If you can, try and overlook how badly Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe gang-banged the memory of Robin Hood, and remember just how incredible Gladiator was when it was released in 2000. The new millennium brought with it the promise of a fresh era for the long dead sword-and-sandal epic, spearheaded by the thoroughly entertaining tale of betrayal, revenge and general sword-wavery. The film was far from flawless; Richard Harris, then little more than a ghost himself, was a little hammy; pre-Johnny Cash Joaquin Phoenix was at times laughable; and selfish Oliver Reed dropped dead mid shoot (having allegedly challenged half the Maltese navy to an arm wrestle after downing three bottles of Captain Morgan’s), forcing the need for a heavy-handed re-cut of an earlier scene, just to kill his character off. But Gladiator represented a renaissance in a genre long thought dead, taking over $450 million worldwide and bagging a Best Picture Oscar in the process.
A stalwart in the Golden Age of Hollywood, the historical epic relied heavily on the three pillars of antiquity: Egypt, Greece and Rome. Within the latter of these, the Biblical Epic dominated, capturing the imaginations of a far more innocent Western World yet to be sullied by the JFK assassination. Spartacus and Ben Hur stand out, and remain equally entertaining/essential Christmas viewing today (with the former also serving as a scathing attack on the McCarthyism era that almost broke the film industry, depending on how deep you want to read into it…) The list of truly great historical epics from the 1920s to the 1960s runs close to three figures.
Conjuring up cohorts of miles gregarius or hordes of bloodthirsty Gauls was now a matter of technology, rather than the casts of thousands, bloated budgets and sets bigger than their real-life equivalents. CGI could offer an adventure in antiquity far beyond what William Wyler or a young Stanley Kubrick could ever have imagined, and Gladiator proved that people were willing to pay to see it. Studios tripped over themselves to commission similar epics, desperate to cash in on the Lazarus-like re-emergence of a genre that hadn’t been relevant for a generation. Some films, such as Caligula, were based in antiquity but are far from the traditional epic, focusing more on a clearly bewildered John Gielgud wondering why everyone was naked.
A deluge of sloppy, rushed and, most significantly, horrendously cast historical dramas dripped out over the next few years. Alexander, King Arthur, The Last Samurai, Troy, The Last Legion and Kingdom of Heaven all came and went, made instantly forgettable for a number of reasons. In terms of casting, they were all disastrous. Colin Farrell’s Alexander posed the clearest question yet as to why that man still has a career; Colin Firth and Clive Owen, both fine actors, are far from sword-wielding, action heroes of the Roman Empire; Tom Cruise was as convincing playing a Samurai as he is playing a human being in real life; and the less said about Brad Pitt’s horrific portrayal of Achilles the better. Again, citing Robin Hood as an anomaly, Russell Crowe’s brutish characteristics perfectly suit the historical epic and significantly contributed to Gladiator’s success, evidence of which can be further seen in the underrated Master and Commander.
As each of this new wave of historical epic crashed and burnt, directors looked for innovative new ways to invigorate the briefly re-animated genre. Zack Snyder’s 300 carved out an audience strong enough to see its sequel released this year. It also represented a clear line in the sand, after which the highly stylized, reasonably cheaply produced and poorly written historical films have dominated the genre for almost a decade.
The most recent example of this, following on from such mediocrity as The Eagle, Ironclad, Hercules and Clash of the Titans, is Paul W.S. Anderson’s Pompeii. Borrowing ridiculously heavily from Gladiator in its first half, it again makes the same mistake as its predecessors when it comes to casting. Kit Harrington, so perfect as the simple but valiant Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, lacks the screen presence to carry a film of this magnitude. Physically he has clearly worked hard to shape a gladiator’s physique, but the rest of his performance as protagonist Milo is lacking.
An unimpressive plot follows his character who, after seeing his family butchered by Roman’s during his childhood, now finds himself as one the finest gladiators of his generation. He somewhat inexplicably finds himself romantically involved with a nobleman’s daughter, Cassia (Emily Browning) after suitably impressing her during an act of mercy in which he breaks her injured horse’s neck with his bare hands, Mongo from Blazing Saddles style.
Taken to fight in the city of Pompeii, Milo soon discovers that a visiting corrupt Senator, Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) is not only the same man responsible for slaughtering his family years before, but has also blackmailed Cassia into becoming his bride-to-be. The plot meanders on in this clichéd, uninteresting journey until a miserably sweet conclusion, heralded by the inevitable volcanic eruption, brings much needed and long-overdue mercy. Pompeii feels like a lazy mishmash of scenes from other films, most notably about 40% of Gladiator. There isn’t a single moment that feels original, or even interesting. It’s simply an utterly unnecessary film made up of blandly necessary plot points.
Kiefer Sutherland’s frankly ridiculous, though accidentally hilarious, accent distracts from what is an otherwise bad performance, as Jared Harris comfortably betters him. Carrying on the family tradition of acting in Roman epics (as well as Richard Harris’s appearance in Gladiator, Donald Sutherland hammed it up in 2011’s The Eagle) neither actor has done their otherwise impressive careers much good. It looked like they had fun though, so there’s that.
A film such as this can squeeze by if it has some good aspects. Uninspired direction and a poor script can be made watchable by great casting, or a great script can still be at least half-decent even with bad actors and poor directing. But, unfortunately for Pompeii, it secured the increasingly common triumvirate of dreadful dialogue, miscast leads, and dull direction.
The sweeping, heroic epics of the golden age of Hollywood are long gone, and, save for the prospect of a brief revival over a decade ago, they don’t ever look set to return. With studios increasingly less inclined to take risks on ambitious, original projects, we are instead faced with a future filled with dozens more Pompeii’s; mediocre, mindless battle-porn, lacking in plot and ill deserving of the genre.
Pompeii is currently showing at Savoy, Cineworld, and Showcase Cinemas in Nottingham.
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