One of the best movies ever made that earns its accolades

Gladiator is quite possibly one of the best movies ever made. It is inspiring and a truly satisfying as a movie. Russell Crowe truly deserved his Oscar. It is in my top 5 movies of all time. From the day I watched it in the theater to the Blockbuster DVD on my PS2 (lol... it was the best DVD player circa 2001 imo) to today on streaming, few movies compare to Gladiator's epicness. Russell Crowe has given us truly stellar movies (such as Master And Commander Of The Far Side Of The World as another stellar movie) and truly earned his Oscar here.

While the movie is obviously not historically accurate, the movie itself is fantastic in its setting and several memorable scenes abound along with dialogs that still are epic today. Joaquin Phoenix was stellar as was Connie Nielsen and Djimon and Oliver Reed especially. Kudos to him for such an amazing portrayal. The battle scenes are just mesmerizing and visually appealing and stunning.

Some memorable dialogs -
* right after a dramatic reveal -
"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius. Husband to a murdered wife, father to a murdered son and I will have my vengeance; in this life or the next".

This just gave me goosebumps. Super epic.

*right before this dramatic reveal -
"My name is Gladiator". Wow..standing claps.

"The general that became a slave. The slave that became a gladiator. The gladiator that defied an emperor".

"Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained?"

* right after the epic arrows flying toward the Germanic tribes -
"What we do in life...echoes in eternity"

"Strength and honor"

"The time to honor yourself will soon be at an end....highness"

"He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him!"

"Am I NOT MERCIFUL?"

Crowd: "Spaniard...spaniard... spaniard.." after the name reveal "Maximus....maximus...maximus"

* as Maximus is running up to face his next battle - Proximo says -
"We are but shadows and dust Maximus.... Shadows and dust"

And the hauntingly awesome music all throughout and during end credits.
The chemistry between the characters was epic and tied them all together so well.

Russell Crowe was truly fantastic and deserved his Oscar (while Denzel is awesome is always, I feel Crowe should have won back to back for his A Beautiful Mind. Same with Tom Hanks not getting it for Saving Private Ryan). The directing, plot, dialogs, acting etc. were just terrific and amazing.

Truly a visual spectacle along with a memorable story and dialogs and picturization.

Movies like this are rare and truly highlight the highs of Hollywood.

My rating: 10/10