Before they fell out of fashion, sword and sandal movies ruled the silver screen. Though we got great movies from that time period, ("Cabiria," "Ben Hur," and "Spartacus") but they slowly fell out of fashion. Whether it was the scripts being badly written or the cost, sword and sandals soon became a joke ( as seen in Monty Python's "Life of Brian"). So for many years it could be seen that making a sword and sandal film would be the kiss of death. 

That was until "Gladiator" came and hit the genre by storm. Not only did this movie put a modern twist on an old tired genre, it had a very different feel to it. With modern technology making the graphics much better and the changing of restrictions allowing more gore to be shown, objectively the special effects are much more advanced. But we also see a change in the way different cultures and women are shown. With having a strong female lead who was not villianized for her wit alongside different strong characters that  were culturally different from the Romans, both were not properly portrayed in a genre until this film. But, even though it brings new and fairly modern ideas, it still gives a sense of familiarity and brings a new and improved idea to old school epics.

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