Home Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

It is a good one.

128.180.119.100

I saw it Saturday night and loved it. There is one really fascinating aspect to the movie that makes seeing it in the theatre worthwhile. And that's the audience's reaction to the contests. The 20th century audiences react in exactly the same way as do the 2nd century audiences depicted in the film. This works as a fascinating social commentary, since we tend to look at the Romans and their bloodsports as being so barbaric, nasty and "unenlightened". In our oh so much more enlightened culture we read accounts of the brutality of the Romans and ask how could any culture condone so brutual and violent contests just for entertainment? And then we lust for the same blood and violence and then react with the same emotions as did the Romans 1800 years before us. And then we justify it with, "Well, no one is really hurt in the making of movies." (The reviewers who pick up on this aspect of the movie give it much better reviews than the others.) If you see it at home, this effect may be lost somewhat due to the lack of a crowd effect.


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