Gladiator II Cinematographer Shares How He Thinks Ridley Scott Has Become 'Lazy' Since First Film

The cinematographer behind the recent Gladiator film has admitted he thinks director Sir Ridley Scott has become “lazy” since the first movie.

John Mathieson won the Bafta for Best Cinematography following his work on Gladiator in 2000, and returned for the sequel, which was in cinemas now.

Speaking on the DocFix Documentary Storytelling Podcast, Mathieson said that the filmmaker is becoming more reliant on multiple cameras during film, as well as using CGI to “clean up” certain shots.

“It’s really lazy,” he claimed. “It’s the CG elements now of tidying-up, leaving things in shot, cameras in shot, microphones in shot, bits of set hanging down, shadows from booms. And they just said, ‘Well, clean it up [in post-production]’.”

Mathieson added that Scott has grown “quite impatient, so he likes to get as much as he can at once”.

“Look at his older films and getting depth into things was very much part of lighting,” he noted. “You can’t do that with a lot of cameras but he just wants to get it all done.

“Having lots of cameras I don’t think has made the films any better… It’s a bit rush, rush, rush. That’s changed in him. But that’s the way he wants to do it and I don’t like it and I don’t think many people do, but people love his films and he’s Ridley Scott and can do what he wants.”

Gladiator II has received mostly positive reviews, although one part of the film many critics have taken issue with is its fast-and-loose approach to historical accuracy – which Scott shut down with three very blunt words in the lead-up to his movie’s release.