Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 5.0
The best Roman era movie ever made
Watching this movie in the theatre inspired me to take an impromptu trip to Rome, and seeing it again on DVD just reinforced what a tremendous movie it is. There are excellent performances by Russell Crowe, Oliver Reed and Richard Harris to compliment a strong screenplay and a beautiful score. The character of Maximus is surprisingly well developed in a subtle and very satisfying way; his relationship with his family and the grief he suffers over them is better developed in a few minutes than many movies manage in hours (The Patriot comes readily to mind). Every shot is beautiful, and the movie does a wonderful job of recreating the feel of the period, with wonderful recreations not just of Rome but of the Roman world. Throw in a jaw-dropping opening battle that stands as one of the great movie openings of all time (and is the first movie to accurately recreate a Roman fortified camp) and you have a fantastic movie. Evidently I'm not alone in thinking so, as when I was at the Colisseum, every tour guide I overheard was fielding questions about how accurate the scenes were in Gladiator. I can't think of any higher praise than that.