The Gladiators (1969) User Reviews

Try "WAR", now with a new and scientifically improved formula !

[myriamlenys · 6/10 · 19 February 2022]

Having grown tired of waging costly and wasteful wars, nations have decided to organize international peace games instead. Teams of young soldiers from a variety of countries uphold the honor of ideological blocs by flattening each other in "games" reminiscent of the gladiatorial spectacles so beloved by ancient Rome. Cold-eyed generals oversee the proceedings, while punishing any attempt at backsliding...

"Gladiatorerna" is an interesting anti-war movie, situated somewhere between satire and science fiction. Here, warfare (large or small, open or disguised) is an operation which benefits only a tiny elite of rich and powerful men. The poor deluded fools who do the actual fighting are just cannon fodder, fungible and expendable ad infinitum. Within the logic of such a system the ultimate heretic is the rare soldier who shakes off the weight of his indoctrination and recognizes the enemy as a fellow human being ; hence the draconic punishments for crimes such as fraternization or desertion. For what would happen to civilization if people of various nations, creeds and colors grew to LIKE each other ?

The movie also condemns the use of real-life violence for entertainment purposes, which demeans both the sufferers and the spectators.

So "Gladiatorerna" certainly has a clear viewpoint, which it expresses with a lot of emphasis and conviction. But sadly the movie is not without its flaws. For instance, the characterization tends to be shallow and one-note. Since the viewer doesn't get to know the various characters as fully-rounded personalities, he doesn't mind too much if some of them, or indeed all of them, get blown up or beaten to a pulp. (For an anti-war project this is somewhat ironic.) Moreover, the passage of time has robbed many of the elements of their red-hot topicality. Subjects like the French student revolts or the hippie "Make love not war" counterculture throbbed and hummed with relevance in the late 1960's, but nowadays...

Highly overlooked masterpiece from Peter Watkins.

[Captain_Couth · 9/10 · 14 October 2003]

Watkins' Gladiators a.k.a. Gladiatorena a.k.a. The Peace Game (1969) is a very interesting film that features a unique concept.The movie takes place in a alternate reality where warfare has been abolished. Countries that want to settle their disputes handle them inside a high tech arena. Each country sends in a crack squad of highly trained commandos. While inside, they play a game that's similar to "capture the flag". The supercomputer controlled arena is operated by technicians from neutral countries. The computer randomly puts up obstacles in the way of the commandos (adding a bit of intrigue to the game). The generals from the opposing forces (along with their allies) play a game of chess with their commandos, watching the proceedings from the safety of a control room (TV screens and computer monitors follow the action). Around the world, the game is televised (except in Russia, China and The United States). The TV programmers even have a say in the action (they have to satisfy the TV viewers).

Once again, Watkins uses his faux documentary style to capture it all on film. This movie's truly ahead of it's time. A concept like this one would make a great reality T.V. show. Unfortunately, like most of Peter Watkins work it's a hard movie to find. But if you ever get a chance to watch it, I recommend that you do.

Highly recommended.

Probably one of the best scifi ever made in Sweden....

[CurtHerzstark · 5 May 2012]

Peter Watkins most famous for directing films like Culloden (1964), The War Game (1965), Privilege (1967) etc went to Sweden to direct this sharp, satirical, surreal anti war film.

To my knowledge, this film has never been broadcast on Swedish TV nor does any of Peter Watkins other productions seem to have been broadcast recently on Swedish TV.

For example 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of writer August Strindbergs death but as I understand, Watkins made a biopic/documentary about Strindberg but has not been showned on TV....at least not yet.

Does Watkins have a lot of enemies or is it that he is a controversial filmmaker that makes him and his films less appealing? Who knows...but an enormous silence surrounding his films and the fact that is very hard to see his films makes one wonder.

Gladiatorerna/ Peace Game(1969)takes place in nearfuture where conventional warfare no longer exist. Instead, countries(regardless of political colour) all over the world gather at a special traininground/maze with their soldiers who are then divided into teams.

Teams go trough this maze filled with boobytraps (some are these are females using the same kind of "sex-up" techniques popular at Guantanamo Bay)controlled by a computer.

The teams try kill each other in the best way possible. Points are given at each kill etc.

But is the system perfect? Can something go wrong? Perhaps, because this surreal, dark, nihilistic scifi film discusses political systems in way few films have done before.

Peter Watkins was ahead of his time in this film, criticizing not just the establishment, but also the growing student uprising(remember this film was made in 1969) and the counter culture.

Biggest flaw for this film is the didactic almost preaching tone that film has sometimes but it is an important message that Watkins wants to give us.

Watkins is very brave for doing so and this film should be seen by more people but alas perhaps this will never happen, mainly because Watkins films are never shown on TV, his films receives little or no attention and hardly any DVD releases.

Why haven't Criterion released his films as of yet on DVD, Blu Ray? It should be done, because he is an important filmmaker.

This film is perhaps not as good as Privilege (1967) a film more accurate today then when it was made but is well worth a look.

Gladiatorerna/Peace Game (1969)is together with Skammen/Shame (1968) and Äkta människor/Real Humans (2012– )three very good scifi productions made in Sweden and that is one of many reasons why people should see this rare film.

Powerful and memorable anti-war movie

[markwilsonseymour · 9/10 · 31 May 2005]

I saw this movie in Stockholm the year it came out. I haven't seen it since, but I can remember many scenes vividly: that is a memorable movie. In addition to an ahead-of-his- time visual sense, the director added a feature, multiple subtitles, that I have never seen in a subsequent movie. Not just one or two languages, but every language spoken by the characters in the movie. That means Swedish, English, French, Spanish, Chinese... All appear stacked at the bottom of the screen (yet, amazingly, you can still see the action), minus whatever language is on the sound track at that moment; thus, the list shifts constantly as different actors speak. A little disconcerting at first, but it adds so much to the multicultural impact of the film. I hope someone brings it out on DVD.

Good idea but unfortunately failed

[Angel_Peter · 1/10 · 17 January 2019]

A movie that could have an good idea but in the end it ends up saying nothing new. The movie is so full of stereotypes that you wonder if it was a kid writing it.

Black heroic figure. check. White racists. check. Cunning Chinese. check. Intellectual that wants to replace old system with his own. check. Commanders that don't care about their soldiers. check.

Absolutely no new thinking in this movie even at this time. If you have read a newspaper and understood half of was what written in this then you will not find any new thoughts here.

Who would I recommend this movie to? well maybe left wing system critics? What could have been an interesting movie became a movie where you get the "truth" hammered into your skull.

international Hunger Games

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 29 April 2019]

There's been no shortage of anti-war movies over the years, but Peter Watkins's "Gladiatorerna" ("The Gladiators" in English) takes a different approach. Rather than showing an obvious war or occupation, it depicts a game in which the world's governments - regardless of ideology or race - force people to fight each other for entertainment. The generals merely sit there and politely converse with each other while the citizens fight; all too realistic. An international version of "The Hunger Games", one might say.

It was fitting that this movie got released at the height of the Vietnam War, but surprisingly it didn't become as famous as one might expect. I happened to find it in my local video/DVD store and decided to rent it. Nonetheless, the unrelenting focus on the futility of war - even seen through the context of a "different" kind of war - makes this a movie that everyone should see. I hope to see the rest of Watkins's movies.

George Harris (the Nigerian officer) later played Kingsley Shacklebolt in the Harry Potter movies.

Dead and Unsaluted

[YohjiArmstrong · 29 April 2011]

GLADIATORS has a gloriously B-movie concept, in which the great nations of the Cold War send small groups to compete in a televised battle against each other rather than fight major wars. The film switches between the combatants fighting and the generals watching them do so (in safety). Director Peter Watkins was a great docu- drama film- maker whose grim realism and (left-wing) political instinct helped him make several great films. This one though comes from the point in his career when his films became increasingly didactic and unrealistic. The message of the film is clear: the elites are bad and the people good, on both sides of the Cold War. The generals all get on well together, even as they order their teams to fight and die against the other. Meanwhile the development of a relationship between a British squaddie and a Chinese (female) soldier turns all of the generals against them. If only the people on both sides could connect with each other then the wars would end, is the simplistic conclusion. The problem is that the characters are dull, the action tepid and the politics naive.