Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Stunning
You will have read words like "Awesome", "Fantastic", and "Epic" in reviews of this movie, which can be a little too flattering. Made in the style of Cecile B DeMille type sweeping saga's it IS a very good movie, with a great script and wonderful performances all round, especially from Oliver Reed, in this his last movie. However, it seems to have fallen foul of it's own misconceptions that films of this genre need to be long to be artistic. Truthfully, the running time could have been shaved by about 30 minutes, and little would have been lost in entertainment value. Russell Crowe's performance is both powerful and believable, and the camera work is both stunning and inventive. This is a good movie, but one can't help feeling that many viewers will find it somewhat protracted and a tad on the long side.