sure to last

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2000)

I have to take issue with the previous viewer and, for once, align myself with the conventional wisdom on this film; i.e., that it's a keeper. Especially compared with the slick, technology-infatuated, sex-and-violence saturated dreck coming out of Hollywood (not that this movie does not have its share of violence and gore, but always in context and never, in my view, gratuitous) it is refreshing to have a historical film with sweep and grandeur about real characters with some depth. I found Gladiator thoroughly engrossing and beautifully made, although historically it shares some of the fictions of its predecessor The Fall of the Roman Empire ('64) - e.g. that Marcus Aurelius was a patricide (not true) - although to my thinking it is a far superior movie in every respect. Russell Crowe is simply super here - he deserves a Best Actor nomination, no question. My only quibble is that the movie deserved a grander score - John Williams was needed for this one. But all in all, a great show.