Reviewed by: Joe

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Produced by: David H. Franzoni, Douglas Wick, & Steven Spielberg

Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Richard Harris, Connie Nielsen, & Djimon Hounsou

Released: May 5, 2000

Action/Adventure 2 hr. 34 min. In the final days of Marcus Aurelius' reign, the aging emperor arouses his son Commodus' anger when he makes known his wish that Maximus be his successor. Power-hungry Commodus kills his father and orders the death of Maximus. But the latter flees and hides his identity by becoming slave and a gladiator. Eventually, Maximus journeys back to Rome to confront his archrival.

Gladiator successfully resurrects the once dead epic genre albeit more sanguineous, vicious and gut-wrenching then its golden age predecessors. Visually, and emotionally, this film is nearly perfect with Ridley Scott’s direction taking the ancient world of Rome and presenting to the movie-going audience that is neither overwhelming nor is it trivial to their view of the story at hand in this film. The only major complaint that can be made about this film is its constant lack of respect, or reverence, to historical events and characters involved in the plot of the film.

One can say that this is an action-drama that is not meant to be played out for historical purposes but the fact that it deliberately takes historical figures and twists their lives to make them more interesting for the overall plot of the film should be disturbing to many educators, though, it must be clearly noted, that this is hardly the first, nor last, time Hollywood is guilty of such a crime. But taking the film, despite all of that, for what it is, Gladiator is one of the most enthralling and emotionally compelling dramas of 2000, though not at quite the level of being the best picture of the year.