Gladiator [DVD]

Product Information

DVDs and VoD films and series are normally seen by one Compliance Officer, but opinions from other Officers, the Compliance Managers,and Board of Classification may be required for more difficult content. The issues Ace, 47, became a born-again Christian five years ago and is charmingly self-aware about his conversion. “The other gladiators think I’ve completely lost my mind.” I like Ace – he is hilarious and sincere and doesn’t try to convert me. He tells me about his 2017 appearance on This Morning, in which he announced he was a “gladiator for the gospel”. He had originally turned it down, until he realised it would be live. “I thought: ‘I can share the gospel live on telly!’ I’m in.” More convincingly, pieces of pottery with representations of gladiators have been recovered from both Chester and Cirencester – both places with amphitheatres. These were in red gloss pottery mass produced in present-day France. Perhaps they were imported as souvenirs for people attending gladiatorial spectacles. Maximus: [removes helmet and turns around to face Commodus] My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

Most amphitheatres in Britain were not constructed in stone, but were instead large banks of earth carrying timber seating, a little like American “bleachers”, either side of an elliptical arena with entrances at either end. Large examples such as that at Cirencester could have sat several thousand people. They showed off the assimilation to Roman ways of the local nobles who financed their construction and the games. Long thought to be an import, fabric analysis has now shown the vessel to be of local manufacture. The ashes the vessel contained were of a male of about 40 years of age and not of local origin. Could he have been a gladiator? The sex and age profile of the buried bodies was very unusual. They were almost all males and aged from their late teens to their early forties.

What Curators Say

More tangible evidence of the gladiators themselves in Britain is harder to come by. But some recent discoveries allow us to flesh out the picture. While most games are suitable for players of all ages, others are only suitable for older children and young teenagers. A specific portion of games on the market contains content that is only appropriate for an adult audience. Films for cinema release are usually seen by at least two of our Compliance Officers, and in most cases, their age rating recommendation is approved by the Compliance Managers.

Other objects show the hold of gladiators on the popular imagination, such as an ivory clasp knife handle showing a gladiator from the Roman fort at South Shields. Human remains showing evidence of blunt force trauma unearthed at York’s Driffield Terrace. Courtesy of York Archaeological TrustHow to interpret them? Given that the age range is that for service in the Roman army, one hypothesis was that they were soldiers executed for serious offences. But further research has shown evidence that they suffered blunt force trauma, often to the head. Could they have been gladiators? Pompeii is set in the Roman city, but doesn't really feel like a historical drama. The gladiator characters provides a reason for scene after scene filled with hand-to-hand combat sequences, and the neighboring volcano justifies some big-scale fire-and-flood destruction. Somewhere in there, the filmmakers manage to squeeze in an improbable love affair between a handsome gladiator and the daughter of a local nobleman, and their courtship unfurls like a modern-day dramedy, complete with a star-crossed lovers storyline, stereotypical parents (the dad complains of her having too much luggage, a complaint that doesn't feel like it belongs in a period movie) who may not understand their affections; a best friend to confer with, and a lecherous politician (Sutherland, not his best role) who wants what he can't have. The money for Gladiators was pathetic’ ... Wolf meets fans at Stoke Con Trent. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian Commodus: Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard. I don't think there's ever been a gladiator to match you. As for this young man, he insists you are Hector reborn. Or was it Hercules? Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name? You do have a name.