Gladiator

From Rouben Mamoulian's GOLDEN BOY and Martin Ritt's THE GREAT WHITE HOPE to John Houston's FAT CITY and Martin Scorsese's RAGING BULL, in the movies a boxing match is never just a boxing match--it's a metaphor, a spectacle, a microcosmic embodiment of the struggles within the human soul.

Did audiences cheer Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa through countless rounds and six films because they doubted the outcome, or because they loved watching him prance around a ring in decorative trunks? Of course not--Rocky and its sequels are all about the triumph of the underdog, the comeuppance of the smug and the wealthy, the unlikely victory of fairness in an unfair worl...