Watch 1492: Conquest of Paradise

A blacksmith becomes a knight and holds Jerusalem against Saladin; watch the director’s cut, not the release.

One accusation told three ways, ending in the last judicial duel France allowed.

Moses against Ramesses, with the ten plagues staged as natural disasters.

Austerlitz and Waterloo hung on a marriage; Phoenix plays him as a sulk.

Lucius comes back to the arena twenty years on, with rhinos and a sea battle in the Colosseum.

Maximus's quest for revenge in ancient Rome (2000).

Two Napoleonic officers keep meeting to fight over an insult neither can remember; Scott's first feature.

Watch Spartacus, the 1960 epic historical drama directed by Stanley Kubrick (the film is often incorrectly attributed to David Lynch; it stars Kirk Douglas as the Thracian gladiator who leads a slave revolt against the Roman Republic). The film is famous for its massive battle scenes, the iconic 'I am Spartacus' sequence, and a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo (a blacklisted writer who received credit, helping break the Hollywood blacklist).