Awe inspiring

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2000)

My God. You people with your endless yammering about this movie's not being historically accurate need to pull the iron rod out of your kazoo. Nowhere in the great lexicon of literature, be it print or film, does it say that a story needs to be historically accurate to be good. Braveheart wasn't historically accurate, but it was good. I'm reasonably sure that Star Wars wasn't historically accurate, but most people seem to enjoy that movie. Gladiator isn't a story about the history of Rome. Gladiator is a story about the methods in which people are entertained, and the hypocrisy that said entertainment can breed. More simply it is a story about a man who seeks one thing. Before death or after, Maximus seeks only vengeance. Both the story and the lesson are beautifully told. The scale of this movie is both grand and epic, to my mind, very reminiscent of Cecil B. DeMille. The acting is stellar, especially good were Joaquin Phoenix and Oliver Reed. The reviewer I read in my local paper said that the Colesium looked bigger than it should, but I don't care. It was awe inspiring, and so was this movie.