3-discer? I'm not a huge fan but I'm certainly interested in seeing the new cut. Keep in mind that I buy dvd's in frikkin bulk practically, so the perceived cost to me is forgoing other potential purchases.

Oh, yeah, you're right! I remember now, cool scene. Pussy indeed.

The bit I'm not sure I buy now, is how Scott always claimed the theatrical release was the Director's Cut...Now we hear that he has an extended version of Kingdom of Heaven coming out, several months after the release of the original cut.

I hope he's put Proximo's speech back in just before Maximus's fight in the arena, after which he does the 'are you not entertained?'. I never really understood why he took that out, as it's a good short speech and answers why Maximus would then scream that at the audience.

What was he speechifying about? Because I never really questioned why he would yell that.

He's basically critisizing Maximus because all Max does is just go out and kill his opponents quickly. He says that the crowd don't want a butcher, they want to be entertained. Max walks off and Proximo yells after him "So entertain!" It's a great set up to the fight (where Max just butchers everyone before yelling 'are you not entertained?!') plus it helps lay the groundwork for Proximo's later scenes about how he won the crowd, and how Maximus needs to.

I'm not sure about Gladiator, but Kingdom of Heaven was always butchered domestically. You could tell watching it that a great deal of the story was missing. Strange that a director with the success level that Scott has had doesn't get final cut...

I know, I know... I just HATE how they re-release with better versions... it is maddening! lol

Worth a buy for sure.

One of the best long form docus on a recent movie I've seen, for sure.

I'm not buying it, unless they've stuck the Rhino back in...

These are crucial scenes. One in particular is the Pretorian execution which is vital for showing why Quintis would not order his Pretorians to give Commodus a sword at the end.

In the theatrical cut, it makes some sense for Maximus to yell "are you not entertained" because he seems sickened by what he has to do to survive. In the extended cut, it makes more sense for him to yell that, since Proximo has just told him that the crowd want an entertainer, so he should make the fights last longer. This then nicely connects back to the next scene where an irked Proximo asks him what it is he actually wants.

That is a great scene. Really gives Quintus a depth of character he didn't have before. Up to that point, he's really a Quisling.

The "Signature Series" 2-discer is worth holding onto for its nigh-reference-quality (hell, it IS reference-quality) DTS mix, but I now prefer the extended cut for the richer character moments it reinstates into the flick...and the 3 1/2-hour doco and Ridley and Russell's new commentary (incidentally, recorded something like a week or so before the "phone-tossing" affair) are, for the most part, the tits.


He's said that, but when you listen to the new commentrak, he's apparently over the moon at the chance to reincorporate several of the new scenes back in the movie (most of which involve Commodus, with Quintus himself getting a sizeable new motivation for collectively sheathing his men's swords at the end).

That said, it may be that the original theatrical release was his "true" final cut, with the extended edition his "Director's Fun Cut"...but then again, it appears that he's ruminated quite a bit during the last six years, and undoubtedly wouldn't have consented to doing the new recut unless he felt the expanded version had something substantially meaty and nutritious to offer. It's really a tossup.

As for the new Kingdom of Heaven DC on the way...fuck Tom Rothman. Fuck him through holes he never even knew he had.

That is all.

Well, you get the storyboards which is about all you can expect for a scene that doesn't exist.

I love the new release. It's been awhile since I watched the content on the Signature Series release, but the new stuff didn't seem too overly redundent, and offered some nice perspective too.

The Crowe commentary was interesting; not as thorough as I would have liked, but certainly a nice companion piece to the already existing Ridley Scott solo track. He's a smart actor, and he and Scott seem to get along pretty well.

Basically, Charles de Lauzirika is the best DVD producer around, and I'll buy any disc that he does; you just can't beat the content. I wish every movie I like could have a DVD that he put together.

So I should be ditching my 1 disc and getting the 3discer? I'm really intrigued by what this cut seems to be offering. I'm also a sucker for that fancy shmansy packaging, so I've quite nearly bought it a few times. Hell I just bought the new 3disc Ten Commandments because of the funky package!