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Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.erotica
The Private Gladiator, Part 1 With so many adult films borrowing ideas from mainstream Hollywood productions and never following through with the premise of the title they are "borrowing" from, it's nice to see an adult production that tries to give us the best parts of the mainstream version, while adding a lot of sex for the adult version - and that's exactly what you'll get with The Private Gladiator, Private's big budget, three part production based on the Oscar-winning Gladiator. The film casts Tony Ribas in the main role as Maximus, and pretty much follows the same plot as the mainstream movie. One of the differences here is that when we first see Maximus he is already a slave, and we flashback to how he was a general in the Roman Army, how he was picked as successor to the thrown by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and how Commodus (played here by Frank Gun) finds out about his father's plans, poisons him and sends Maximus off into slavery and kills his beloved wife. Plot-wise, that's as far as this first of three chapters of The Private Gladiator gets in the story, concluding with Maximus being selected and beginning training as a gladiator. Of course, there's plenty of sex in between the storytelling, which makes up for the bulk of this first chapter's two-hour running time. The first of six sex scenes features Frank Gun being introduced to two other women by his cousin, Domitella (played by Rita Faltoiano). Rita makes out with one of the girls, while Frank takes care of the other one, spraying her with a nice facial to end the scene. The second sex scene is more in line with what we expect from a Private movie, with three Roman soldiers taking on four girls at a dinner table (following a major victory over the Germans) that includes plenty of anal and double penetrations for at least two of the girls present. Maximus finally gets to see a little action (other than the battlefield kind!) in the third scene, as he teams up with Rita for a coupling that includes anal in the reverse cowgirl, cowgirl and spoon positions, and some tit fucking to conclude the sequence. This scene happens before Maximus has been ousted and his wife has died - so one of the mistakes Antonio Adamo makes in the direction of this film is in not establishing any kind of relationship between Maximus and his wife. Unlike the mainstream version of Gladiator, the viewer feels nothing when Maximus finds his slain wife in this movie. One of the hotter sex scenes in this film is the next to last one, which has Maximus looking on (now in chains as a slave) while his former friend and fellow soldier, Marco Leto (played by David Perry) screws his girlfriend (yes, he didn't wait long to find another lover!), played by Mandy Bright. While The Private Gladiator certainly delivers in the sex department, there are several problems with the film that take away from the "epic" feel that, no doubt, Adamo and Private wanted to portray in their production. The movie is shot on video instead of film, and in full frame rather than widescreen, which really makes the movie look less than stellar, despite the amount that obviously went into the budget. Secondly, Adamo should have seen if he could have used some stock footage or found a different way to stage the fight scenes, since the "huge" battle at the beginning of this film consists of about a dozen German peasants taking on a handful of Romans. Adamo shoots the segments at a slow frame rate to give the illusion of a larger battle, but it fails to make the footage look any more epic or grand. The nicest part of this DVD set is the second DVD, which is loaded with extra material, including a 30-minute "Making Of" segment, and an additional 35-minute behind the scenes segment (which is more cast-oriented than the "Making Of" segment, which is more production oriented). There is also a bloopers reel, photo galleries (for all three parts), cast profiles, set designs, storyboards, and an interview with the director. And while I wasn't crazy with the way the film was shot, both the video and audio reproduction on this DVD are top-notch, although, once again, I wish Private would give us English-speakers the option of watching the film in its original language with English subtitles - rather than having to listen to the poorly dubbed English dialogue. After watching the behind the scenes material, The Private Gladiator certainly seems like one of the most expensive and thought-out productions in the history of adult film. And while the final results may not be the best adult film ever made, it's certainly one worth catching, and one worthy enough to earn a spot in your adult DVD collection.
Reviewed by Spooky
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