When Gladiator was released in early May 2000, there wasn’t much of an inkling that it would go on to win the Oscar for best picture, for the obvious reason that it was positioned as the first of the summer blockbusters, promoted less for its historical gravitas than its bloody combat in a digitally enhanced Colosseum. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that two and a half hours of speeches, montages and decadent pageantry would fit into a broadcast that’s an hour longer and slightly less violent. But the best picture designation has been an odd stain on Gladiator’s reputation over the years: a film that might have been remembered as a satisfying revenge spectacle instead looks like a second-rate prestige picture.
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