I held off watching this film as, like westerns of my youth, the whole gladiator/crusader themes have saturated the market for a time. I am glad I waited as I could actually sit down and enjoy this film. Some say the accents were off, the acting stiff. I saw nothing that was overly out of place (including Sutherland's Canadian accent). If they had wanted authenticity, they would have all been speaking Latin.
I am a retired director so watching any film is a bit difficult for me to sit back and let the film take me to another place. Usually I will subconsciously pick it apart as an armchair quarterback. Not so with this film. I enjoyed this film from the credits to credits. I won't go on about the plot. It is basically about the struggle between our perceptions of our parents and reality, the conflicts of people from different cultures, trust and betrayal...basically all the struggles we all face in modern life.
Of particular pleasure was the cinematography and sound...little nuances not found in a lot of films today.
A great piece of work. Not perfect perhaps, but a buddy film much better than I had expected.
