Larry T.

Ridley Scott must get a volume discount for hiring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The hiring of these two, trivializes the work. It is elementary, that the problem with well-known actors is that they cannot escape their established personas. Use of new or unfamiliar faces would have made the stilted, forced attempts to create accents more believable. Game of Thrones is a perfect example. When it appeals least is when a popular, well-known personality is given a role, i.e.Ed Sheehan. Following his masterpiece, Gladiator, the bar that he himself created is high and will forever challenge and haunt him—like many great artist who attempt to repeat past successes. The opening battle scenes—the thunderous sound of horses galloping, snow lightly falling, screams of the dying and the attackers, gray forest backdrop—all replays of Gladiator direction. Box office success is never guaranteed with historic films, even when produced by a master—especially in today's 5-minute-internet attention span. Ridley is the master of this genre, but the main characters in a foreign-based historic film, should, at the very least, have an accent (French, British, whatever) that does not remind one of an American high school Shakespeare production that went on way too long. However, Ridley remains the master.