At last, a real 'Roman' film.

Rating: Null/10 (25 November 2000)

Accurate and realistically portrayed characters, filled with so much realism you could almost smell the blood. The film was for me a brilliant balance between great majestic sets and the lives of real people. There was no soft sugar coated heroics here, just ordinary people caught up in moments of history. I found myself really understanding Commodus and his reasons for doing the things he does in the film. The man grew up unloved by a father he seemed to worship, it was bound to mess with his head. The fact is there were no clean-cut bad or good guys, it was just people, surviving, from royalty right down to the slaves, and surviving is was real life is all about. Well done Ridley Scott!