Oliver Reed wins for Proximo’s scenery-chewing line readings; the subsequent research anecdote says Reed challenged Russell Crowe to a fight.
Ralf Moeller’s Hagen wins over Richard Harris and the Germanic war leader.
Angelina Jolie for Lucilla is rejected; Kevin Garnett for Juba is endorsed with an accent caveat.
Research covers the cost of digitally completing Oliver Reed footage, historical Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Maximus, and Lucilla, Crowe’s injuries, the Gladiator effect, sequel plans, Nick Cave’s script, and the film’s unusual finality.
Crowe and Connie Nielsen receive affirmative apex rulings; Hans Zimmer is proposed, gladiator movies are disputed against Spartacus, incest is deferred to Game of Thrones, and touching wheat is affirmed.
Commodus’s delayed killing of Maximus, ride timing, Germany-to-Spain travel, and the forest execution are questioned.
“What we do in life echoes in eternity” and “At my signal, unleash hell” are the leading quotes.
The panel advises against expanding the film into a ten-episode remake because Rome already covered the terrain; it then traces apparent Gladiator echoes in Game of Thrones.
The panel asks which arena mask each host would choose, whether Gladiator is a sports movie, how to classify Commodus’s predation, and which WWE plot the story resembles; it also records a Ridley Scott marriage fact.
Russell Crowe wins two explicit votes; Joaquin Phoenix receives one, and fields of wheat receive a joke vote.
Roger Ebert’s stated score is two and a half stars, which the panel considers too lukewarm.
The gladiator match wins one ballot and the opening setup wins another, amid a broad set of action and world-building alternatives.
