Yes, the movie is over 75 years old and dated....but the story is excellent and powerful..... and one that anyone can enjoy in any era. "If it's good in the past, it's still good," as Sly & The Family Stone commented at 1969's famous Woodstock concert.
To me, the biggest attraction of the film is the involving story. From early on, you really care about "Marcus" (Preston Foster) and then his adopted son "Flavius" (DavidHolt/John Wood). Foster is good in his lead role and very convincing as the hard-luck and bitter man who turns into a gladiator and then rich entrepreneur, so to speak. As hard a man as he is, he has a really soft spot for his family and will do anything for them (either wife or kids, depending on where you are in the story.)
All the characters are interesting. The only one who was a little bizarre to me was Basil Rathbone's "Pontius Pilate." I've never seen Pilate portrayed in such a sympathetic, friendly light as he was here, as Marcus's boss and then friend. Now Pilate may not have been the totally evil man many people perceive him to be, but he's no "good guy," that's for sure, and yet he was portrayed as such.
Regardless, the film is a good one with a dramatic ending and good special-effects for the mid 1930s. The most important "special effect," though, was not the eruption of Mount Vesuvius but the transformation of "Marcus's' hard heart. This was truly a man who "saw the light" near the end of his life, thanks to one Man.
To me, the biggest attraction of the film is the involving story. From early on, you really care about "Marcus" (Preston Foster) and then his adopted son "Flavius" (DavidHolt/John Wood). Foster is good in his lead role and very convincing as the hard-luck and bitter man who turns into a gladiator and then rich entrepreneur, so to speak. As hard a man as he is, he has a really soft spot for his family and will do anything for them (either wife or kids, depending on where you are in the story.)
All the characters are interesting. The only one who was a little bizarre to me was Basil Rathbone's "Pontius Pilate." I've never seen Pilate portrayed in such a sympathetic, friendly light as he was here, as Marcus's boss and then friend. Now Pilate may not have been the totally evil man many people perceive him to be, but he's no "good guy," that's for sure, and yet he was portrayed as such.
Regardless, the film is a good one with a dramatic ending and good special-effects for the mid 1930s. The most important "special effect," though, was not the eruption of Mount Vesuvius but the transformation of "Marcus's' hard heart. This was truly a man who "saw the light" near the end of his life, thanks to one Man.