A poor man's Ben Hur

Rating: 5/10 (4 November 2001)

Completely untrue as far as history is concerned:Marcus Aurelius died from the plague,and he did give his power to his son Commodeus (who did not strangle him,why would he?)On the other hand,Commodeus would have been strangled (in his bath?) but NOT by Maximus.
The plot is linear,predictable and owes a lot to "Ben Hur".Forget the Christ and we have a similar pattern: a hero's downfall,his family is killed (thrown in jail in Ben Hur),he falls into a slaves(gladiators) trader's hands.He takes a spectacular revenge on his enemy (Commodeus,here,Messala in "Ben Hur")Outside Wyler's classic,"Gladiator" finds some inspiration in Kubrik's "Spartacus" and LeRoy's "Quo Vadis" too,and even in Delmer Daves'"Demetrius and the gladiators" (1954)All these sword and sandals,except Daves'one,are superior to Ridley Scott's work.Of course,the battle scenes are impressive,thanks to technology ,but it does not make up for the paucity of the dialogue and the simplicism of the screenplay.The "poetic" slow motion ending has been filmed so many times that one wonders why Scott could bother with such a rehash.