[Rennes Templar]

Just a great movie.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I often compare GLADIATOR with FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE from 1965. Same Emperor, same Commodus, different General. No CGIs. They actually built a reproduction of the Forum at that time, and spectacular battle scenes.

Both good movies.

[Dogbert41]

It was pretty good!

[Bigtigermike]

Some of the best memorable scenes in that movie. I remember going and seeing it with my brothers

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

In my opinion, it was Ridley Scott’s finest film.

[GreyFriar]

I saw it when it first was released in theaters, but haven’t watched it on either TV or cable channels. Not sure why other than I couldn’t get interested in the story line.

[Secret Agent Man]

tugger’s whistle’s blowin

time for us to goin

no more russel crowin, for you

makin movies

singin songs

and fightin round the world

[Tired of Taxes]

Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus.

We mortals are but shadows and dust.

Shadows and dust, Maximus!

One of the greatest movie lines of all time

[max americana]

are you entertained?

[MarvinStinson]

How many years since Demetrius and the Gladiators?

[AndrewB]

[madison10]

That long? Wow!

[Amberdawn]

Russell Crowe at his finest...SIGH....

[Redcitizen]

Joey do you like movies about gladiators?

[bluejean]

It was a terrific movie. It could only be made now with the lead as a black gay “man”.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

A good movie (Russell Crowe was terrific!), but a documentary of the making of this movie might be better than the movie itself. I thought the computerized special effects were clumsy and disorientating and it would have so much better if they had used old-style physical Hollywood effects. And of course there are the historical inaccuracies:

- Many here have already mentioned that the Roman legions used the wrong weapons and tactics in the opening battle scene.
- Commodus never killed his father to gain the throne. While Marcus Aurelius, Rome's last great emperor, had reservations about his worthless son, he never seriously considered anyone else has his successor.
- Marcus Aurelius never wanted to return to the Roman Republic. That didn't happen!
- And of course, Commodus was actually strangled to death in his bathtub by Narcissus, his wrestling partner (and lover?).

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

“Maximus is called “The Spaniard”. The term “Spaniard” comes from a 14th Century Old French word, but this obviously falls under translation convention. In Latin, Maximus would have been called “Hispanus”, the word from where “Spanish”, “Spaniard” and “Hispanic” all come from.”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/goofs

[Rockingham]

Thanks for the article. With high stakes, often insane schedule and production issues, and combustible egos in tension, movie-making is always a fraught business. Yet good, even great movies get made as a matter of routine, intermittently skirting disaster like the plucky hero in a Harold Lloyd comedy on the path to success.

Ridley Scott has a well-deserved reputation for mastering troubled productions: Alien, Bladerunner, Gladiator, and others became successful, even great movies in spite of themselves. Scott began in advertising and became a well-regarded and highly disciplined director of TV commercials before being drawn into movie-making. He is one of the best at stitching the pieces of a badly broken production into a bankable finished product.

Yet even Scott must have hit the ceiling when he learned that Oliver Reed had broken his promise and gone on a final bender. In old Hollywood, run by thuggish, clever, determined producers, a reliable actor friend would have been assigned to Reed as a keeper, backed by studio muscle and draconian contract terms. These days, the Screen Actors Guild prohibits anything like that, so Reed got the freedom to drink himself to death and leave his final scene to CGI. I am sure that even Reed, if sober, would also regret the loss.