"Peter Watkins is a director I admire enormously. THE GLADIATORS is a film I strongly urge you to see."
(The Illustrated London News) 

The near future. To maintain international and internal security and to divert mankind’s natural aggression, the UN organizes a series of televised military games, which are often fought to the death. Sponsored by a pasta corporation and based on the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome, these are the International Peace Games.

For Game Number 256, the Western Team must reach the Control Room in order to win and has to deal with a series of violent obstacles set by a highly sophisticated computer. However, the system’s control of the Game cannot handle the human spirit and extreme measures become necessary.

Winner of the Grand Prix at the Trieste International Science Fiction Film Festival.

• Feature length audio commentary by Dr. Joseph A. Gomez, Founding Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University and author of the 1979 book Peter Watkins
• Feature-length audio commentary by Dr. Joseph A. Gomez, Founding Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University
• The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (1959), a 17 minute amateur film made by Peter Watkins
• Optional English and French subtitles
• Peter Watkins filmography
• 12-page booklet featuring a new Peter Watkins self-interview and full cast and credits