Powerful acting makes this an epic film

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2016)

An impeccable film set in ancient Rome sends us on an emotional, adventurous, and entertaining journey.
Maximus (Russell Crowe) leads the Roman legions to victory in their final battle against the Germanic tribes and longs for nothing more than seeing his wife and son back in Spain. Knowing Maximus owes him his loyalty, the Emperor audaciously over looks his son and rightful heir to the thrown and ask Maximus to succeed him.
His son hearing about this plots for Maximus to be killed. Though Maximus escapes his assassin, he gets back to Spain only to find his wife and son murdered by the Emperor's son's orders leaving him devastated and broken. He is then sent into slavery to become a Gladiator and if that's not enough, he has to fight and entertain the very man who killed his family. Will he get his revenge?
This is one of my favorite films of all time. It's absolutely worth your time.
Spiritual Content: Many references to "the gods." Maximus talks about the "Elysian Fields," a paradise of classical mythology. Maximus carries small statues to represent his family and ancestors and prays to them. The film several times shows Maximus imagining meeting his family in the afterlife, symbolized by going through a door into wide, green fields.
Sexual Content: Nothing explicit. There is a barely hinted-at past between Maximus and Lucilla, and the film leaves open the question of whether Lucilla's son, Lucius, is Maximus' child. A gladiator master asks a man, "What do you want, a girl? A boy?" Commodus makes several incestuous advances against his sister, Lucilla.
Violent Content: Frequent and extreme. The film opens with a headless Roman soldier on horseback and the Germanic leader taunting the Romans with the soldier's head. Opening battle scene shows men impaled by spears, pinned to trees by arrows, and frequent killing by sword. Gladiatorial combat features just about every possible way to kill a man short of nuclear weapons. To his credit, Director Scott does not dwell on gore; once the point is made that a man has been killed, the camera moves elsewhere. Still, the gruesome images burn deep.
Crude or Profane Language: A woman is called a b--ch. One s-word.
Drug and Alcohol Content: Little. Emperor drinks wine.
Summary: Gladiator is a great film cinematically. The acting is powerful and the story is strong, even if it is a bit of a rehash of the Ben-Hur story—without the redemptive ending. Still, I left the theater feeling vaguely ill-at-ease, and it took me several hours to figure out why. I then realized that the degeneracy shown on screen—Emperor Commodus happily clapping his hands as a gladiator is decapitated, the crowd roaring its blood-lust—is too close to some forms of entertainment today, particularly professional wrestling. The gladiators of Rome took on certain contrived personalities, and gladiatorial combat was intended to tell some sort of story, just like today's equivalent of gladiatorial entertainment. And as the crowd's appetite was whetted by increasingly bizarre and violent combat, so too are today's wrestling maniacs. Gladiator serves as an object lesson as to what can happen to a society that proceeds down such a violent path. The extreme violence used to create that lesson, however, prohibits children and teens (and will dissuade many adults) from getting a chance to experience it.