'A masterpiece of its kind '

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2004)

I have never been really interested in Roman Empire movies. Now I finally got around to completing my Russell Crowe DVD collection. So I also ordered the widescreen signature edition of the 'Gladiator', two disks (second disk with bonus material) from Amazon.com. I received the DVD last Tuesday. On Wednesday I watched it for the first time. On Thursday I watched the bonus material and part of the movie again. Now it's been a week and I have already watched it 3 times and I am already thinking about watching it again tonight. It's a masterpiece of its kind with one of the most magnificent photography and brilliant special effects I have ever seen. Russell Crowe as Maximus is absolutely perfect. He is the true hero such a movie needs. Though the rest of the cast is also well chosen and gives a great performance, Russell Crowe is the character this movie needed to become outstanding. With each viewing you will discover another interesting detail, another facial expression that wows. I also recommend watching the bonus material disk after the first viewing. It will give you an astonishing behind the scene look at how the movie was made and how real some scenes actually are. The documentary on Gladiator games provides an interesting insight into the whole subject. And don't miss the deleted scenes. They shouldn't have been cut out. The sound track especially the main theme is also overwhelming. One of my favorite scenes is where Russell Crowe rides the pirouette on the grey horse at the end of a fight. The music perfectly matches the scene. The Gladiator is fun watching even though it is a tough movie. My score is 10 out of 10.