Ray Charles Video:

		List Price: $9.98		Label: 20th Century Fox Salesrank: 19000 Released: February 19, 2002
		Our Price: $5.20
		Used Price: $4.75
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: Videotape

Editorial Review:
Rome, soon after the death of Christ. The depraved and mad Caligula is on the throne, obsessed with two things: the Robe, the garment that fell from Jesus' shoulders on the cross, and brutal gladiatorial displays. Victor Mature is the devout Christian entrusted with the Robe by Peter (Michael Rennie). But he turns his back on God, enters the arena, and becomes the most famous gladiator in Rome. Sharing the bed of the powerful and diabolical Messalina (Susan Hayward), he may even betray the Robe - and any hope he has for redemption!

Description of Demetrius and The Gladiators [VHS]:
Amid a cast of all-stars in 1953's The Robe, Victor Mature made the strongest impression as the Greek slave, Demetrius. It was only natural, then, that Mature should star in this 1954 sequel, in which the newly liberated Demetrius forges an alliance with his Christian brethren to hide the sacred robe of Christ, coveted for its "magic" by the vile emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson, also reprising his role in The Robe). Captured and manipulated into believing his beloved Lucia (Debra Paget) has been killed, Demetrius rejects his pacifist faith, plots vengeance while becoming a rising star in the bloody arena, and falls prey to the scheming senator's wife Messalina (Susan Hayward), who craves his... affection. It all leads to a crisis of faith that will determine Demetrius's fate as a noble Christian or downfallen hedonist.

Inheriting The Robe's CinemaScope production values, Demetrius and the Gladiators has everything you'd want in a Biblical epic, riding the wave that would crest two years later with Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. It's campy, of course--Robinson is outrageously over-the-top; Mature is too contemporary (preceding the absurdity of Richard Gere's King David by 30 years); and Hayward seems closer to Rodeo Drive than ancient Rome. Still, there are abundant pleasures here, from the lavish arena battles (a bit cheesy, but still impressive) to a straightforward morality tale that doesn't compromise its themes of religious loyalty. You don't watch movies like this for historical accuracy, but for the combination of thrills, passion, and glory that were Hollywood trademarks of 1950s epics, long before the more secular ambition of Gladiator. --Jeff Shannon

Demetrius and The Gladiators [VHS] Reviews:
Demetrius and the Gladiators
2009-12-15 - I liked it back in 1954 when I first saw it but the sound quality is rather poor. I have to turn my volume way up to hear the sound.

Demetrius and the Gladiators
2009-11-15 - This is a very good Bible type story but it seems that is a continued part of the movie The Robe. It seems to appear when they made the Robe they continued on to its sequal Demetrius and the Gladiators, most of the same actors and cast.

demetrius & the Gladiator
2008-08-30 - Ok so its old time drama but the movie still carries solid performance from the cast. Movie score is not bad either. Lets just say that it may have inspires the Gladiator & Rome of this generation.

Demetrius and the Gladiators
2008-05-08 - This is the sequel to The Robe. It is very good, full of action, and historical in respect to the persecution that occured to the early Christian church.

One of the Greatest !
2008-04-07 - The Film is one that I and my wife believe is one of the Greatest Christian films that we could relate to alot and I believe even for alot other professing Christians !!!!