Gladiator. Quite possibly the best movie about gladiators ever created.
There are quite a few movies about gladiators and ancient Rome.
Spartacus, 300, Centurion all come to mind.
However, one movie stands above the rest.
Gladiator.
Source: Imdb.com
When Gladiator came out in the year 2000 all the world was ablaze with the name of Russell Crowe.
It seems like there are certain times when a certain movie star is considered to shine above the rest....... but then he is fairly quickly forgotten.
Such is the business.
Directed by Ridley Scott, Gladiator was a huge success. It earned over 457 million dollars worldwide.
In my opinion it was worth every penny.
The movie was so popular in fact that Pavarotti himself created a song called Il gladiatore based on the theme.
It's actually kind of surprising to hear how similar the theme song called Earth is to the Pavarotti song Il gladiatore.
What is Gladiator actually about though aside from a bunch of Gladiators fighting?
Source: Giphy.com
The Roman General Maximus who was in charge of the armies of the North is very close to the emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Unfortunately the emperor is dying.
His son Commodus very much wants to inherit the throne but he is not a worthwhile successor.
His daughter Lucilla would have been a better successor but women were not allowed to become emperors.
Therefore Marcus Aurelius wants Maximus to become temporary Emperor until he can give control of Rome back to the Senate.
Commodus doesn't want this at all so he does everything in his power to prevent it from happening.
Source: Giphy.com
Maximus ends up being bought by a former Gladiator named Proximus.
His entire life becomes fighting to stay alive and fighting to please the people.
Throughout all of this Commodus is growing as an evil natured tyrant. He is going to end up destroying Rome if he's not stopped.
Maximus becomes the only man capable of stopping him even though he's nothing more than a gladiator.
Everything about this movie is perfect.
The cinematography, the acting, the score.
Russell Crowe plays the part of the downcast but valiant hero incredibly well.
Joaquin Phoenix plays the villain quite masterfully.
If you want to see a movie about gladiators, and you want to be entertained, then go ahead and check out Gladiator.
It's a masterpiece in every way.
Great post and absolutely love the film gladiators,must have watched it about 5 times and still not bored with it. Thanks for sharing.
I love this movie!!! My dad saw it 3 times in theaters.
I think I have seen this movie up to 6 times now if not more. They got the movie right in all angles. I like your blog, the contents are educational. Keep the work going.
I definitely agree.
Such an awesome film. When my wife and I were in Jerusalem last year we stopped by a little cafe in the old city for breakfast. It was right near one of the main city gates, and there was this extremely old broken pillar that was now being used to support a lamp post. As we were finishing up the owner of the place got to talking with us and he mentioned how Roman generals who became or were made rulers of Jerusalem would have their names carved into this pillar. Sure enough, about three down from the top it had maximus, but I believe it was spelled MAXIMO or maybe MAXIMV (where the romans used a v shape for the u). Cool story anyhow.
It's one of those movies you can watch again and again. That's a really cool story. I would have loved to see the pillar.
Weldon blog
is it really a nice movie @jeezzle?