Valuetainment - “People Want Heroes” - Russell Crowe Breaks Down Gladiator II FAILURE

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00:00:30.000 gladiator one i watch it from 43 minutes on every quarter i have to watch that movie there's

00:00:34.540 something very special about that movie gladiator 2 comes out horrible i was sat through it i was

00:00:39.620 it's just too much it was it breaks my heart because denzel was in it and i'm supportive

00:00:44.360 of anything that denzel does but here's what russell crowe had to say about gladiator 2 which

00:00:49.380 by the way he wasn't even in it nothing nothing there was nothing can you imagine the emotional

00:00:55.380 the way it ends the scene show your face gladiator he turns around how dare you turn your back

00:01:02.380 against me gladiator turns around who are you and it's you know the famous line that he says

00:01:08.900 you know which ones i'm talking about here is russell crowe talking about gladiator too go for

00:01:14.160 it this is a story about a man who's avenging the death of his wife and his child 0.83

00:01:20.540 there cannot be a moment on that journey where he stops and has sex with somebody

00:01:30.640 doesn't make any sense because then that destroys the journey and they fought me and they like you

00:01:39.820 know sent me letters about it and everything and i just stuck to my guns and luckily for me

00:01:46.140 Ridley, even though he would have loved to write a sex scene with me and Connie Nielsen,

00:01:53.980 he agreed with me back then that that was the moral core of the film.

00:01:59.020 So for then, the second movie, to destroy that moral center,

00:02:06.320 very interesting, because the second movie barely took the same box office that the first movie took.

00:02:13.200 but that's 20 years later

00:02:15.120 and when you apply

00:02:16.940 how much of a change there's been on the value of a dollar

00:02:19.940 they failed

00:02:21.780 and they failed

00:02:23.540 because they didn't understand why it was successful

00:02:25.680 it was successful

00:02:27.380 because it had a moral core

00:02:29.200 and here's the deal

00:02:31.140 he's getting choked up

00:02:33.040 most people like that

00:02:35.040 you know

00:02:36.360 on the surface they'll go for entertainment

00:02:39.280 or whatever but in truth

00:02:41.120 if they're going to love something

00:02:43.060 and keep up with them forever in the way that that what a breakdown tonight anyway you i'll be

00:02:49.340 able to find you somewhere in the world that film 26 years later is on prime time television

00:02:54.260 and it's available on stream so why because the love for that thing is because of its moral

00:03:01.760 you can pause it right there what a freaking powerful breakdown ilan well i mean look look

00:03:09.260 at how when you talked about gladiator the emotional connection you have to and that's

00:03:12.580 what he's touching on he's touching on something much deeper than the film he's touching on a

00:03:16.080 directionality of things in general which is as much as hollywood hollywood may try and engineer

00:03:21.420 films that push a certain narrative our foundational beliefs our desire tend to come back to these

00:03:26.700 ancient archetypes that are repeated throughout all of history over and over and over and that's

00:03:31.360 why he's emotional about it because he created something that connects to that and people don't

00:03:35.560 want to watch a movie where someone's fighting they want to watch a movie where someone is

00:03:38.600 fighting for something and if you corrupt it then they're not only not going to be interested they're

00:03:43.940 going to be offended by it and no matter what people try and do to us look at the heroes that

00:03:48.460 we still put in marvel films look at these movies that still do extremely well they are even anti

00:03:52.700 heroes yes they have to stand for something and that thing can never be corrupted because once

00:03:58.440 it is they stand for nothing and part of us is always seeking that especially men men nowadays

00:04:03.780 are seeking for purpose identity value and we look to films as our archetypes for how we're gonna

00:04:08.660 feel about those things so gladiator in these older hollywood films really did touch on that

00:04:12.980 on i tell you i don't normally say this this is very hard for me to say this gladiator 2

00:04:17.660 is one of the worst movies i've seen in my life it's horrible that's how bad it is and the reason

00:04:23.600 why it's horrible if there was never a gladiator one maybe i would have ranked it higher but

00:04:29.400 But because there was a Gladiator 1, and Gladiator 1, exactly the way he put it together, was about a moral compass of a man protecting his wife and his kids and his family, that pride.

00:04:40.060 And you take me from that level of tension to just how sloppy the second one was?

00:04:44.420 Yeah.

00:04:44.940 It is so disappointing to see.

00:04:46.400 I'm so glad he broke it down because the entire time I'm sitting there wondering, what does Russell think about this movie?

00:04:52.620 All I thought about is, what does Russell Crowe think about Gladiator 2?

00:04:56.160 That's all I kept asking myself.

00:04:57.660 It was that horrible of a movie.

00:04:59.400 I love Gladiator so much that I couldn't watch the second movie because I,

00:05:04.140 and this is not me.

00:05:05.200 Like a lot of the market feels like this.

00:05:07.220 Everything that they touch,

00:05:08.580 they've ruined.

00:05:09.540 If you look at the streaming numbers,

00:05:11.380 I think it's three to one catalog to new release on,

00:05:14.780 on streaming movies.

00:05:16.120 And I think 75% of catalog,

00:05:18.720 like old music compared to new releases,

00:05:21.080 Pat.

00:05:21.680 The thing is like,

00:05:22.600 I saw the movie coming.

00:05:24.100 I love that movie.

00:05:25.040 I probably watch it once a year.

00:05:26.440 I couldn't do it to the original movie.

00:05:28.080 It's like cheating on your wife.

00:05:29.400 I don't know, stealing something from the story.

00:05:30.720 Interestingly enough, that's what he's talking about.

00:05:33.760 Very meta.

00:05:36.200 Tom, thoughts?

00:05:37.500 So the great art of Hollywood, and you and I lived out there, grew up out there around great storytellers.

00:05:46.420 And I knew so many people that were just great storytellers, and they couldn't get their project forward because of the industry that is Hollywood.

00:05:55.700 I once read an article about what Ben Affleck had to go through to get Argo done,

00:06:00.360 which was a passion project of his.

00:06:02.600 And it was a beautiful story.

00:06:04.560 It was done so well, the rescue of the hostages and things.

00:06:08.540 But even Ben Affleck, with his juice, couldn't get it done

00:06:12.380 because the machine that was Hollywood says,

00:06:15.060 no, we're doing this and this and this in front of it.

00:06:17.440 And you can get a movie done out of your own pocket.

00:06:21.080 You just can't get distribution.

00:06:22.560 And distribution is everything.

00:06:24.020 And right along with distribution, you have to almost double the movie budget and to put that much marketing.

00:06:29.100 So if you spend $50 making a movie, you've got to put $50 on marketing and get distribution.

00:06:33.100 And you can't do it.

00:06:34.200 And when they lose the core, because what do they stay in?

00:06:38.880 Hollywood gets stuck in ruts.

00:06:40.940 They'll do sequel upon sequel upon sequel.

00:06:43.620 Even if all the test audience screening in the sequel says there's a problem with it, they're betting on the sequel.

00:06:49.960 And they're going down, who's the next character in Marvel?

00:06:53.060 It's a guy called the Silver Sponge.

00:06:56.480 Okay, then we're doing it next.

00:06:59.020 You know, it doesn't matter.

00:07:01.260 And it's just they've lost the storytelling.

00:07:03.740 And that's what I think.

00:07:05.600 Toy Story 5.

00:07:07.200 Do we really need a Toy Story 5?

00:07:08.500 It's exactly what you're saying, is that Hollywood,

00:07:10.480 and see what you said, Elon, something has changed.

00:07:14.200 You know, the golden age of films, 70s, 80s, and certainly the 90s.

00:07:18.040 And then what happened?

00:07:19.200 Something changed in the 2000s.

00:07:20.820 it stopped being about storytellers and talent and how to make a good movie

00:07:24.960 that has an emotional center that people connect with,

00:07:27.400 and it started becoming we need to push a message.

00:07:29.880 Either we need to push a message or we're going to be lazy

00:07:31.800 and just set up a franchise.

00:07:32.620 It'll come back.

00:07:33.560 It will come back.

00:07:34.380 It will come back.

00:07:35.820 This connects to the A24 story.

00:07:37.280 That's right, yeah.

00:07:37.800 Because now we're seeing a rebirth of the industry with new creators.

00:07:40.740 Listen, favorite memories of me and my dad.

00:07:45.120 We would go to Winnettka Theater and we would sit there and watch a movie.

00:07:49.020 It was amazing. 0.93

00:07:49.900 In Iran.

00:07:50.440 We're in Iran. We would get movies, okay, in Iran because you couldn't get it.

00:07:54.440 You're living under Khomeini, and we would watch it translated in Farsi. 0.88

00:07:58.460 So Rocky spoke to me in Farsi, gremlins in Farsi, goonies in Farsi. 0.99

00:08:03.580 You would watch these movies, Pinocchio in Farsi, all of these things in Farsi,

00:08:08.020 and you would just enjoy that moment with that individual, right?

00:08:10.960 So let me, I have to read this scene with, you know, the movie Gladiator where he says,

00:08:16.100 My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north, general of Felix Legion's, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance in this life or the next.

00:08:34.460 Oh, my God.

00:08:36.860 It's crazy.

00:08:37.520 It's crazy.

00:08:38.600 The scene where he says, I want to be free as well one day, the owner, and he says to him, win the crowd.

00:08:46.100 When you're freedom, all these small death, the one line about death.

00:08:50.820 I don't know if you remember the one line about death where he says death smiles at us all.

00:08:56.240 All a man can do is smile back.

00:08:58.580 Can you imagine how great these are just a beautiful set of lines in this movie?

00:09:03.880 So anyways, maybe the next scene is the next scene.

00:09:05.640 We're sure watching Gladiator time when we go, you know, Hans Zimmer, right?

00:09:11.160 Is it Hans Zimmer? The one song? Yeah, it's great.

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Valuetainment - June 28, 2026

“People Want Heroes” - Russell Crowe Breaks Down Gladiator II FAILURE

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