Good, sure. Great? No, uh-uh. Overall a 6.75 out of 10

Rating: Null/10 (15 April 2001)

I should preface this review by stating that I'm something of an expert in the area of weapons and armament. Most folks aren't going to notice or care about the many things I found wrong with the film, but the HUGE number of historical inaccuracies were distracting to me. For the sake of the readers, I won't go into a lot of detail and will only point out two examples. In one of the scenes Crowe and his fellow gladiators approach a table filled with helmets. Each gladiator picks a helm and moves on. Two helmets were 9th-10th century Norse and two(?) helmets were most likely 12th century Turkish. If someone is going to drop a ton of dough making an "epic" (such as Gladiator is alleged to be), wouldn't you think they'd spend a couple of bucks on a military or historical advisor with, perhaps a high school knowledge of history? In this great "film" a senator states Rome was originally founded as a Republic. Yes, and I'm the Easter Bunny. The storyline itself wasn't terribly objectionable, as long as you don't expect a lesson in history. What I did find redeemable about this film is what many left-wing reviewers found the most upsetting and that is the objective portayal of a man who was patriotic and loyal to the idea of a concept and entity larger than himself. Whether some pseudo intellectual bed-wetting types want to accept it or not, Roman military types were often motivated by feelings of nationalism. Fascistic, maybe, but that is the way many thought. The makers of the film obviously never intended to propogandize, they merely showed things the way they were. It's amusing how the far left and the far right are outraged at the truth when it doesn't fit their preconceived notions of reality. If you merely want a film to entertain and don't give a hoot about history, go for it! The combat scenes are fun and there's enough of a sentimental subplot to make this an enjoyable flick for romantic types of either sex. The acting wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. Oscar material, I think not. Entertainment, you bet!