"Gladiator" directed by the famous British director Ridley Scott takes some historical materials from the early imperial era of ancient Rome in the 2nd century AD. Through artistic creation, it has shaped "from general to slave, from slave to slave" through artistic creation. "Gladiator", the artistic image of Mahimus who eventually challenged the emperor, demonstrates his heroic spirit of keeping his promises, dying for revenge, freedom, and defense of ideals. It also reveals the transition of the Roman polity from an imperial dictatorship to a democratic republic. Hard course and heavy price.
The film has both magnificent and magnificent scenes, as well as abundance of subtle details. In the time and space of more than 170 minutes of sound and pictures, the film is able to have a clear main pulse, straight but not dry, and diversified. First of all, it benefits from the overall structure of “imagery” of “One History and Two Dreams”. It uses Mahimus’s “Gladiator” history as the external structure of the film’s narrative, his “homeland dream” as the internal structure of the character consciousness, and the “republic” dream as the deep structure of the film’s “nucleus”, based on Video, audio and event images are combined into the overall structure of the film, which not only makes the overall image content of the film rich, full of images, and clear intent, but also strengthens its epic characteristics.
"Gladiator" means wrestling, fighting, and fighting. In this sense, the film presents Mahimus’s gladiatorial career in six different forms of "fights" and six narrative paragraphs. With the help of him, he personally led the Roman army to fight with Germanic barbarians on the battlefield and five times with death in the arena. Fighting with the self and the traitor, showing his life experience, personality and humanity from multiple angles, multiple levels and in an orderly manner, with different emphasis.
Mathimus fought five times as a "Gladiator", the first two were in the arena of the Roman possessions, and the last three were in the Colosseum of Rome. The film selects the typical events of these five gladiatorial fights, and depicts the image, personality, and human nature of Mahimus.
The first time was a two-person combination of red and yellow hand "cuffed" chains in the arena of other provinces, and the corner edge of the opponent who wore a bull's head and a skull mask and liberated his hands and feet, which was the beginning of the Mahimus gladiator's career. Turned from a slave to a gladiator, he originally refused to admit his life and did not want to fight. He was "on the field like a waste man". Before he went on the field, he faced the roar of "kill-kill-kill". Only then did he realize what Pasimu, the owner of the training hall, said " Can’t choose fate, but have the right to decide how to face death". Therefore, his first fight seemed to be wrestling with his opponents, but in fact he was fighting for survival and death.
For the second time, the group is outnumbered and fights alone. Based on "the killing was due to the request of others", he cut down four people in one fell swoop, and after cutting off the last opponent with two sharp swords, he shouted "Are you still not satisfied?" and threw the sword at the thunderous joy. Auditorium. In this regard, Pasimo used the personal experience of Emperor Marcus Aurelius to make himself free, indicating that the best gladiator is not because of his rapid killing, but because of the worship of the masses and winning the hearts of the masses to win freedom. . Mahimus vowed that "I also want to stand in front of the emperor, just like you." This gladiatorial fight also became the turning point for Mahimus from blind to conscious, from fighting for revenge and freedom.
The third fight in the Colosseum of Rome, thanks to Mahimos’ commanding ability and cohesive strength, enabled the gladiators to defeat the well-equipped legionary chariots with long contradictions, and won the cheers and love of the Roman masses. He confronted his enemy, Commodes, solemnly identified himself, and declared that because his son was murdered and his wife was murdered, he promised and pledged to avenge them in this life or in the next life. He stunned the arrogant and unruly Comods. He won not only the right to survive in the voice of "victors", and he also showed not only the image of "a slave more powerful than the Roman emperor", but also The initiative and spiritual power to realize the vow of revenge and fight for freedom and defend the ideals of the Republic. At the same time, it has also become a necessary link to reconnect him with the princess, with the leaders of the Senate, and the many support under the old ministry. Afterwards, Princess Lucilla's visits and friendship further adjusted his mentality of "just a slave, what can he change", and he became more confident.
On this basis, he alone fought against the Hercules and the colorful tigers for the fourth time, smashing the premeditated tricks of Commodus. "Massimus the Merciful" "wins the hearts of the audience" with his human nature, and faced with the evil intentions of Commodes's attempt to touch his human weakness with the help of the tragic picture of his relatives being killed, so as to provoke him to act blindly and to punish him. Finally defeated myself again. A Mahimus who appealed to reason bowed and retired after he lied to his enemies, "the days of calling for the wind and the rain are about to end." This signifies that he has the basic conditions to challenge the emperor and win the battle regardless of his body and mind, subjective and objective.
For the fifth time in the Colosseum where the blood was covered by rose rain petals, the fatally wounded Mahimus fought to the death with Comods. Desperate and helpless, and the evil is rewarded, Commodus finally reaped the consequences, making the Avengers fulfill their long-cherished wishes. Although Mahimus paid the price of his life in order to win freedom and defend the dream of the Republic, he, as a regained "Roman warrior", ordered Quintas to release the gladiators and restore Senator Quiggs before he fell. It also declared that “The Roman Republic is a dream and it should be realized. That is the wish of Marcus Aurelius”, indicating that the will will come true and the soul will return to the dream.
What constitutes the external narrative structure of the film is the tragic "glamour" life of Mahimos, including leading thousands of troops to fight with the Germanic barbarians on the battlefield, becoming a slave and fighting fate and death in the arena. The traitor Commodes who killed the father and usurped the throne has revenge and fights against his own weakness. Due to the hidden internal "image" structure, that is, the flow of consciousness of Mahimus's fascinating home and his loved ones complement each other, thus becoming the source of living water, and shape God has both, full of flesh and blood.
"Gladiator" takes the "image of the heart" of Mahimos hand caressing the wheat ears and returning to his homeland as the first shot of the film. Character setting, that is, the tone of human nature and the level of flexibility and tenderness of personality. This is an indispensable part of shaping the image of the Zhengzheng Tiehan who later slayed the enemy bravely in the battlefield and wrestled bloodly in the arena, that is, the construction of the two sides of rigidity and softness, violence and tenderness. In addition, it also made him appear sincere and credible when he said "I will harvest crops in the fields in three weeks" when he was mobilized for battle. After the war, he flatly rejected Commodes, and then rejected the old emperor's appointment of Rome to power. The important task of officials has also become non-hypocritical words and deeds. At the same time, the image of Mahimus who is not arrogant, his experience from farmer to general and his calm personality are in obvious contrast with the extremely inflated desire for power and ambition of Commodus who "missed this battle". , Becoming the opposite poles of the film's narrative structure.
At the end of the film, the final duel between Mahimus and Commodes. After cutting his enemies, Mahimus's confusion and the four mental images of God returning to his homeland echo the first warm-toned mental image at the beginning of the film. The difference is different. The other is a cool dark blue color. At this moment, Lucilla leaned over to hold Mahimus and said, "You are home!" with her hands closed. This is actually a tragic remake of the happy ending of the Hollywood movie, that is, "heaven" and homeland in the underworld. The ending of the family reunion.
The film breathes in the rhythm of images, sound images, and things, which adapts to the overall image structure of the film. Its sound and picture editing form and rhythm pattern also show the characteristics of "image" and "intention". The film mostly uses the decomposed editing of short shots to form a fast rhythm, which expresses the six blood splashing fights on the battlefield and the arena, and creates the basic plot structure of the film. Through each unique fight, it is different from each other. Difficulties, different angles and levels shape the heroic image of Mahimus. The film uses a depth-of-field lens or a continuous editing of dynamic images in a long lens. Through 18 stream of consciousness paragraphs, the family and home he yearns for and nostalgia flashes, becoming the core of the film's deep structure and the "republican dream of his struggle and dedication" "The footnote has also become the lyrical beat of an epic-style film.
In "Gladiator", Mahimos led the Roman army to the brutal melee shot of the Germans with swords, blood and shadows. The violent scenes of knife falling and blood splashing on the arena, once subjective slow motion processing, immediately turned rigidity into softness. Turned into an image space that merges psychological space and philosophical space, it dispels the cruelty of violence, and thus has a certain poetic and picturesque flavor.
It mirrors the macro image structure of the film. The micro image structure of kneeling down and holding the earth five times during this period also echoes what Pasimu, who is also a gladiator, said that "everything goes to the dust", reflecting from the farmer to the general, from Mahimus, general to slave, has a deep affection for the earth and the source of his revenge. This artistic detail of holding and rubbing the earth is the concrete characteristic "detailed image" that embodies the "meaning" in the "image".
In "Gladiator", Mahimos had three bloody gladiatorial fights in the Roman Arena. Commodes came to the middle of the field in the first two games, and his guard surrounded the gladiators. The composition of the image showed a square structure from open to closed. This combination of shots constitutes a narrative montage, showing the gradual deterioration of the situation with the narrative nature of the dramatic space. In the final desperate duel between Mathimus and Commodus, the guards formed a circle, like a huge "period." When Mahimus used his tenacious perseverance and fighting spirit to stab Commods, the circular composition at the time and the lights and shadows of the stands formed a shape like the rays of the sun, giving the drama space at this time a philosophical meaning and foreshadowing the republic. The dawn of dreams creates metaphors and symbolic images.
"Gladiator" also has two audiovisual spaces for music. One is "Now We Are Free" by the famous German composer Hans Zimmer and the Australian singer and dulcimer Lisa Gerrard. With the orchestral accompaniment, Lisa also sings and plays. Cold and affectionate, the sound of the piano is concise and the finishing touch, revealing a mysterious and blurred beauty in a religiously solemn atmosphere, and powerfully embellish Mahimus' dream of going home; the second is created by Hans Zimmer Am I not Merciful? is full of epic tragic and majestic in the lyric full of color and charm, which fully expresses Mahimus’s republican dream. These two musical spaces of dream imagery are repeatedly interspersed in the film to form the composite musical theme of the film, and the image space of the film is composed of the "things" structure of the external wrestling life and the "mind image" structure of the inner stream of consciousness. The resulting overall imagery space structure is matched to achieve the perfect combination of music and video, signifier and signified, context and semantics, form and content, thus not only expressing Mahimus’ dream of republic and homeland, but also The motive of fighting and revenge for this dream reveals the profound meaning of the film, and also shows the beauty of the film's original imagery, technical skills, and thinking.
"Gladiator" embodies the combination of traditional linear plot narrative and modern non-linear psychological narrative. Modern morphemes are attached to and integrated into the dominant plot narrative thread. In the film, nearly 20 miniature image passages that miss his homeland and relatives in Spain, and fantasize about returning to his homeland, constitute Mahimus's "psychic" thinking chain and inner emotional chain, embedded in the course of his realistic and gladiatorial life.
In view of the above-mentioned various artistic expressions, the film "Gladiator" is worthy of being a monumental work in Ridley Scott's film career, and it has become a typical example of the aesthetic concept of film imagery.
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