Gladiator in Glorious HD

[LordShiva]

I downloaded part 1 (of 6) of "Gladiator" in full 1080p resolution and 5.1 surround (all 6 parts together run around 21GB). It contains the battle scene of course, which means I can watch it over and over again.

Alrighty, double-click "Gladiator.HDTV.1080p.dvd1," click the full-screen button and get it to fill every square inch of my 61" 1080p HDTV.

Now, crank up the volume. The neighbours probably no better than to disturb a man watching Gladiator.

OK, boring text about how the Roman Empire was awesome, blah blah blah.

Maximus in his wheat field, then in Germania.

Music! Hans Zimmerman, I love you.

"Still no word?" "Not a sign." "How long has he been gone?" "Nearly two hours." "Will they fight, sir?" "We shall know soon enough."

"Soldier, I ordered you to move those catapults forward, they're out of range." "Range is good." "But the danger to the cavalry is-" "Acceptable. Agreed?"

... "They say no." "People should know when they're conquered." "Would you, Quintus? Would I?"

(silly Germanic gibberish)

"At my signal, unleash hell."

"Fratres! Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so! Hold the line, stay with me. If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and you are already dead!"

"Ha ha ha"

"Brothers. What we do in life... echoes in eternity." (OK, I just made that my AIM away message)

(fires flaming arrow)

"Archers! Ignite!" "Igniiiite!"

"Archers! Draw!" "Draaaw!"

Whoosh! Crash! Fwoomp! "Aaah!" Germans run and scream, lol.

Music reaches crescendo. But wait! Zoom in to the charging cavalry! Cue the "Pirates"-sounding music!

Oops. I just creamed myself


What a movie

[SlowwHand]

You and Pekka are cousins, aren't you?

[DRoseDARs]

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
You and Pekka are cousins, aren't you?

"Are you not entertained?! Are you not entertained?! Is this not why you are here?!"

[Nostromo]

What? You forgot the best line: "unleash hell"

I'd think you would prefer "Alexander", where you can see the mighty Indians beat the sh!t out of the Greeks, those boy loving freaks.

(That said, I agree, Gladiator is a better movie.)

Alrighty, double-click "Gladiator.HDTV.1080p.dvd1," click the full-screen button and get it to fill every square inch of my 61" 1080p HDTV.

Poor you. I saw it on much, much bigger screen than that. It was about 100 feet wide, IRC

[Gatekeeper]

Gladiator is hands-down one of the best, most-moving films I've ever seen. Definitely in my Top 10 list ...

[Nubclear]

You are a pirating pirate who pirates

[BeBMan]

Re: Gladiator in Glorious HD

Originally posted by LordShiva
(silly Germanic gibberish)

The fun thing about the German (dubbed) version is that everyone speaks German, except those Germans in the beginning who still spoke only silly "Germanic" gibberish

Anyway, Gladiator

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by nostromo
What? You forgot the best line: "unleash hell"

"At my signal, unleash hell."

Originally posted by nostromo
I'd think you would prefer "Alexander"

I watched Alexander, and promptly declared it a waste of 2 hours of my life. It wasn't nearly as bad as Troy, though, and for that I am thankful.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Tassi
You are a pirating pirate who pirates

"Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men."

[Ned]

Dittos.

As to that battle scene, I found it to be a lot like WWI warfare-wise. One side pounds the other with artillery, which in the end has very little effect. The ground troops eventually have to charge across the field separates the two armies and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

It was my impression that, historically, the Romans won these battles because of better armor and better discipline. In Gladiator, though, the Romans had neither advantage. What I saw was complete chaos. And yet the Romans won, implying they had better "skills" in hand-to-hand combat than the Germans. I hardly think that was the case in reality, which makes the movie historically inaccurate and a little bit disappointing.

But back to 1080p. I recently saw a demo of 1080p at the store. Honestly, I could not tell the difference between the movie at 1080p and at 480p. Could that have something to do with with the movies not really be recorded in 1080p?

Even at home, I can see a tremendous quality difference between HD-net and other HD channels. I attribute this to HD-net filming its programming in high-definition. Perhaps what I saw the store was 1080p converted from an earlier for 480p DVD.

It is because of this that I chose not to buy into HD-DVD player (in some form), at least not at this time.

[Asher]

HDNet does have tremendous video quality -- best of all video channels, easily. Their concerts are amazing.

HD-DVD beats it out, but that's kind of expected seeing as it uses a bitrate 3-4 times higher than HDNet and a more advanced codec to boot.

As for Gladiator in HD...psshhh, you ain't seen nothing til you seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in glorious 1080p. His christmas light display is amazing!

[Guynemer]

Love this movie. 10 best of all-time? Hardly, but an incredible spectacle and very moving all the same. The end might be a bit too self-consciously Shakespearean, but is beautiful nevertheless.

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by LordShiva
I watched Alexander, and promptly declared it a waste of 2 hours of my life. It wasn't nearly as bad as Troy, though, and for that I am thankful.

Yikes. Troy was entertaining fluff that could have been much better. Alexander was unwatchable and a waste of film.

[Nostromo]

But what if the source material on the HD DVD wasn't originally shot in HD? A movie like Gladiator, for example?