Sorry, I can't agree on Gladiator. It was poorly shot in places (medium shots when long shots were called for, out of focus backgrounds, lack of epic feel except in a few places) and Joaquin Phoenix just sucked IMO.
"The Fall of the Roman Empire" (Alec Guinness, Stephen Boyd, Christopher Plummer, James Mason and Sophia Loren) tells the same story, but better shot. Every shot in that movie is just a work of art. Martin Scorsese agrees with me.