The star added that the original film appealed to a female audience ‘because it’s not about revenge, it is about vengeance’ – and because it didn’t have a gratuitous sex scene Russell Crowe has said that the Gladiator sequel was a failure because it lacked a “moral core” and that studio behind it “didn’t understand why [the original movie] was successful”. Crowe was speaking at the Taormina film festival, and in remarks reported by Variety he outlined why the thought the first Gladiator, release