Watched “Gladiator” again, a Ridley Scott film, Hey-ho! The list of credits at the end is almost endless. Actually for once I suppose Mr Scott should get full credit for the end result of such a complicated, enormous and ultimately satisfying enterprise. I did enjoy it third time round but feel it would have been much better if one could understand Mr Phoenix’s dialogue. Another actor who doesn’t now how to use his voice. Strangely on the extras he speaks quite clearly. Think in the movie I caught maybe one word in ten. Douglas made a remark about how many accountants were on the film. Looking at what was involved over four different widely spread locations and the number of personnel involved, I’m surprised there weren’t more. What an achievement. We are puzzled though and, without watching the movie again, will most likely remain puzzled for a while. The question is where was Maximus’ home? When he escapes from the German forest he rides through landscapes that look suspiciously Spanish and he is known as the Spaniard and it’s not even a hop, skip and a jump from there to Morocco so why then does he tell the emperor his home is in Northern Italy?
Someone sent us an e-mail of “funny cats” and there was with it videos of “weirdest, scary and creepy” and “ugly people.” People used to go to Bedlam to mock the lunatics or to freak shows to gawp at the malformed. Today we can do it on the internet. Very interesting one of the ‘extras’ on Gladiator was an essay into the history of Roman blood sports. Maybe the crowd enjoying the spectacle were saying to themselves ‘there but for the grace of the gods, go I.’ Maybe the same applies to this prurient curiosity even today into the gross malformations of the human figure which brings me back to the question I persistently ask – if god created man in his own image, as we are all physically so different, what was his template?
An interesting e-mail also from PRS (Performing Rights Society) about Google and music royalties. The whole matter is so complicated these days and I would still like to know how Cherry records can be using my songs from 'The Double Deckers' and I don’t see a single penny for my work; never have done, even going back as far as 20th Century Music and all the others in between who simply, on making enquiries, pass the buck. Nothing to do with us, it’s down to Warner Chappell. Nothing to do with us it’s down to EMI. The ultimate why don’t you go get stuffed was, sorry we’ve lost the records! Great, isn’t it? They’re all a bunch of thieves.