An intense, well-crafted movie about one man and a fading empire.

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2002)

"Gladiator" ranks high among movies about Roman times, "Spartacus", "Ben-Hur", "Fall of the Roman Empire", "Quo Vadis" come to mind. The movie maintains its uniqueness among these heroic sagas in the way it affords us a view of those times and men in those times. The panoramic scale the movie maintains to set us up and bring us into the parts of the story is breath-taking. The camera shots of the protagonists makes sure the viewer is held firmly and moved surely through the plot. The intensity of the final confrontation is brought by sheer force of the way the viewer is brought to this point. For people who enjoy movies, this is an event that must not missed. On a personal note, the opening scenes were a bonus to students of Caesar's Gallic Wars. If you have always wondered, like me, how those battles (strategies & tactics) were fought, this is the answer.