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movie review - Gladiator

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Gladiator is a brilliantly filmed piece about a Roman General who's fighting in the 'Germania' campaigns in the second Century CE. He is named by his pal the Emperor to take on the mantel, as the older man foresees his imminent death. That's where the General's trouble begins: he's immediately the target of a thousand political enemies.

Soon, his home is destroyed, his wife and boy are dead, and he's a slave to a man running gladiator circuses in the sticks. Burning with hate and seeking vengeance, he starts to claw his way back to the top.

Great story, and very good cinematography, but this one loses at least one star on the Hollywood effect, where by half of the movie is undone by the last fifteen minutes. It also treads quite a bit of cliched ground as it goes.

Recommended.