Textual analysis for Gladiator

Editing: Title sequence, CGI, Text explains the historical background to the conflict in the roman period; it also explains the barbarians in Germania trying to resist the roman conquest. This helps the viewers/audience the time and era and helps the audience understand the plot in the story; this is a convention for an action/adventure movie.

Sound: We hear orchestral music that sounds ancient and foreign, with a wordless chorus. The mood is slow and wistful with the peaceful music and mingled with ambient sound of the gentle laughter of little children. It evokes his home life which is far away from the battlefield where he is right now.

Mise-en-Scene: The protagonist is running the palm of his hands along the top of his crops; this shows the home like features that he is thinking of. This is a romanticized scene due to the fondling of his crops at home. The music is slow which matches his feeling of slow and steady walking. The long grass is golden which is another point to the romance of the scene.

Editing: It is a straight cut from the long grass to the battlefield where it is reality. There is a deliberate contrast between the golden corn field and the dark grey, wintry battlefield. His head is down as he finally merges back into reality after thinking of home.

Sound: There is a sound bridge between the corn field and the battlefield because the main protagonist has been thinking about the corn field and then he goes back into reality on the battlefield. He keeps hearing the music because he is always thinking of home and it is within him in his heart.

Camera Work: An establishing shot is a wide shot of the battlefield, we can see in the wide shot we can see the forest which is dark and solemn, this is no place for the light hearted, this place is scary and creates a feeling of anxiety and a sense of foreboding. The roman army are standing ready to take the pounce of the barbarian army as they know that the barbarian army are lurking in the forest. A tracking shot of the main protagonist, Maximus is there to show the importance of him and how he is a higher rank than the people he walks past. There is another wide shot to show the barbarian army emerging from the forest to reveal their powerful army.