How many times have I seen this film? I have no idea. Many! It is one of my favourites and I go back to it ever so often. I don't think I know anyone who hasn't seen the film - but to be honest I don't go around asking people about it so wouldn't know for sure. Set in 180 AD, the story of a brilliant Roman general Maximus (faithfull to the old emperor Marcus Aurelius), who gets sent to death by the new young emperor, escapes only to find his family brutally murdered by the order of the same emperor, gets taken as a slave and is sold to become a gladiator, is very moving. Once in Rome the Spaniard - as they call him - becomes quickly very popular with the crowd and faces Commodus - the young emperor again. He wants to revenge his family and the old emperor - Marcus Aurelius (who was murdered by his own son, Commodus). There is a plot of a military coup - to overthrow Commodus and establish Rome as a Republic ruled by Senate only - which fails. In the end Maximus dies (and rejoins his family in the afterlife) having killed Commodus in combat on the Colosseum public arena.
Why do I love this film so much? As Commodus says himself in the film: "The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Stiking story!" and in my opion the story told so well with the use of art of filming. I love it because of this very reason the very well-told story, the hero/actor (played by Russel Crowe), the scenery, the setting in the Roman times - you name it. And of course the music! The music is just delightful!
So, having seen this film for the umteenth time I decided to have a little browse on the internet to see how historically accurate the film is. And here is what I found out:
Well, apparently the film depicted the Roman times and culture in general quite closely to the historical truth with its wars, violence, well-spread slavery, gladiators, games, brutal murders, incest. However (as I found out on Able Media article "The movie Gladiator in historical perspective" by Allen Ward (2001)), Maximus is a fictional character and it is said to have been influenced by a different true historical figures like: Spartacus (who led a revolt of slaves), Marcus Nonius Macrinus (a general and a friend of the emperor Marcus Aurelius), Narcissus (who strangled Commodus in his bath) and Cincinnatus (a farmer who became a dictator of Rome for only a couple of weeks). Also, Marcus Aurelius is believed to have died of plague - not having been murdered by his son Commodus. The young emperor, Commodus, ruled Rome for 13 years and not a few months, or 1 or 2 years (?) the movie suggests (it does not specify how long the story takes). He did not die in the combat on the public arena but was strangled in his bath by Narcissus. It was true, though, that Commodus trained same as gladiators, and very often took part in gladiator combats on the public arena. Even though he seems evil enough in the movie, apparently he was much worse than that in reality. According to the article I read on The Guardian website, "Gladiator: nice patricide but where are all the pinecones?" by Alex von Tunzelmann (2008), Commodus in the film is "a lightweight", as the real Commodus used to herd women, snog men, kill rare animals, feed his guards poisoned figs, force people to beat themselves to death with pinecones and much more.
There are much more details about the discrepancies between the historical events and the film in the articles mentioned above (which I am not going to repeat here) but it still does not change the fact that "Gladiator" is a wonderful film, and I love it (have I mentioned that before?).
One more thing that I want to mention is Loki - german shepherd - general's dog, which appears at the beggining of the film. I love the dog for obvious reasons - owing two german shephards myself I cannot just not notice it. But the truth is that german shephard as a breed developed only just over a hundred years ago, so wouldn't be really there in the Antiquity (which was mentioned in one of the articles mentioned above).
My favourite quotes from the film:
"Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back." ( Marcus Aurelius)
"Ultimately, we are all dead man... We have to decide how to meet death in order to be remembered as men". (Proximo)
"Today, I saw a slave become more powerful than the emperor of Rome". (Lucilla)
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