'Gladiator'

One of the few films I saw twice. Once I guess with some ol' gal and a second time with my brother-in-law.

Realizing what kind of a douchebag Russell Crowe is, the film doesn't hold up very well. Apparently, Crowe was a total asshole during the filming, forcing untold rewrites of the script. Even allegedly stating that he was the greatest actor in the world and he'd make garbage dialogue sound good.

It also features Joaquin Phoenix in the one role that I first remember him in. I thought he was really good even if a lot of the other performances were pretty uninspired.

This film sells for one reason: Violence. The bloodier, the more primitive the better. We love this stuff. You might assume that people of other centuries were more blood thirsty or even more brutal. This may or may not be true.

I do think they did not regard life as highly as we do now. There was a greater gap between the ultra-rich and the sublimely poor. You had Rome sacking everything in sight.

More than anything, death was just too primitive and the way people were killed were no where near as sophisticated. We didn't know how to kill properly. Warfare is the prime example. It was brutal. If it wasn't a bloody mess of a death, but was most certainly bloody and drawn out for possible hours. Whereas a bullet to the head would kill you instantly, that wasn't possible then.

Still, we like gladiators battling each other and tigers. We also like that it was entertainment. Secretly, we'd like the same. It doesn't make Romans in the first century barbarians nor does it modern day humanity. It does make us all kind of weird.