Own the rights?
GLADIATORS OF ROME is not one of the best Sword & Sandal film. In fact it's one of the worst ever made. The direction is clearly at fault here. The entire film is stagy, uninspired and very creaky. Gordon Scott is a great action star. Unfortunately, in GLADIATORS OF ROME, he's saddled with a shoddy production. I hardly know where to begin with this review. Is it the sped-up action scenes which gives the film a really dated feel? The awful music? The annoying characters, including Gordon Scott's sidekick who overacts shamelessly? Is it the convoluted and repetitive script? The nonstop talking? The melodrama? The awful indoor sets? The fact that Gordon Scott looks more like Tarzan than a gladiator? The fact that the title, GLADIATORS OF ROME (GLADIATORS is plural on the DVD covers but you see a singular GLADIATOR on screen) doesn't make much sense when Scott, as Marcus, never actually fights as a gladiator in any arena? Like I said before, the direction is the reason this Peplum is blow average. The action scenes are cringe inducing. Speeding up the film to make the action look more fast & furious is an old and even by then outdated technique and here the director uses it abundantly. This technique diminishes the impact of the action and this is unfortunate because the film is mostly talk, talk, talk. There are some action scenes but the bulk of the film is made up of talking heads spouting inane dialogue. At least 75% of the film is just boring chit-chat.The one good thing, scratch that, the only good thing about this film is Gordon Scott. He's in great shape and, from the looks of it, does most of his stunts. Remove Scott and basically there's really not worth watching. The filmmakers enjoyed putting Scott through a series of feats and endurance tests such as moving boulders about, being chained to a rock wall or, in the highlight of the film, crucified to a big wooden x, with chains and all. This scene is truly memorable, in more ways than one. Whoever came up with that scene deserves an award. The down-side of that scene though is that Scott does nothing and just watches all the action happening around him. He doesn't participate in the resolution of the climax. How stupid is that?All in all, a complete dud!
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
