It's 20 years since the release of Gladiator, Ridley Scott's epic tale of power, betrayal and revenge which single-handedly revived the swords and sandals genre in Hollywood.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For Russell Crowe it cemented his place as an A-list Hollywood leading man with his Oscar-winning portrayal of general Maximus Decimus Meridius.
But screenwriter and producer David Franzoni has told the PA news agency that Crowe feared the film would kill his career.
At the time the New Zealand-born actor was fresh from an acclaimed turn in Michael Mann's 1999 drama The Insider.
Franzoni explained the star was unsettled by an ever-changing script, which the writer pins on "one particular executive having bad ideas".
When the film finally came together, Crowe, according to Franzoni, was sure it was going to wreck his career. The writer had no such concerns, having seen the finished product.
And Crowe's fears evaporated after he saw Gladiator for the first time.
Franzoni said: "So Russell arrived, just angry already. He knew he was going to have to kill everybody after the movie was over.
"When it was over Russell was literally, I'm not making this up, jumping up and down, clapping his hands like a little kid. He could not believe how good the movie was."
Come Hollywood's biggest night, Gladiator was up for 12 Academy Awards, winning five. They included best picture, best actor for Crowe, best visual effects, best costume design and best sound mixing.
The film went on to gross $US457 million ($A699 million) at the global box office.
While on the surface Gladiator would appear to share a lineage with other sword and sandals films, such as 1959's Ben Hur and 1960's Spartacus, Franzoni revealed the actual influences were classic movies born out of the 1960s.
They include Easy Rider, Vanishing Point and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which all feature a hero up against an enemy impossible to overcome. However, in Gladiator's case, the studio initially baulked at the idea of its hero being killed.
The famous final scene of a wounded Maximus getting revenge on Commodus before joining his wife and son in the afterlife almost never happened, Franzoni revealed.
"I don't know what the hell they thought he was going to do, go open a burrito stand or something," he said. "You don't kill the emperor and then walk out of Rome."
One alternative to Maximus's death was having his legion return to assault the city and free him from jail. Eventually, Franzoni won the argument and the gladiator's fate was sealed.
Reflecting on Gladiator two decades on and its 1960s influence, Franzoni said: "It's often said that all of Western philosophy is nothing but a footnote to Plato. And I believe that all of Western society, and I think Eastern society today, is nothing but a footnote to the sixties."
Australian Associated Press
