Watch Gladiators 7 For Free

Wow! Such a good movie.

Powerful

Perfect cast and a good story

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

As far as sword and sandal movies go, Gladiators 7 is acceptable. It has a relatively fast-paced zip, some interesting sets and costumes, some bad yet not horrible acting, and loads of action - the primary reason anyone is watching this in the first place. The story deals with Darius from Sparta, having beaten a slew of Roman adversaries in the arena in Rome and being spared for his fighting abilities, going back home to find his father dead and a new, villainous ruler in place(his name sounded like Yaba?). Anyway, Darius returns home and finds soldiers out to kill him so he enlists the aid of six former gladiator-friends - very much like the fashion seen in The Magnificent Seven or The Seven Samurai - only not nearly as convincing in either of those great classics. I will confess that some of the gladiator actors were pretty decent and humour is laced liberally throughout the film. The film does, as aforementioned, have some pretty good action scenes, some big fights, and a couple beauties(though we so see oh too little from either). Again, as sword and sandal films go, this one is not all that bad.

If you've seen either Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, the plot of Gladiators 7 should seem familiar. Gladiators 7 is the Italian/Peplum take on this winning formula. To help him avenge his father's death, Darius (Richard Harrison) rounds up six of his gladiator buddies. They train together, laugh together, and fight together with defeating a much larger and better armed force as their ultimate goal. As I said, it's not very original, but that's just part of the problem. The biggest issue I have with Gladiators 7 is with its lead, Richard Harrison. He's so unappealing that I could have cared less about what happened to him. He's dull and incredibly hard to root for. A few original twists to the plot and a different actor playing the film's main character might have made Gladiators 7 a good movie.

Pilfering it's primary conceit from "The Seven Samurai" and "The Magnificent Seven", this sword and sandals epic depicts the collection of seven varied gladiators, bonded together to help defeat an evil Spartan king. Harrison plays the son of a respected and revered Spartan citizen. When he is blamed for the escape of five gladiators, he's placed in a Roman coliseum and forced to fight for his life against a horde of Hun-like warriors. Barely escaping death, he returns to Sparta to find that his father has been killed (made to look like a suicide) and his intended bride Nusciak is about to be claimed by a whip-wielding, deceitful king. Harrison is ambushed by hired killers but manages to lick them, with the help of a little blonde helper who has revered him since childhood. The two go off to round up the five gladiators Harrison aided who, by now, have been spread about and are leading their own separate lives. One is a rowdy drunk who's good with a knife, one makes a living as a strongman and one has married into wealth as a sort of gigolo. Another lives quietly in a village with his daughter (Badeschi) and the last one has been captured and forced to fight a bull with his bare hands in the arena. Once united, they set out to expose the ruthless and evil king and reunite Harrison with his lady love. The film features some very interesting and picaresque scenery. The budget seems to have been considerable in light of some sizable crowd scenes, a few elaborate sets and a rather extravagantly staged cattle stampede at the climax. Harrison, who was fit and handsome without being overly bulky and awkward, is a likable protagonist and has an ease about him that's appealing. Nusciak is 22 years-old, but looks twice that thanks to some severe make-up and hairstyling, none of it doing her any favors. Badeschi is quite amusing, unintentionally, as she totters and tiptoes around trying to balance a mammoth hairpiece on her head and is forever lifting the hem of her dress as if it's in the way or might get dirtied as she runs from soldiers or creeps around trying to get Harrison to notice her. The gladiators of the title are a reasonably arresting bunch, but they have a grating habit (standard for these types of films, but more prominent in this one for whatever reason) of continuously laughing heartily after every event. They constantly hop onto each other or grab each other's shoulders, which would be fine except that it's always paired with this obnoxious, needless and ear-raping laughter. In any case, the film is an acceptable entry in the genre and has plenty of variety in the settings, weaponry and action.

Darius, son of of the king of Sparta is thrown into the arena for allowing five gladiators to escape. Fighting and winning a huge victory he is freed. Returning home he finds his father dead, supposedly a suicide, but really murdered by the new King. Rounding up the gladiators he helped escape he fights to get back his throne. This is a good movie. It starts and goes right to the end with no side trips. Even the romance which normally handled badly in most films of this type doesn't intrude, although it isn't really resolved either. Its the perfect rainy day film where everything simply works.