Is Gladiator a good movie

[Syt]

I was once listening to the "Emperors of Rome" podcast; where one of the speakers, a lecturer of classical studies at La Trobe University, mentioned that she watched Gladiator with her students.  The interviewer asked if her students could connect to it, as it was released when they would have been very young.  She replied, "Yes, but most students of classical studies are usually interested in old things."

Don't do this to us

[Sheilbh]

Unrelated but Gladiator is also linked to one of my favourite sports anecdotes from Gael Givet:
"In 2010 with Blackburn, we were going to play Man Utd. During the talk, Sam Allardyce showed us images from the films Gladiator and 300 to motivate us and to make us warriors on the pitch. After 30 minutes, we were down 3-0. In the end, we lost 7-1."

[Barrister]

As to Gladiator - the question is "Is Gladiator a good movie".

The answer is absolutely.  Great enjoyable action movie.

Thinking back I can't believe it won Best Picture, but if my wife said "Hey do you want to watch Gladiator tonight" I'd surely say yes.

[crazy canuck]

300 is a lot better more funny than Gladiator.

FTFY.  300 was a brilliant spoof of itself.

I remember being really suprised when I realized that we were supposed to be taking this shit seriously, and actually be rooting for a bunch of homicidal maniacs.

It is kind of like when my wife made me watch the first Twilight movie, and it was terrible, but the male lead actually did a pretty damn good job. Later on I read an interview where the actor said something like "I just assumed everyone was supposed to think my character was a whiny little bitch and played him like that...." (I am summarizing). I laughed at that, and thought "Yep, he gets it!" but of course all the actual fans were *supposed* to find him so endearingly moody and lovable...

300 was based on a graphic novel/comic and it was true to that source material.  I am not sure what you mean by taking that shit seriously.  If you went in not knowing you were going to watch a screen adaptation of an action comic book there would definitely have been a disconnect.  Kind of like watching a movie based on comic book Thor when you expected to see real Norse mythology.

[Syt]

Frank Miller was quite serious about his political messaging, though (the noble Spartan ideal defending effete Greeks from subhuman Easterners).

[crazy canuck]

Edit: And as you say from 50s/60s style historical epic is a hop skip and a jump to Jason and the Argonauts style fantasy world.

Yup, it doesn't take much to go from classic sword and sandals fare to mythological adventures. Yet we still don't have a proper film about the Trojan War with gods and fantastic elements. The fact that Troy removed all that to remain somehow grounded in the real world was a bold choice.

YES! God I hate Troy and want a proper Greek version.

It's only redeeming moment is when Orlando Bloom gives his sword to Aeneas at the end

And thinking about it could probably look at a big chunk of this type of film just through Bloom's back catalogue - LOTR, Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Kingdom of Heaven etc.

What did you think of the Netflix adaptation of the Trojan story?

[crazy canuck]

As to Gladiator - the question is "Is Gladiator a good movie".

The answer is absolutely.  Great enjoyable action movie.

Thinking back I can't believe it won Best Picture, but if my wife said "Hey do you want to watch Gladiator tonight" I'd surely say yes.

I agree.  It is a great movie to watch every now and then.  Sometimes I just watch the opening battle scene - well up until the part where for some reason the Romans break into a mob and fight individually.  But the opening sequence is stunning even after watching it many times.

[crazy canuck]

Frank Miller was quite serious about his political messaging, though (the noble Spartan ideal defending effete Greeks from subhuman Easterners).

Yes, and that comes across clearly in the screen adaptation of his work. It was by no means a parody of his work.

[Jacob]

I think Gladiator is good Hollywood fun. So yeah, sure, it's a good film. If I'm looking for things to complain about, I can find a reasonable amount I think, but if I'm not I'll enjoy watching it.

[FunkMonk]

Unrelated but Gladiator is also linked to one of my favourite sports anecdotes from Gael Givet:
"In 2010 with Blackburn, we were going to play Man Utd. During the talk, Sam Allardyce showed us images from the films Gladiator and 300 to motivate us and to make us warriors on the pitch. After 30 minutes, we were down 3-0. In the end, we lost 7-1."

C'mon Big Sam 

[mongers]

Null vote - I've never watched it, not even a 30 second clip.

[Josquius]

Frank Miller was quite serious about his political messaging, though (the noble Spartan ideal defending effete Greeks from subhuman Easterners).

Yes, and that comes across clearly in the screen adaptation of his work. It was by no means a parody of his work.

Which is surprising as it is a very good parody.

[Caliga]

Yes, it's a good movie.  My main complaints are related to historical accuracy, and primarily around Commodus: the real-life Commodus's personality/behavior was more like that of a modern WWE wrestler and it would have been hilarious to see that recreated faithfully in the movie, so I am not sure why they cast Joaquin Phoenix in the role.  That said, the Commodus he played in the movie was still interesting in its own right and his performance was fantastic.  I don't like it when Hollywood screenwriters dealing with historical topics change history for no logical reason that I can think of, especially when the real story is interesting like it is here.

[crazy canuck]

Frank Miller was quite serious about his political messaging, though (the noble Spartan ideal defending effete Greeks from subhuman Easterners).

Yes, and that comes across clearly in the screen adaptation of his work. It was by no means a parody of his work.

Which is surprising as it is a very good parody.

Perhaps the meaning of parody is being lost here.  The source material was not for comic effect - but as Syt pointed out Miler had a particular political message he wished to convey.

[grumbler]

Frank Miller was quite serious about his political messaging, though (the noble Spartan ideal defending effete Greeks from subhuman Easterners).

Yes, and that comes across clearly in the screen adaptation of his work. It was by no means a parody of his work.

Which is surprising as it is a very good parody.

It is very good parody.  Anyone who went to see it thinking that it was a movie about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae walked away disappointed, but those who recognized that it was sending up Miller and his whole worldview about real men fighting monsters while almost naked could be entertained.  I know that there are people who don't recognize the movie 300 as parody, any more than they recognize the movie Starship Troopers as parody, but that's their loss.

If David Lynch's version of Dune hadn't been intended for us to take seriously, it would be up there, too.