GLADIATOR (2000) 8 p.m. on AMC. For intense sword-swinging that did better with audiences than “Robin Hood” did, revisit Ridley Scott’s take on big-budget Hollywood historical drama. Russell Crowe plays the hero, Maximus, a Roman general who gets betrayed, is sold into slavery, and then ends up fighting for his freedom as a gladiator in the Roman Colosseum. While the movie was a huge commercial success and won several Academy Awards (including for best picture and best actor for Crowe), some critics were unenthusiastic. In his review for The Times, Elvis Mitchell wrote that “with each scene composed for an audience’s delectation of the constant slaughter, the movie is both pandering and detached.” He noted that it’s “like a handsomely designed weapon: you can’t take your eyes off it even though you may be repelled by its purpose.” He also wrote that the movie is shot “as if it were a Chanel commercial.”