Great action movie, yet very disconcerting.

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2000)

This movie is good and bad at the same time. I came out of the movie with very mixed feelings. To start off with the good points and not repeat what others have said, the battle/arena sequences were very exciting. The script is not original, but there were enough twists and turns to make an otherwise formulaic movie interesting. The acting was also very good. Connie Nielson was just excellent. Joaquine Phoenix was perfect for the part. And Russel Crowe shined through out the film. In short, this is a great action movie. Some might not like the ending, but to me, it was very unexpected and very out of the conventional Hollywood way.
However, if you look at the film in terms of its appeal and content, the movie is very disconcerting. I would imagine that most people are attracted to this film by its Roman glory. But imagine 2000 years after the Romans, we still want to be entertained by the spill of blood and excessive violence. We thought of Romans as barbaric and ourselves as enlightened, yet many will flood to this movie to watch people's heads get chopped off. This movie is simply a new trend of Hollywood movies (such as Legend of the Fall, Saving Private Ryan, the Thin Red Line, Braveheart, and the upcoming the Patriot)that is designed to feed off the audience's hunger for violence. This film will do great at the box office, but what does that reflect about our society?