Jif’s sword and sandals satire

After a young gladiator challenges a rival for a bit of food, he realizes he’s outlassed by Jif’s new smooth, squeezable peanut butter packaging.

Gladiator School pays homage to the epic style of classic 1950s and 1960s Hollywood blockbuster films as an over-confident student challenges his older, more experienced rival at a gladiator training school in ancient Rome, just a stone’s throw from the Colosseum. With exceptional production design and a palatable investment in creating a detailed world full of caricatures of the genre, the cinematic and over-the-top film is comfortable in absurdity.

Directed by Markus Walker out of Reset, there is no lack of tongue-in-cheek reference to movies like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, and Demetrius and the Gladiators all get a moment in Jif’s winking sun. VFX and post were both done by Blacksmith New York.