I love this film! I have been looking for it for the past 5 years. I grew up watching this film over and over. In fact, for a brief history:

my parents recorded this film off the T.V station it played on (I can't remember which, though I've looked for it at the three major ones) and when we moved to Nigeria, I watched it for the first time. This was years after they had recorded it of course. I watched it often, since it's long and it took three tapes for the entire film, it was my favorite chore (self-imposed of course) to watch it and make sure the tape was not ruined. You can imagine how many times I took it upon myself to ensure this.

Basically, the last time I watched it was in 1998! And when I was coming back here that year, I did not have enough space in my suitcase to bring all the books and films I wanted to. So sadly, it got left behind.

I am a film student today, and I want to see if the film still holds up to the ideals it did when I was 17. It is definitely a must watch! If you like epic movies like "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben Hur" you will love this film. The history of the people, the effects of the explosion (which I must confess were a bit repetitious and made me think of foam buildings sometimes), the characters, the world the characters inhabited...WOW! I could go on...Films like this one (well, this film really) made me yearn to learn the Roman culture so much that I actually made it a goal (which I have met, and hopefully will again) to visit Rome and see the Colosseum. Gladiator, eat your heart out! This film showed the culture of the people and their lifestyles, not just blood and gore.Watch it if you can. I wish it were released in theaters--if they ran films that long.