Top 10 Spencer Tracy Films

Spencer Tracy was a troubled soul, but he also happened to be one of the highest regarded acting talents in Hollywood. With his wise face and tough exterior he dominated the screen. He could take on any role from the tough guy to a priest.

He will best be remembered for his on-screen and off-screen partnership with Katharine Hepburn. Some of his greatest roles especially those in the comedy genre were made with her at his side.

Spencer Tracy was the type of actor who hungered for the difficult roles, those in which he could hide within and really show what he could achieve.

This is my list of my favourite Spencer Tracy performances and films. This is an incredible list of films, from an inspiring talent.

10 - Pat and Mike (1952)

Running Time: 1 Hour 35 mins
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: George Cukor
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn

Pat and Mike was one of 9 films that Tracy made with Katharine Hepburn. Written by their friends Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin this film was written to show off Hepburn's athletic skills (she was an avid tennis and golf player). Her Pat could be a great sports star, says her new slightly shady manager Mike (Tracy) but the problem is her fiance, she never plays her best when he is watching. Mike's dominating character helps Pat overcome her problems as they become mutually attracted to each other and Mike tries to go straight for Pat and quit his dodgy dealings.

09 - Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Running Time: 1 Hour 20
Genre: Crime/Drama
Director: John Sturges
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin

A seemingly small story with a big cast this John Sturges directed classic casts Tracy as a one handed stranger (John J. Macreedy) who comes to a tiny town known as Black Rock. As soon as he steps off the train he is big news. No one ever comes to the town and the residents like it that way. Macreedy finds everyone inhospitable and hostile. It is obvious they have a secret and it turns out the person Macreedy is there to see might be at the heart of the secret they will do anything to keep hidden. A great bubbling suspence with a perfectly cast Tracy in the lead.

08 - Adams Rib (1949)

Running Time: 1 Hour 40 mins
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: George Cukor
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday

Probably the best of all the Tracy Hepburn partnerships, this comedy written again by friends Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon focuses on a husband and wife who both happen to be lawyers and both on opposite sides of the same case. The case in question whether a woman shot her husband causes both personal and professional tensions to rise between the couple with hilarious results.
With a great script and tow of the greatest actors in the lead roles this is a knock out! Outrageously funny, a must see comedy.

07 - Northwest Passage (1940)

Running Time: 2 Hours 5 mins
Genre: Adventure
Director: King Vidor
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan

An epic adventure film starring Tracy almost against type as Major Robert Rogers the leader of Rogers Rangers of which two friends join. The film follows the Rangers on their travels wiping out Indian villages and travelling to Fort Wentworth where they should find food and supplies but find none. Based on a book by the same name, Tracy is surprisingly good as the leader of a group of men hungry, losing faith and finding their surroundings difficult to manage.
A great Sunday afternoon film.

06 - Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)

Running Time: 3 Hours 5 mins
Genre: Drama/War
Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark

Judgement at Nuremberg is one of my favourite war films, though it displays no fighting or battles. Instead it takes place after the war has ended, in Germany where trials are ongoing as four Nazi judges are being tried by the American's for war crimes. Tracy plays chief judge Dan Haywood, retired and at the end of his career but with a formidable task. With a group of witnesses he must decide the fate of the four judges (including Burt Lancaster) who are accused of sterilisation amongst other crimes. A moving an dramatic piece of film. Tracy is magnificent with one of the best speeches of his career.

05 - Boys Town (1938)

Running Time: 1 Hour 35 mins
Genre: Biography/Drama
Director: Norman Taurog
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney

In Boys Town based on a true story and a real figure Tracy plays Father Flanagan who creates a town for boys. A place where wayward boys can live and learn to live right with responsibility and reliability. Also starring Mickey Rooney as Whitey Marsh a young man who is heading for serious trouble unless Father Flanagan and Boys Town can straighten him out. This won Tracy is second consecutive Academy Award.

04 - Father of the Bride (1950)

Running Time: 1 Hour 30
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Vincente Minelli
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett

A great comedy Tracy is perfectly cast as the poor father Stanley T. Banks left in the cold as his family plan his daughter's wedding whilst he struggles to come to terms with the fact that his little girl is old enough to leave and start her own family in the first place. Tracy stars opposite Elizabeth Taylor and they play excellent with each other (they stayed friends until his death 17 years later). The humour of the film comes from Stanley's reactions from a financial stand point and the organization of such a huge event. Tracy is at his comedic best, (if you like this check out Father's Little Dividend (1951); the sequel).

03 - Inherit the Wind (1960)

Running Time: 2 Hours 5 mins
Genre: 2 Hours 5 mins
Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Frederic March, Gene Kelly

Tracy was always strong, tough and dependable, which made him perfect to play lawyer Henry Drummond who agrees to defend a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching Darwin's theories of Evolution in a public school. Frederic March plays the prosecution, undeniably one of the best court dramas of all time, with one of the best scripts in existence (most of which was taken from the transcripts of a real case). Tracy and March give a master class in simply incredible acting. This is a must see, just for some of Tracy's dialogue alone.

02 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Running Time: 1 Hour 45 mins
Genre: Drama
Director: Stanley Kramer
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier

Remembered as the last film he ever made Tracy died just weeks after the production ended. He plays Matt Drayton one half of a solid but ageing couple who are shocked when their daughter brings home a fiancée who is a black man (Poitier). A delicate film for the time it discuss the racial issue that was at the height of many peaceful and violent debates in America at the time. But it must be remembered for Tracy's moving performance and speech which seemed incredibly close to the heart in relation to his life and relationship to partner Hepburn. She won the Oscar for her performance but always insisted it was for both of them.

01 - Captains Courageous (1937)

Running Time: 1 Hour 55 mins
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Director: Victor Fleming
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew

Tracy stars as Manuel a Portuguese fisherman who becomes the minder of a rich, spoiled and insolent boy, Harvey (Bartholomew) who is picked up from the sea by a fishing boat just starting its season, after falling off a cruise ship. He tries to bribe them to turn back but they cannot afford to and do not believe him anyway. Harvey under Manuel's watching eye and innocent friendly manner learns the ways of the fishermen, to look after himself support other and most of all humility and kindness.
The film won Tracy his first Oscar he won his second the next year for Boys Town.


In a career spanning 37 years Spencer Tracy became like many of his characters to his loving audiences; reliable, sturdy and talented beyond measure. Any one of these films is a tribute to the great legacy he has left, he was loved by movie goers and his peers alike the latter naming him one of the best in their business. If the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury say your the best there must be some truth in it. Check out his work you'll find yourself pleasantly surprised, and remember your watching a natural.

Top 10 Cary Grant Films

Named number #2 on the American Film Institutes Greatest Screen Legends list and rightly so. Cary Grant will forever be remembered as the suave handsome leading man that men wanted to be and women swooned over.
Coming to America from Bristol as Archie Leach, he soon got into the movie business and steadily worked his way up, with the help of screen siren Mae West.
Grant created a persona so that eventually he became it and it became him, no-one knew the real Cary Grant he was famously reported as saying "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant"
He will forever be associated with the introduction of the screw-ball comedy in which he was always superb using his acrobatic skills from his early years. On the other end of the scale he will always be linked with Hitchcock in a masterful teaming for some of the directors greatest work. Here is my list.

10 - Charade (1963)

Running Time: 1 Hour 55 mins
Genre: Comedy/Mystery
Director: Stanley Donen
Stars: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau

Despite the all too obvious age difference this spy caper is incredibly funny and why the hell would Audrey Hepburn not be chasing after him, I mean he's Cary Grant. He plays one of several men who are surrounding the widowed Hepburn after her husband stole a fortune. But can she trust Grant's Peter Joshua?
What can be better than watching Grant and Hepburn 2 of the biggest stars running around Paris - nothing.

09 - The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Running Time: 1 Hour 50 mins
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: George Cukor
Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart

Grant plays C.K Dexter Haven who married Katharine Hepburn's Socialite Tracy Lord. They discover not long into the marriage that they were impulsive and divorce. He happens to reappear on the scene just as Tracy is about to remarry with a reporter (Stewart) as the wedding day nears Tracy finds herself torn between her Fiancée George, the reporter Mike and her ex-husband.
A great classic comedy with some of the biggest stars of the day, you can't go wrong with this one.

08 - Suspicion (1941)

Running Time: 1 Hour 35 mins
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine

One of Hitchcock's great suspense thrillers, Cary Grant worked with the auteur director 4 times all incredible pieces of film. This his first sees him playing Johnnie a charming gentleman who marries the shy English woman Lina, but it isn't long before she begins to see past his charms and suspect that he is trying to kill her.
Grant was at this time already a star and Hitchcock did not get his complete way when it came to character progression. He wanted Grant to play a conventional baddie but was overruled by the studio concerned for his image. Never-the-less a great performance.

07 - To Catch a Thief (1955)

Running Time: 1 Hour 45 mins
Genre: Crime/Romance
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly

Grant stars as John Robie a jewel thief gone straight. Living in the South of France innocently, he is thrown again into suspicion when a number of robbery's occur. To confirm his innocence he must catch the real jewel thief. He procures a list of the richest jewels on the Riviera, the first on the list belonging to the mother of Grace Kelly's Frances Stevens who figures out who he was and is fascinated by him. After her mothers jewels are stolen she temporarily doubts him but eventually agrees to help him clear his name. A great effort from Hitchcock and Grant's third for the great director.

06 - Notorious (1946)

Running Time: 1 Hour 40 mins
Genre: Film-Noir
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

The second of the 4 collaborations with Hitch, Notorious centres on Bergman's Alicia Huberman whose German father is convicted for treason against the US. She is approached by Grant's T.R. Devlin to spy on her fathers Nazi friends including Claude Rains Alexander Sebastian. A romance develops between Alicia and Devlin but it becomes strained and dangerous as she becomes ever more deeply involved in her work.
A great spy thriller, one of Hitchcock's greatest stories and a masterful performance from Grant.



05 - Monkey Business (1952)

Running Time: 1 Hour 35 mins
Genre: Comedy
Director: Howard Hawks
Stars: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe

Grant is Barnaby Fulton a chemist who thinks he has created a formula for feeling and acting younger. In actuality it was one of his test chimpanzees who mixes the ingredients and adds it to the water cooler. All hell breaks loose with hilarious results when both Barnaby and his wife (Rogers) take the potion both on purpose and then accidentally not realising whilst drinking many cups of coffee that the formula is in the water making them younger with every drink they take.

04 - Bringing up Baby (1938)

Running Time: 1 Hour 40 mins
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Howard Hawks
Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn

Early in his career before the Hitchcock thrillers and dramas Cary proved himself to be a master of the slapstick comedy. This was the greatest example. Paired for the second of four occasions with Katharine Hepburn, here he plays a disgruntled palaeontologist trying to raise funds for his museum whilst being pursued by frivolous and irritating heiress Susan and her pet leopard Baby.
A great family comedy that is still as great today as the day it was released.

03 - North by Northwest (1959)

Running Time: 2 Hours 15 mins
Genre: Action/Crime
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

Considered by many the greatest of the Hitchcock/Grant teaming, here Grant plays Roger Thornhill an advertising man mistaken for a government agent and is kidnapped by a group of foreign spies led by James Mason's Philip Vandamm. He is framed for murder and after escaping he is followed across the country not only by his captors but also by the police. As he struggles to survive in dangerous conditions he is desperately trying to clear his name in the process. He is helped by a beautiful blonde he meets on a train Eve Kendall (Saint) who isn't who he thinks she is. Exciting, thrilling, Classic.

02 - His Girl Friday (1940)

Running Time: 1 Hour 30 mins
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Howard Hawks
Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell

Long considered a Hollywood classic and one of Grant, Russell and Hawks best films individually this is a comedy that everybody should see. Cary plays Walter Burns a Newspaper man who lives for his job so much so that he lost his wife Hildy (Russell) also a journalist in the process. When she returns after four months away she tells him she is quitting and has got a divorce, not only that, she is leaving to get married to have the kind of home life she wanted from him. Not wanting to lose his star reporter or wife he plans to delay her and remind her how much she loves her job and him. One of the best comedy scripts ever written.

01 - An Affair to Remember

Running Time: 1 Hour 55 mins
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Leo McCarey
Stars: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr

My personal favourite performance as a huge fan of both Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr this was the second of 3 pairings between the real life friends. Grant plays Nickie Ferrante a well known bachelor and playboy who engaged to be married meets Kerr's Terry McKay on a cruise from Europe to New York. They fall in love and despite both being in a relationship agree to meet at the top of the Empire State Building in six months where they can start their life together and get married. When an accident stops her from making it, he fears she doesn't love him any more and she is too proud to contact him and tell him what really happened, unless she can be her old self again. A great, funny and romantic classic, the pair have great chemistry and play so well off each other. This is a must see, it's even mention in Sleepless in Seattle (1993). 

A list containing not only my personal list of favourites but also some of what are regarded the best films in cinema history, you look at any list and a lot of those films are on there. That alone is reason enough to give them a go. If you haven't had the experience of watching him, or (ladies) being charmed off your feet by Cary Grant then what are you waiting for. Once you've seen one you'll never go back. Enjoy!

Top 10 Bette Davis Films

Bette Davis remains one of the highest regarded actresses of her generation. With a whip like tongue, huge eyes filled with emotion and a magnetism that keeps you glued to the screen.
Bette Davis was one of the strongest women in Hollywood, she fought for the best roles when her studio (Warner Brothers) wouldn't give her the parts she felt she deserved.

When she didn't win the role of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind the studio bought her Jezebel and so started a career of amazing roles in some of the best film from the Golden Age of Hollywood. She left Warners when they didn't give her good material and went it on her own having a successful career in horrors and thrillers in her later life.

This is my list of the incredible films of Bette Davis. Enjoy.

10 - The Little Foxes (1941)

Running Time: 1 Hour 55 mins
Genre: Drama
Director: William Wyler
Stars: Bette Davis, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson

Davis is Regina Giddens a member of the despicable Hubbard family. She along with her brothers are conniving and sneaky involved in a shady business deal. The whole family are manipulative and thoughtless, thinking only of themselves. Davis gives a vicious performance for director William Wyler whom she would work with many times is her career.





09 - The Nanny (1965)

Running Time: 1 Hour 30 mins
Genre: Thriller
Director: Seth Holt
Stars: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett

A starring role later in her career, cashing in on the success of simmering thriller/horror What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. Davis plays the titular Nanny to a family welcoming back their little boy Joey after a stint in a facility for disturbed children after drowning his little sister. When he returns home he is extremely distrusting of the Nanny continually persisting she did it. When his mother is poisoned heads turn again to Joey but the neighbour believes his story. Davis is excellent.

08 - The Letter (1940)

Running Time: 1 Hour 35 mins
Genre: Crime/Film-Noir
Director: William Wyler
Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson

The film begins with a shooting. Davis is the wife of a sugar plantation owner in Singapore, who shoots and kills a man on her doorstep. She claims self-defence and everyone naturally believes her, her story is so good. But a letter in her handwriting could be her undoing, both her and her lawyer know the truth but what will the lawyer do? Damn her or free her knowing she killed a man.
Davis is her usual stunning self, fantastic performance from all.



07 - Jezebel (1938)

Running Time: 1 Hour 45 mins
Genre: Drama
Director: William Wyler
Stars: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent

After losing out on Gone With the Wind, Davis was given the role of Julie in Jezebel. Rather similar to Scarlett O'Hara Julie is a headstrong, vain independent Southern Belle who in her stubbornness and sometimes cruel nature loses her fiancée Preston Dillard (Fonda). But she vows to win him back, and doesn't care who she hurts or how far she goes to do it.
Davis won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

06 - Dark Victory (1939)

Running Time: 1 Hour 45 mins
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Edward Goulding
Stars: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart

Davis plays Judith Traherne a young active socialite in her prime, who is plagued by headaches and sudden failing eyesight. She visits Dr. Frederick Steele who diagnosis an inoperable brain tumour. After the surgery she is told that it is successful but it appears it is not. Judith falls in love with Dr. Steele and they are to be married she finds out she will die and becomes depressed. After the advise of her horse trainer who loves her (Bogart in a small role) she marries Steele and tries to be the happy doting housewife waiting for the blindness that will sign her death.

05 - All About Eve (1950)

Running Time: 2 Hours 15 mins
Genre: Drama
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm

Remembered not only for being one of the truest films about the acting and fame industry but also for being possibly the greatest role of Davis' long career. She plays Margo Channing a famous stage actress who lets a besotted fan (Baxter) become part of her circle. However things turn sour when she begins to question her loving fan and her motives. Riveting performance that came in good time for Davis it was a comeback of sorts; stupendous!

04 - Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Running Time: 2 Hours 10 mins
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Director: Robert Aldrich
Stars: Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Joseph Cotten

Davis is an ageing Southern Belle who has a reputation for being mad after a dark family secret has made her lose her mind. When a kindly family member (De Havilland) comes to stay the past comes back to haunt her and we find out what really happened. As Charlotte becomes more unhinged her cousin's friendly manner starts to change.
A great mystery thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. Davis is at her best.

03 - What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (1962)

Running Time: 2 Hours 15 mins
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Robert Aldrich
Stars: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono

The film that re-invented Davis for a new genre, that stemmed many copy-cats in the coming years. Davis is Baby Jane Hudson a former vaudeville child star living in an old mansion dreaming of a comeback; living in the past and trying to recreate her glory days. Not only that, she has become so demented that she torments her wheel-chair bound sister (her biggest rival Crawford) who became the bigger star as they grew up, which Jane has always resented. This is a great dramatic thriller reviving both actresses stalling careers.

02 - Mr Skeffington (1944)

Running Time: 2 Hours 25 mins
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Vincent Sherman
Stars: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel

Mr Skeffington is a film about ageing and accepting it. Davis plays Fanny Trellis known for her beauty she is popular with all the single bachelors. But she ends up in a loveless marriage to much older Job Skeffinton to save her brother from an embezzlement charge by Skeffington. Obsessed with youth and her looks, the important people in her life fall away. It is only when her looks are gone due to an illness that she realises those who truly cared for her. An excellent performance from Davis not afraid to hide her movie star looks for a great role.

01 - Now, Voyager (1942)

Running Time: 1 Hour 55 mins
Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Irving Rapper
Stars: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains

Now Voyager is remembered as a great romance but it must also be considered a great dramatic performance from Davis. She plays Charlotte Vale a Boston spinster fulfilling the Ugly Duckling role of the family repressed under the constant watch of her overbearing mother. After a breakdown she flourishes in a sanatorium and becomes a new woman. No longer under the thumb of her mother, she holidays abroad and falls in love with a man she cannot marry. Through the sanatorium she meets his troubled daughter who reminds her of herself, her way of showing her continued love is to help bring up his daughter. A classic performance from Davis, I prefer the mother daughter relationship to the romance, it truly shows what Davis could do.

A list of just 10 of the amazing roles that Bette Davis made her own during her long and successful career. I can promise you if you watch just one of the movies on this list you will be hunting for her back catalogue because you simply won't be able to get enough of her.
Let me know what you think of the list in the comments below. Would you pick differently?

Gladiator (2000)

Running Time: 2 Hours 35 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Estimated Budget: $103, 000,000
Estimated Gross (April 2013): $187, 705,427
Awards: 5 Oscars - Best Picture, Best Actor - Russell Crowe, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Effects/Visual Effects

Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: David Franzoni (story & Screenplay)
Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed

My Rating: 8/10

Gladiator has been on my watch-list for years but I have never got round to it. After watching other epics last week I decided it was time.

After everything I have heard about the film I am pleased to say that it lives up to its reputation. It is dynamic, thrilling and captures the era of the all powerful  Rome with an exciting yet dangerous tone. Director Ridley Scott famous for creating other classics like Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) is known as a director who creates the world of the film from the ground up, one of the most notable elements to Scott's films are his amazing sets and locations. He builds entire worlds meticulously to bring a realism to his movies. Gladiator is no different, from the Bourne Woods in Surrey that open the film to the giant Colosseum (which is actually bigger than the original, Scott viewed the historical location and reportedly said, we need it bigger) we are transported into the ancient world of Roman Emperors  and Gladiators. Scott's vision was to makes as realistic a film as he could not a stereotypical 'Swords and Sandals' movie; I believe he was able to stick to this vision.

Gladiator centres around the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius (Crowe) who is favoured by the dying Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) which creates an intense jealousy from the Emperor's son Commodus (Phoenix). When the Emperor dies suddenly and suspiciously Commodus becomes the new Emperor despite his fathers wishes that Maximus temporarily lead Rome and help return it to the state, to create a better Rome. He asks for the loyalty of Maximus who refuses, for this he is sentenced to death and his wife and young son are killed. Maximus being a famous and skilled soldier gets away from his captors but arrives too late to save his family. Weak and battered from travel and grieving he is sold into slavery, he is bought by the famous Oliver Reed's Proximo and trained to be a Gladiator and fight in the games that Commodus has arranged to commemorate his fathers death and get Rome's people to support him as the new Emperor.

Maximus known only as the Spaniard due to his heritage anonymously rises through the ranks, he leads the men to victory in the games and comes to the attention of both the crowd who support him unanimously and the Emperor who wants to meet this skilled fighter. Descending into the arena after a glorious victory Commodus demands to see the face of the Spaniard, he is stunned to see that it is the very man whom his father favoured and whom he had ordered killed in sheer jealousy months before. Because of the crowds unswerving support of Maximus he cannot kill him, but he puts him against the deadliest of opponents in the hopes that they will do the job for him. With the help of Commodus' sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) who despite being terrified of her brother and for the life of her son she is smart and is determined to return Rome to the glory her father envisioned. Maximus learns that his armies are still loyal to him and with his growing support and Commodus' own shrinking in comparison with the right help Maximus will be able to defeat the Emperor and return Rome to the state.

Commodus learns of his sister's betrayal and threatens her son, she reveals the plan and Commodus has Proximo's Gladiator barracks attacked, Maximus escapes but is later ambushed and is challenged to a battle in the Colosseum by Commodus. He can do nothing but accept, as he is a coward and truly evil Commodus stabs Maximus and weakens him before the battle. The fortunes of Rome rely on this one fight, the winner would make history.

With a story like that half the work is already done for you, the script is packed full of delicious characters, epic battles in some of the most magnetic locations in the world, all you have to do is bring it to life. OK so easier said than done but Ridley Scott pulled it off remarkably well despite some problems during the shoot. The biggest being the death of Oliver Reed 3 weeks before the end of shooting; the remainder of his shots were done using CGI and a double. There was only one moment in the film where this was apparent, fortunately Scott was able to integrate the fake with the real actor, the film was dedicated to him.

For his battle worn hero many famous actors at the time were looked at (including Mel Gibson who was offered the role but turned it down due to his age) Scott chose the Australian actor Russell Crowe and it turned out to be the perfect fit. I have never been a fan of the actor myself but once again the art of cinema is proving me wrong, after viewing both Noah and this in recent weeks I have discovered a talented performer who I am now going to pay a lot more attention to. Gladiator is reportedly Crowe's favourite of his American films, and there is no surprise as to why, his Maximus is a wise, chiselled and proud soldier who has high morals and conscience. Despite rumours that he disliked the script and would change his lines, the script is well written and Crowe pulls off the dialogue perfectly in what could in other hands have been cringe-worthy and laughable.

For the role of the evil Commodus Scott chose Joaquin Phoenix another actor whose work I am largely unfamiliar with. But I was blown away by his performance, he delves so deeply into his role and lavishes in the evil stares and the cold and malicious actions . He brings a depth to the character that may otherwise have been missed, what with his father issues and the incestuous feelings that he has for his sister this is a truly unlike-able character. But through sheer brilliance and talent there are moments (not many but some) when you do pity this character. Connie Nielsen as his sister is great in the role of Lucilla, she plays her with a great subtlety; the unforgotten love for Maximus, the fear for her son, the determination to play her part in front of her brother. Hers is a fascinating role which she utilises in every scene she is in. The same can be said of the great late Richard Harris now known to the world as the wise old wizard Albus Dumbledore from the first 2 Harry Potter Movies (2001-2002) but who crafted a role very similar in his small part in Gladiator. Here he displays a man with the weight of the world and his mistakes on his shoulders, knowing he is dying he is re-living his past and coming to terms with his life and his choices and how he can improve the future for his people. In a very short screen-time Harris is completely in control, as an actor especially in his old age he had a majesty and magnetism on screen which is so obvious in his scenes here. With a film full of great supporting roles and characters Scott filled his movie with some of the best talent on offer, with many familiar faces shining in their scenes.

Like many films before this the score has become infamous on its own merit and I had heard the music many years before I saw the film. It is undeniably the incredible Hans Zimmer at the helm, here he has created a truly epic score which hits every beat. It is thrilling and energetic during the battle sequences and haunting and emotional during Maximus' most personal moments. I have always said that a score can make the movie, and this is just another example to prove my point. Despite the amazing visual shots, and the great performances this score is the heart of the film and reaches out and pulls the audience into the movie to experience with the characters.

There are very few things that you could say against Gladiator, it is just a great thrilling story that transports you back to one of the most exciting eras of History. With a great cast creating arresting characters this is one that will keep you energised to the very last moment (have a box of tissues at hand is my only advise). Perfect for a weekend afternoon, I'm pretty sure I am the last person in the world to see it but if you haven't I would strongly recommend a viewing.

Important message for Film Fans!!!!!!!!

I have just read something profound, something I have been saying in a round about way for years and feel very strongly about.I read it in Empire Magazine in an essay by Director Christopher McQuarrie.
He says......

"Filmmakers like Martin Scorsese have made it their mission to preserve classic films. Christopher Nolan has made it his mission to save the physical medium of film stock itself. But whose mission is it to preserve what is arguably the most vital aspect of every classic film - the one thing they all have in common 

regardless of genre, tone, era or country of origin? Who will curate the one precious resource any classic film needs to justify its very own existence?

Who will preserve the audience? "

So next time to roll your eyes at me for mentioning a black and white film that you've just got to see. Stop !!!!

And remember I'm doing something very important......I'm preserving the audience of classic films.

So film fans get to work on all your friends who have never had the experience of watching Citizen Kane, of being transported to Casablanca or searced for gold with Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierre Madre.

We are the ones who can pass on these great classics and make sure they continue to be seen through the ages. We can preserve the art of cinema. Get busy people :D