10 Movies That Judge You For Watching

7. Gladiator

Ridley Scott's Best Picture-winning epic is for the most part a straight-up, earnest entry into the sword-and-sandal genre, but there's also an unmistakably meta element to the film's depiction of savage gladiatorial combat - and especially the audience's desire to see it.

There's no line of dialogue in Gladiator more famous than Maximus (Russell Crowe) shouting to the assembled masses, "Are you not entertained!? Is this not why you're here!?", after brutally slaughtering half-a-dozen men during combat.

Maximus is obviously expressing frustration with the barbaric practice and an audience who encourages it, and it's tough not to feel like Scott is also passing comment on the viewers of the $100 million, R-rated, 155-minute epic he has himself assembled.

You wanted to see gladiatorial combat, so here's Russell Crowe decapitating people with fountains of gore - that's what you wanted, right? Are you not entertained?

The film's subtle meta-throughline is actually established earlier in the film when Proximo (Oliver Reed) tells Maximus, "Thrust this into another man's flesh, and they will applaud and love you for that. You may even begin to love them for that."

Given that Crowe ended up winning the Best Actor Oscar for his performance and it's widely accepted to be his best to date, it seems Proximo was right.