Awesome

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2000)

This is the first action movie that I can say has satisfied what I was expecting action-wise. From the beginning battle between the Romans and the Germans the action is not the clean, water-off-a-duck`s-back gunfighting, but raw, swordfighting action, showing just what war was like back then. But this is much much more than an action movie. It`s an epic drama about a general, Maximus (great performance by Russell Crowe) who has the favor of the Emperor, more favor from him than the Emperor`s son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix, the enemy who you can feel for and almost sympathize with), who, in jealousy, kill`s his father, kill`s the Maximus` family, and sentences the Maximus to death. Maximus escapes, and then becomes a slave of a former gladiator, who trains him to become a gladiator in a small town gladiator arena. But when Commodus, assuming the empire, re-opens the gladiator games in the Colliseum, Maximus must fight again and again, by order of Commodus, so he`ll be killed. Keep in mind, the fight scenes in Gladiator are the closest to Saving Private Ryan that I`ve ever seen, although nowhere near that gory, and aren`t for the squeamish. And tiger lovers won`t like one scene. But the overall movie is so much better than 90% of the trash that Hollywood belts out. It should be a candidate for Best Picture, and Russell Crowe should win best actor.