One of the best historical epics

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2013)

While more "serious" film buffs and film critics don't like Gladiator very much, I, as an history buff, have special interest in ancient Roman history. It is perfectly true that Rome didn't became a republic in 182 AD, and this film can be understood more as an exercise of alternate history. Though is suffers from anachronisms, in terms of dialogue and history: Marcus Aurelius says that he expanded the empire, while in truth he didn't expand it, he only maintained the borders against the pressure from migrating Germanic tribes.
Another problem is the fact that Rome never had grain reserves maintained by the State, or at least didn't have according to the historical evidence, and a line o dialogue says: "he is selling our future" when the emperor sells the grain reserves, such anachronisms plague the film and are an important flaw but I don't think that they merit the removal of a full point of the film's score. The dialogue and the characters are not the most complex ever but are executed well enough and this is enough. Excessive complexity and pretension can kill a film.
Overall, I highly recommend this film to those people that love films but don't have any great pretension. More more artsy types shouldn't see it. For the benefit of both the public that liked it and themselves.