Gladiator 1

Roman Calvary

Roman General Marcus Aurelius

Gladiator was published on May 5th, 2000. Gladiator won five Oscars and was ranked one of the best movies of the 21st century. It grossed 466 million dollars, making it the second biggest hit of the year 2000. Gladiator was ranked #39 on the best movies of all time. It holds an IMDb rating of 8.5 and a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 79%.

Gladiator is a movie that follows Maximus Meridius, played by Russel Crowe, a Roman General whose family is murdered, he is betrayed, and finally he is sold into slavery. He was supposed to become the Roman Emperor, as he was highly appreciated by Marcus Aurelius. However, Marcus Aurelius's evil son, Commodus, killed his father and then murdered Maximus's family. Finally, Maximus is sold into slavery, becoming a gladiator. He fights his way through and is finally given a chance to win his freedom in the Colosseum.

The acting in The Gladiator is pretty good. The best acting performance in the movie probably goes to Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus). His acting was excellent, especially when he murdered his father. I'm not saying that it's a good thing to murder your father; however, his acting was excellent when he murdered Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris). He did an amazing job of portraying Commodus as evil, conniving, and without morals. He also did a great job showing the emotions of Commodus, which included fear, envy, malice, anger, hate, desperation, and sadness.

The movie shows the prevalence of murder and slavery in the Roman Empire. It also showed how easily citizens in the Roman Empire, even the emperor or a hero general, could be backstabbed and killed. War was a key feature of Rome and was a major part of its economy. It also showed the militarization of ancient Rome. This film accurately and effectively shows Rome up until the conversion to Christianity.