Much as I like the brunt of Ridley Scott's work, Gladiator was a plain dumb movie. One idea spread thin over - seemingly endless - hours. I remember seeing it in London at the Trocadero at a painful volume thinking to myself: Will anything, please anything happen in this movie that is not forseeable? With one of the most typecast villains (making the Alien monster seem a balanced personality in comparison). It wasn't enough that he was evil, he had to be a coward too, a slayer of his father and screwing his sister. Most likely, he didn't wash hands regularly either.
The "D-Day landing in sandals" beginning was historically inaccurate btw. Once the Romans left the open field and could not use their fancy pants tactics and superior yet bulky military equipment anymore, we beat the crap out of them in the German woods. That is the reason why the Roman Empire never stretched any farther than South Germany.
Troy was horrible too. Sword and sandals films should stay relegated to those sixties Italian film studios most of them came from. With Claudia Cardinale starring.
Caligula was kind of ok though.
