Private Gladiator 01, The (Bonus Disc)

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Description: Disc 2 Extras.

Performers Director Studio Category Duration (approximate)
Antonio Adamo Private  
Date Added:
11/11/2003
Production Year:
2002
Format:
DVD

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Industry Reviews (5)

Reviewed by   02/14/03 Source: AdultDVDTalk

Description
An ambitious costume drama, relying heavily on flowing gowns, lavish sets, and spectacle.

Cast
Includes Toni Ribas, Rita Faltoyano, Frank Gunn, Mandy Bright, and many others.

General Impressions
First, it's directed by Antonio Adamo, so I'm pretty much expecting beautiful women, beautifully photographed - but with sterile posing, camera-looking, and fake dubbed moaning. And this movie delivers as expected. The heat of the sex is mostly lost in the overdubbing and camera-mugging.

Sex
On the plus side, we have all-natural ...


Reviewed by   08/30/02 Source: AdultDVDTalk

Gladiator 1 Limited Edition DVD Set

Directed by Antonio Adamo

Overall Impression
I am a HUGE fan of Adamo's work, and to be honest I was disappointed with "Gladiator". Sure the Limited Edition packaging is stunning, the sets are impressive, the extras are endless, but the sex just was not at the same level of quality I am used to from Adamo. I think Adamo does a wonderful job of finding new talent, but I really think this film could have used a few more of ...


Reviewed by   08/20/02 Source: AdultDVDTalk


The Private Gladiator


A disc review by Flash
Release Specs:

Distributor: Private (Gold)
Edition Details: Collector's Limited Edition
MSRP: none
DVD Release Date: August 2002
 

Movie Specs:

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Reviewed by   08/07/02 Source: AdultDVDTalk

The Private Gladiator
Collector's Limited Edition
Private
Directed by Antonio Adamo
Starring: Barby, Diane, Dike, Dorothy Black, Lara, Mandy Bright, Petra Short, Pocahontas, Rita Faltoyano, Cindy, Tiffany, Tina, Tina T, Frank Gun, Alberto Rey, Nick Lang, Mike Foster, Claudio Villa, Choky Ice, Bob Terminator, Toni Ribas, Steve Holmes, David Perry, Dieter Von Stain, Tommaso Pampalini, Karl Ben
Running time: Disc one - feature: 2hrs
Disc two - extras:
Making Of...


Reviewed by   08/04/02 Source: AdultDVDTalk

The Private Gladiator Part I (2002)
Studio
Private

Director
Antonio Adamo

Starring
Toni Ribas, Frank Gunn, Rita Faltoyano, Mandy Bright, David Perry, Nick Lang, Choqui Ice, Mike Foster, Petra Short, Barby, Tina, Tiffany, Diane, Lara, Pocahontas, Thsanka, Cindy, Dorothy, Tina Samperi, Alberto Rey, Steve Holmes, Bob Terminator, Claudio Villa, Diether Von Stein, Karl Ben, and Tommaso Pampalini

Running Time
1:58

DVD Format
2-Disc Set (Single Sided, Single Layer)

Aspect Ratio
1.33:1 (full frame)

Special Features
Full motion video and animated main menu; animated menu transitions; full motion chapter selection menu; English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian audio language tracks; Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Portugese, and Polish subtitles; 29-min making-of featurette "The Empire of the Senses: The Making Of THe Private Gladiator"; 35-minute behind-the-scenes featurette; photo gallery from The Private Gladiator Parts I, II, and III with more than 125 high-quality photos,? 44-photo backstage picture gallery; set design drawings; 3-minute blooper reel; storyboards; 13-minute interview with Director Antonio Adamo; cast profiles;? production notes; and trailers for Lust Treasures 6, Anal Intruders, Sex In A Frame, Sticky, Triple X Files 12, and Gladiator (trailer and teaser versions)

Typical Watchers
Followers of Antonio Adamo, fans of Private's epic costume dramas, DVD special edition collectors

Typical Haters

Fans of ultra hardcore sex, seekers of couples-safe porn, anyone who wants to see "real" sex

Themes
Costume drama, girl-girl, anal, oral cumshots, natural breasts, orgy, DP

Condoms

None used

If You Liked This DVD, You Should Enjoy
Private trilogies such as Tatiana or The Pyramid, or Antonio Adamo films such as Fashion or Italian Flair?

Video Captures
Click for larger size

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The First Word:? Take $2 million, Private's award-winning, top gun director, and a financier who liked the Hollywood 2000 Best Picture of the same name, and the result is perhaps the grandest adult DVD package to date.

What's It About?:? Despite the large budget and mainstream techniques, this isn't the holy grail of the adult word: the mainstream crossover film.? Rather than trying to disguise a porn flick within a legitimate picture (as Caligula), this is 100% porn that loosely follows the plot of the mainstream hit, Gladiator, which the boss of Private Media Group liked a lot.?

The film opens with the Roman general Maximus (Toni Ribas), toiling in a frozen wasteland, now a slave. In flashback, we see how he arrived there.? Beginning in Germania, Maximus commands the Legion in its conquest over the barbarians.? There, he is told by the ailing Emperor Marcus Aurelius that Maximus, not his own son, Commodus will become Caesar when he dies.

In the meantime, Commodus (Frank Gunn) and Domitilla (Rita Faltoyano, who looks vaguely like Reese Witherspoon), his cousin, are traveling toward the Emperor's camp in an wagon.? Inside, they have sex with two barbarian women, one going to the prince, and the other to Domatilla. Although they have a good time on their journey, they arrive so late that they miss the battle, and Commodus has also missed his chance to be the next Emperor.

With the plot established, the next two scenes focus on sex, with a 7-person orgy in mess tent involving 3 legionnaires and 4 barbarian women.? Apparently the spoils of war include being able to DP beautiful Eastern European women.? While Maximus claims that his heart is not into joining the post-victory celebration with his troops, he does manage to re-ignite an old flame with princess Domitilla.? It's apparent that her beautiful body (and natural breasts) are? powerful enough lure for him to overcome his loyalty to his wife back in Rome.

After learning that he is being passed over in favor of Maximus, a sniveling Commodus poisons his father before he can tell anyone else of his plan for Maximus to succeed him.?? He tries to imprison Maximus but he fights his way loose and makes his way to his home to see his wife.? Back in Rome, the one of the Senators is throwing an orgy, where we get to see several couples engaged in some creative sexual positions, including a flying reverse cowgirl coupling.? After the party, the Senate learns of Commodus' succession and laments that Marcus Aurelius should have chosen a stronger, more experienced leader than his son.

Arriving home, Maximus discovers his wife dead, of course, murdered by Commodus' troops.? As the flashback fades, Maximus is in chains, placed there when he tried to kill a guard who was rough on other slaves.? A blonde slave girl, Syria (Mandy Bright), comes to his cell to give him water but is stopped by Maximus' jailer.? In exchange for allowing Maximus a drink, she does the guard a favor.? After the guard has his way with Syria, he trades both her and Maximus to a slave trader.? He's forced to fight in the training camp, where he's purchased by two Roman wives for sexual favors.

That evening, the two wives turn to each other for a little lesbian love, which unfortunately is very brief.? They are quickly joined by two of the slaves they purchased earlier, who pleasure these elegant ladies (one of which looks similar to Natalie Portman).? The ending of this scene is a fitting end to the movie, with a couple of awesome cumshots that are the real "Fountains of Rome."

With that, Maximus vows revenge on the enemies who put him into bondage, and in the second episode, will force him to become a gladiator.? Yes, there's no gladiatorial arena battles in this first part -- we'll just have to wait for the next two installments.

What I liked: The Extras:? I know a lot of porn viewers could care less about extra features, but as a mainstream DVD collector, I live for them.? This disc definitely does not disappoint.? I would almost say that the special features almost eclipse the movie itself, which is pretty rare -- especially in adult.? Check out the DVD Extras section below for a full rundown of the supplements include in this collector's set.

The Girls:? While they're not the most beautiful girls that Private has ever featured in their movies, the 13 or so girls in this movie are not sore on the eyes.? When dressed in Roman period costumes and in full makeup, they are quite lovely.? And as a bonus, I didn't spot a set of fake breasts among them.? Try casting an American porno with 13 girls and see if you can come up with that many unaltered, naturally beautiful girls!

What I didn't like: Dubbing: By far the biggest gripe I and many others have had with Private is their policy of dubbing the dialogue and moaning in their features.? The rationale for doing this was that with an international cast, there isn't one language that everyone can speak for the "original" soundtrack.? Therefore, the sound is dubbed in several languages.? This makes for a really lousy experience for English speakers, especially when their dialogue talent can't voice act to save their lives.? The net effect is a "kung fu" movie soundtrack, where the dialogue doesn't even come close to synching with the actors' lips and sounds like the lines were read, not acted.? I really wish Private would have kept everything au natural and just provided English subtitles (or as they do in some features, have an narrator who explains what is going on in English).? I have no idea why Private started doing this again after stopping this practice for a while.

Where's the heat?:? I would say that the sexual intensity in The Private Gladiator is what I've come to expect from Private.? The action is quite explicit and fast paced, but it's missing the heat that would make the action erotic and nasty.? Maybe it's the women looking at the camera (breaking the "fourth wall") or the dubbed moaning, but it just doesn't look natural.? This definitely affects my rating on the sex aspect of this movie.? It's good, but unless you're out simply for the mechanics or visuals of sex alone, you're likely not to be drawn into the action.? For me, I prefer the illusion of "real sex," not a bunch of professional actors getting together and having sex on cue.

DVD Extras: I could literally write a whole review on the special features of this collector's set alone.? Private, who has been pretty stagnant in the extras field in the last couple of years, has taken out all of the stops and given this flagship production true special edition status.? The feature list rivals that of any mainstream DVD and is pretty much peerless on the adult side.? In my view, Private has claimed the extras crown from Wicked.

From the moment you pop in the first disc, you know that this is going to be a special set when you see the very nice animated menus, set in a gladiator arena.? While they're not the best DVD menus I've seen, I can't think of any adult DVD that matches the mainstream DVD feel.? As you select different menu options, the camera "flies" to a different area in the arena.

The first disc is pretty barren -- just a handful of trailers for other Private productions and options for other spoken languages and captions.? But the second disc is all extras.? Beginning with the photo galleries, we're treated with almost 175 full-screen photos -- all of which are magazine quality -- of both sex and behind the scenes candid shots.? There are also galleries of set concept art and storyboards (yes, they actually storyboarded many of the scenes!).? Plus, there's the ubiquitous production notes, cast bios, and movie trailers.

But the real meat comes with the video bonuses.? There's a very high quality making-of-featurette that rivals anything put out by a Hollywood studio.? At 29-minutes, it features interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, as well as very slick plot summary.? There's even some terminology and history lessons sprinkled throughout.? Next, there's a 35-minute behind-the-scenes video showing more cast interviews, set footage, and outtakes.? It's nothing spectacular, and is somewhat boring, but it definitely shows more behind-the-scenes footage than has ever been shown on a Private production.? Antonio Adamo provides one of the most interesting extras as he explains in a lengthy interview how the project was envisioned.? He obviously is a student of film, and Private enabled him to direct a film that is as close to a mainstream-quality film that's possible for the adult industry. The three-minute blooper reel is about the only worthless extra included on the disc -- there's nothing funny there.

The icing on the cake is the DVD packaging.? Departing from the traditional keep cases that are used by practically all studios, Private created a custom, tri-fold, double CD-height collector's case.? With gold-foil stamping, full-color glossy photos, and see-thru disc cases.? Even the DVDs themselves have glossy labels -- not the traditional silkscreened disc art.? The final touch is a high quality 12-page booklet that obviously drew upon Private's vast experience in professional magazine printing.? And to hold the whole set closed, there's a band that slips over the case.? Very classy (and expensive) packaging for a very classy production!

It would have been nice to have to have multiple angles, or the aforementioned English subtitles, but it's a 5-star DVD package nonetheless.? Likewise, bonus or deleted scenes have been included in past Private DVDs, but it's entirely possible that Adamo used all of the sex scenes he shot for this trilogy.

A/V Quality: The audio and video is on par with modern Private feature movies -- excellent in both regards.? My only nitpicks are creative in nature.? I wish that Adamo would have presented the entire feature in letterboxed format.? While you lose some of the viewable image, you get a more film-like atmosphere.? This tends to offset the decidedly digital feel of the movie as a whole.? In terms of the audio, while I like the classical music soundtrack, I really, really dislike the return to dubbed audio for both the dialogue and production sounds.? I think we all agree that the kung fu and looped moaning effects really suck.

The Last Word: It's hard to make a definitive judgment on this epic trilogy without seeing all of the parts, but I'm favorably impressed by what I've seen so far.? Even though you can tell that a lot more effort and money went into this movie than other "blockbuster" porn productions, it's still not up to par to the quality, effects, plot, acting, and other elements of a mainstream production.? But maybe it's unfair to make that comparison, so instead, I'll compare it to Private's previous high watermarks, such as the acclaimed Private-Penthouse series and other trilogies such as The Pyramid and Tatiana.? With that yardstick, the first episode of The Private Gladiator doesn't quite measure up in the sex department, but it blows away any Private DVD to date.? Because of that, I definitely recommend this collector's edition that sure to win a lot of awards this year.

- Saki (saki@my.adultdvdtalk.com)

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Saki Review #72
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