2. Gladiator (2000)

What can you say about Gladiator? It’s a masterful film. Pure epic in every sense of the word. Everything about Gladiator works. The pacing. The sets. The writing. The acting. All of it. Wow, are these some damn good performances. Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Connie Nielsen, and of course the coming out party of Joaquin Phoenix, who plays a villain we’ve never quite seen before. He’s powerful, but weak. Stupid, yet genius. Whiney, yet ruthless. It’s an extremely layered performance that Phoenix embodies beautifully. But the man of the hour is of course Russell Crowe. This still probably stands as his best performance, with the exception of maybe A Beautiful Mind. He is just an absolute bad ass as Maximus, “The General who became a slave. The slave who became a Gladiator. The Gladiator who defied an Empire.” Now that’s one hell of a tagline. Crowe beat Tom Hanks (Cast Away) for Best Actor that year, one of the rare true upsets in Academy history. To be honest, I’m still not sure where I fall on that one, but either answer is fine. The score is beautiful. There are tigers. Its got it all. Unfortunately for Ridley Scott, he picked the worst year to deliver what is arguably his most well directed film. Not only did Steven Soderbergh win for Traffic, but you also had Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in the mix as well. That’s just horrible luck. Regardless of awards, Gladiator is a massive film that will live on forever as a masterpiece.

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