Gladiator is one of my favorite movies
It tells the story of Maximus, who starts out as a roman general, but then gets betrayed and instead of getting to go home like he was promised, he ends up having his family murdered and being picked up by slave traders. He is sold as a gladiator and eventually makes his way back to Rome in order to get revenge.
There are many different ways a movie can give me chills and Gladiator managed to combine a ridiculous amount of them.
Method 1: War
War movies are great, there's war in space, war with guns, war with old-style guns, war with horses and stuff and other kinds too. I cant think of a war movie that is bad. I think thats because its such a heavy subject that only really good filmmakers try to cover it. Gladiator starts out with the main character leading the roman army to go kill some barbarians. When I saw it when it came out in 2000 my mom was like "But that barbarian had a wife and kids, how is that cool?" Its cool because its a movie. If it were real I would probably want the barbarians to win since the Romans were total jerks for attacking in the first place. But since its a movie its fine to want the Romans to win, since the story sets it up that way: The romans speak english and have epic dialogue, while the barbarians speak caveman and have no shirts, its a no-brainer
Method 2: Sports
Every sports movie gives me chills. Even though every sports movie is Remember the Titans over and over again I don't care they are all amazing. There's nothing like a sports movie, I don't even need to describe how indescribable it is. Gladiator manages to combine the Casey at the bat stadium chills with the intensity of action movies. Gladiator is pretty much Remember the Titans except with swords, which is pretty much absolutely amazing.
Method 3: Defiance
When everyone is supposed to salute the emperor and Maximus just stands there, everyone watching the movie knows that he means business. Not only does he disrespect the emperor, but he also plots a rebellion and some other cool stuff. Since he already lost everything he stands up to the roman government and inspires the people. The people love him because he does what they wish they could do, but they're to busy being distracted by the gladiator spectacles to do anything. Hey that reminds me of my previous post.
So in conclusion Gladiator is...ok I wrote enough I need to go watch this movie again right now.
