This got an Oscar?

Rating: 3/10 (29 August 2004)

I missed this on first release, but have watched it on DVD. To be quite honest, it's tripe of the first order. The script is awful, and the acting generally not much better (thank heavens for the computer-generated actors: they are at least the equal of their flesh-and-blood rivals). I found this film to be deeply contrived and boring. As for the garbage of the Emperor Commodus fighting 'mano a mano' with a gladiator, the scriptwriters must have been on something stronger than LSD.
Presumably Ridley Scott hired Derek Jacobi for 'Gladiator' because he'd played a Roman before (to whit, Claudius, see below), but even in his minor role he out-acts the far starrier names (except for the late Oliver Reed, who steals every scene he's in).
If you want a _real_ flavour of 'life at the top' in the Roman Empire, get the DVDs or videotapes of 'I, Claudius', the BBC's conflation of Robert Graves's 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God'. This is far better written and it's superbly acted. It's also more convincing, despite being made on a shoestring budget. If 'I' Claudius' is an excellent fillet steak in a superb restaurant, accompanied by the finest wine, then 'Gladiator' is a gristly hamburger in a seedy fast-food joint, washed down with a 3rd-rate clone cola.