If you didn't like this film...

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2000)

...then you probably were expecting to see another "Ben-Hur", just as I was the first time I saw it. I felt extremely disappointed. I thought it was dark, boring and I wasn't even impressed with the F/X. Then I saw it again...And it was a revelation. Once you let the film speak to you in its own language (and not the one of the old Hollywood films) then you begin to savor it. Of course there are some ludicrous scenes ( the final confrontation between Commodus and Maximus, for example) that don't change even if you see it 10 times, but one must credit Ridley Scott for having the courage of giving us a new, more authentic look of that era, even though it was much darker and bloody than other representations we were used to see in film. Russell Crowe is perhaps the key to the film's success. His performance is outstanding. I just hope Crowe is not going to become the next Nicolas Cage. I'd like to see him taking more risks as an actor, as he has done in the past.