Gladiators - Bloodsport of the Colosseum

Starring:David Hemmings
Studio: Questar
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
A historically accurate look at the gladiators of ancient Rome is presented in this documentary filmed mostly in Rome and at the famed ruins of Pompei. The roots of gladiatorial combat is traced to the harshness of Roman culture, and how fighting between slaves went from casual attractions in town squares to enormous spectacles in specially built arenas throughout the Roman empire is explained by historians. Much of what we know about gladiators emerged from clues found when the buried Roman city of Pompei was excavated and carefully examined, and drawings of gladiators found on walls in the ancient city are shown. The Roman gladiators became wildly popular cult figures, managed by businessmen and chased by what today we'd call groupies. The "sport" of combat became increasingly violent, with each successive emperor raising the stakes until there were literally hundreds of people in bloody spectacles staged for the entertainment of a screaming crowd. Using films of scholars who faithfully reenact the roles of gladiators, as well as stock footage from Hollywood productions, this documentary provides a fairly comprehensive introduction to how gladiators lived, fought, and died. --Robert J. McNamara
Description
The Roman Colosseum was the setting for more terror, agony and horror than has ever been witnessed anywhere. Emperor Trajan gave one set of games that lasted 122 days, during which 11,000 people and 10,000 wild beasts were killed. Often the fresh blood of gladiators was used as a cure for epilepsy. It was also considered a good luck charm for brides-to-be to dip their combs in gladiator's blood. Who were the gladiators? Where did they come from? How did they live? This fascinating video follows gladiators through their training, choice of costumes, weapons and style of combat to their rise to stardom and their inevitable violent death. So popular did some gladiators become that many Roman women were prepared to give anything to meet and be with the idol they worshiped. A compelling video insight into the violent, deadly world of the gladiators. Etxra Features: Colosseum, House of Terror; Flamma, Gladiator Superstar; Gladiators of Hollywood;Training Killers; Fighting Men of the Arena; Fearful Facts.

Gladiators - Bloodsport of the Colosseum
Average customer rating:

Great Video For Learning about Gladiators

To Endure Being Burned, Bound, Beaten And Slain By The Sword

Very Irritating Flickering Scenes

The grim reality behind the Hollywood spectacle

Just the facts , please

Gladiators - Bloodsport of the Colosseum
Starring: David Hemmings
Manufacturer: Questar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Biography | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video
General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video
World History & Culture | History | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video
Ancient History | History | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video
Politics | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video
( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Used DVDs | Stores | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
Similar Items:

Pompeii - The Last Day/Colosseum - A Gladiator's Story

Gladiator

Gladiators: 100 BC-AD 200 (Warrior)

Spartacus - The Complete TV Miniseries

Nero

ASIN: B000051WAH
Release Date: 2001-02-09

Amazon.com

A historically accurate look at the gladiators of ancient Rome is presented in this documentary filmed mostly in Rome and at the famed ruins of Pompei. The roots of gladiatorial combat is traced to the harshness of Roman culture, and how fighting between slaves went from casual attractions in town squares to enormous spectacles in specially built arenas throughout the Roman empire is explained by historians. Much of what we know about gladiators emerged from clues found when the buried Roman city of Pompei was excavated and carefully examined, and drawings of gladiators found on walls in the ancient city are shown. The Roman gladiators became wildly popular cult figures, managed by businessmen and chased by what today we'd call groupies. The "sport" of combat became increasingly violent, with each successive emperor raising the stakes until there were literally hundreds of people in bloody spectacles staged for the entertainment of a screaming crowd. Using films of scholars who faithfully reenact the roles of gladiators, as well as stock footage from Hollywood productions, this documentary provides a fairly comprehensive introduction to how gladiators lived, fought, and died. --Robert J. McNamara

Description

The Roman Colosseum was the setting for more terror, agony and horror than has ever been witnessed anywhere. Emperor Trajan gave one set of games that lasted 122 days, during which 11,000 people and 10,000 wild beasts were killed. Often the fresh blood of gladiators was used as a cure for epilepsy. It was also considered a good luck charm for brides-to-be to dip their combs in gladiator's blood. Who were the gladiators? Where did they come from? How did they live? This fascinating video follows gladiators through their training, choice of costumes, weapons and style of combat to their rise to stardom and their inevitable violent death. So popular did some gladiators become that many Roman women were prepared to give anything to meet and be with the idol they worshiped. A compelling video insight into the violent, deadly world of the gladiators. Etxra Features: Colosseum, House of Terror; Flamma, Gladiator Superstar; Gladiators of Hollywood;Training Killers; Fighting Men of the Arena; Fearful Facts.

Customer Reviews:

Great Video For Learning about Gladiators.......2006-11-22

As a high school teacher, I found that this video passes the basic test of an 'educational' video--it informs and entertains. My freshmen enjoyed it and stayed focused. The information is accurate and presented in an interesting and coherent manner. Good use is made of Hollywood archival footage as well as live shots from a school in northern Italy devoted to recreating the lives of gladiators down to the smallest detail. Backed by concise background information on the Roman Republic and Empire. It would also be of interest to anyone with an interest in the Roman Empire, and good background for such Hollywood films as Spartacus and Gladiator. Recommended. 4 and a half stars.

To Endure Being Burned, Bound, Beaten And Slain By The Sword.......2005-11-08

That was the notorious oath of the gladiator. Documentaries such as this offering always provide such a mind-opening window into a subject of acquired taste, they're severely valuable. As a matter of fact, programs like this, and also its like-minded brethren, continually air on the Discovery network of monopolized channels up to this late day, eliminating any reason to still buy this dvd and/or vhs.

Firstly, the unqualified and skewed perspective of the purported Amazon.com reviewer's editorial is plainly incorrect, and needs to be righted. The original roots of Gladiatorism actually stem from Etruscan origins, directly contrary to Amazon.com's self-righteous reviewer's, disrespectable and disappointing claim of it coming from "casual attractions in town squares". The Etruscans, whose name is derived from the ancient geographical region of Etruria, produced the same-named people who would be the forefathers, and then stewards of all things Roman, seeing as how at the start of their civilization, Romans stole excessive aspects of Etrurian life, after deposing of them by the catalyst for their revolution, which was the murder of Lucretia. But, with my additional, free-of-charge information, I've digressed. At the funeral of some important, societal figure in Etruscan life, the Etruscans would perversely stage sadistic "gladiatorial" games--consisting of only 2 participants at the gladiatorial concept's infancy--in their bloodthirsty distortion of values, which was common in the ancient world. This was done to allegedly "celebrate" the accomplishments of the deceased; i.e. that meant that the more blood that was shed at these games for that deceased person, the more honor was being done to his life.

There's a particularly telling part in this program, one that specifically uses the archaeological evidence of skeletons found in definitively curious positions to establish just one of the many rattling and arcane innuendos surrounding the gladiator. That being, that there apparently was the body of a harshly wealthy noblewoman found--thanks to the preservative pumice of Vesuvius--being shielded under the arm of a preserved gladiator, inside the gladiators' quarters, surrounded by as much as up to 18 gladiators, inside of the building in Pompeii that would serve as their training grounds/housing. Speculation is the one avenue left for one to determine her exact purpose in that suspiciously scandalous association. Reason being, for said scandal, is that in the Roman world, gladiators had a specially stigmatizing libel hung on to them, called infamy. This dictated that in society, they were spat on and outcast as the lowest of the lowest scourges, represented in how they didn't even have citizen status, wherein they couldn't even vote, one of their many disenfranchisements. However, this notoriety had excessive and really unequal perks, as an unfair side effect of how they were labeled as "forbidden". In layman's terms, they were homicidally embellished to "sex god" status, and their sweat was in fact errantly considered as an aphrodisiacal substance. This was the contention of the woman's presence, that the program makes, for her being exclusively interred in the quarters of 18 robust men.

Another disturbing facet of information is the decidedly bloodlusting rage that all Romans, from all walks of Roman life (which, realistically, included only 2 definite divisions: 5% rich, the crushing rest of the populus 95% ghoulishly impoverished) barbarically lusted for. This was the brutal relentlessness of the frequency with which that the fated Death Matches were put on, and also the genocidally beastly number of the casualties. Since in Ancient Rome every other day was a state-oppressed "holiday", this half of the time in the year was unscrupulously misused to stage the most sensationalistic, propaganda-based games, whose exclusive, planned function was to, cunningly, dupe the masses of Rome into feeling "alleviated" of their everyday worries. Worries that stemmed from living in a conclusively brutal ancient world where people's life expectancy was seriously low, and, adding insult to injury, where the majority were living in the poorest of squalor. This was the callous and unrighteous irony of what the morally twisted early civilizations misappropriated to feel better about themselves: to simply punish worse atrocities on others.

These are only some of the exorbitant, educational enlightenments that this hour-long window into this subject offers. These programs that are produced, from the Discovery monopoly of like channels all taken over by one managing group, are so vibrant and lush that they bring alive the theme being documented.

Very Irritating Flickering Scenes.......2002-05-29

This is the WORST DVD I ever bought technically! The movie excerpts are from clippings from old films and the clarity is beyond recognition. I find the excerpts very irritating. They were a lot of flickering (as if you are watching a movie or television show using an old television set or your set back to the 1950's when the frame of the TV screen keeps on flickering continuously until the screen stabilizes). The running time is actually more or less an hour and not 90 minutes as advertised. The special features are not really special anymore because they were just repeats of the main feature. You will realize that you will watching the same scenes a couple of times. Some scenes are shown more than five times just to stretch the time. Do not waste your money with this DVD. I wasted mine! This is not a DVD quality. The quality of the silent movies are much better!

The grim reality behind the Hollywood spectacle.......2001-05-03

I thought this video was an excellent documentary, which should be viewed alongside the recent Academy Award winning movie. This documentary helps one really understand the times portrayed in the movie. I thorougly recommend this video.

Just the facts , please.......2001-04-30

While I found this DVD to be very well produce as far as special effects are concerned, I aslo found several of the statements made by the narrator to be suspect at best. For instance the narrator states that corporations owned most of the chariots used in the Circus Maximus to race. I have read quite a lot about the Roman Empire and nowhere have I ever read any information which stated the existence of any corporations in ancient Rome. I also found the weapons which the actors used in the reenactments to be very cheesy indeed. The swords looked like they were cut out sheet metal to look like swords. They had no edge on the blades at all. The narrator (David Hemmings) was also very hard to understand at times due to the raspy quality of his voice. I think the choice of narrator was a mistake. On the postive side the documentary made good use of the facts about gladiators which has been uncovered by the archaelogical finds at Pompei and had several experts providing information through out the DVD.

DVD:

DVD

Der englische Patient