Gladiator (2000 film)

This article is about the 2000 film. For the 1992 film, see Gladiator (1992 film).

Gladiator
File:Gladiator ver1.jpg Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Ridley Scott
Written by	David Franzoni John Logan William Nicholson
Produced by	Douglas Wick David Franzoni Branko Lustig
Starring	Russell Crowe Joaquin Phoenix Connie Nielsen Oliver Reed Ralf Moeller Richard Harris Djimon Hounsou
Cinematography	John Mathieson
Edited by	Pietro Scalia
Music by	Hans Zimmer Lisa Gerrard
Distributed by	DreamWorks (USA) Universal Studios (foreign)
Release dates	May 5, 2000
Running time	154 min. (Theatrical Version) 171 min. (Director's Cut)
Countries	UK USA
Language	English
Budget	$103,000,000

Gladiator is a 2000 historical action drama film. It is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays General Maximus Decimus Meridius, friend of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who is betrayed by the Emperor's ambitious son, Commodus (Phoenix), who murders his own father and seizes the throne. Captured and enslaved along the outer fringes of the Roman empire, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family and his Emperor.

The film won five Academy Awards in the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film's epic scope and intense battle scenes, as well as the emotional core of its performances, received much praise. The film's success may have helped to revive the historical epic genre, with subsequent films such as Troy, Alexander, 300 and Scott's own Kingdom of Heaven.

Plot

General Maximus Decimus Meridius leads the Roman army to victory against Germanic barbarians in the year 180, ending a prolonged war and earning the esteem of the elderly Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius is dying and though he has a son, Commodus, the emperor wishes to appoint temporary leadership to Maximus, with a desire to eventually return power to the Senate. Aurelius informs Maximus of his decision and offers him time to consider. Aurelius then informs Commodus, who subsequently murders his father. Maximus realizes the truth and refuses Commodus's offer of promotion to the head of the Praetorian Guards. Commodus orders him to be arrested and executed, and soldiers are sent to murder Maximus' wife and son. Maximus escapes his execution and races home, only to stumble upon their charred and crucified bodies in the smouldering ruins of his Spanish villa. He buries his loved ones and, in grief and exhaustion, falls unconscious on their graves.

Slave traders find and take him to Zucchabar, a rugged province in North Africa. He is purchased by Proximo, the head of a local gladiator school. Distraught and consumed by nihilism over the death of his family and betrayal by his empire, Maximus initially refuses to fight, but with his formidable combat skills, he rises through the ranks and becomes a popular gladiator. During this time, he meets the Numidian gladiator Juba and Hagen, a barbarian from Germania. Juba proves himself a close friend and confidant to the grieving Maximus, allowing him to focus on the trials that lie ahead. They speak frequently of the afterlife and how Maximus will be reunited with his family in death. The recently crowned Commodus reopens the gladiatorial games in Rome to commemorate his father's death, and Proximo's company of gladiators makes the trip to Rome. In a "re-creation" of "the Battle of Carthage", where the gladiators represent the doomed Carthaginans against Roman soldiers, against all odds, Maximus leads his motley crew to decisive victory, much to the amazement of the crowd. When Commodus descends into the arena to meet the newcomers, Maximus reveals his true identity to the stunned emperor, who almost has Maximus executed on the spot. The crowd's roaring disapproval however prompts Commodus's begrudging change of heart, and he retreats away from the Colosseum.

Commodus continues trying to kill Maximus by unbalancing the odds against him, pitting him against Tigris of Gaul, "the only undefeated champion in Roman history," in an arena surrounded by chained tigers whose handlers are told to target Maximus. After an intense battle, Maximus narrowly defeats Tigris and awaits Commodus's decision on whether he should have Tigris killed or spared. When Commodus votes for death, Maximus spares Tigris, much to the audience's approval. The event's Master of Ceremonies then dubs him the title of "Maximus the Merciful", furthering Commodus' frustration at being unable to kill or humiliate Maximus, whose popularity grows while his shrinks.

File:Gladiatortiger.jpg

Maximus (Russell Crowe-right) battles Tigris of Gaul (Sven-Ole Thorsen-left)

Following the fight, Maximus meets with his former servant Cicero, who reveals that the army he led during the Germanic campaign remains loyal to him. Soon after, Maximus forms a plot with Lucilla, Commodus' sister, and the senator Gracchus, to reunite with his army and return to Rome to topple Commodus by force. Commodus, however, suspects his sister of betrayal and threatens her young son, forcing her to reveal the plot. Praetorian guards immediately storm Proximo's gladiator barracks, battling the gladiators while Maximus attempts to escape. Hagen and Proximo are killed in the resulting fight, whilst Juba and the survivors are imprisoned. Maximus makes it to the city walls, but Cicero (who was waiting for him with horses) is murdered by overhead archers in an ambush and Maximus is arrested by the guards.

Concluding that legends born in the Colosseum must die in the Colosseum, Commodus challenges Maximus to a duel in front of a roaring audience. Knowing that he is the inferior swordsman, Commodus stabs Maximus's lung with a stiletto prior to entering the arena. The two exchange blows and Maximus eventually rips Commodus's sword from his hands. Commodus, unable to solicit a sword from the Praetorian guards surrounding them, pulls out a hidden stilleto. Maximus counterattacks with a series of hard punches before grabbing and slowly driving the stiletto into Commodus's neck. Commodus collapses to the ground, and the Colosseum is silent.

As he dies, Maximus sees his wife and son walking amidst endless fields of wheat. He reaches for them, but is pulled back to reality by the utterings of Quintus, asking Maximus what is to be done. Maximus orders the release of the prisoners, including Proximo's gladiators and Senator Gracchus, whom he reinstates and instructs to return Rome to a Senate-based government. Moments later, he collapses, and Lucilla rushes to his aid. Maximus reassures her that her son is safe now that Commodus is dead. Senator Gracchus and Proximo's gladiators carry Maximus's dead body out of the Colosseum. Now free, Juba buries Maximus' two small statues of his wife and son in the ground where Maximus died. He stares up wistfully at the sky and, repeating an early conversation he had with Maximus long ago in Zucchabarr, remarks: "I will see you again. But not yet. Not yet."

Cast

Actor	Character	Role
Russell Crowe	Maximus Decimus Meridius	A legionnaire general turned slave who seeks revenge against Commodus. He had been under the favour of Marcus Aurelius, and the admiration of Lucilla prior to the events of the film. His home is in Spain near Trujillo.
Joaquin Phoenix	Commodus	An ambitious and sociopathic young man, Commodus murders his father and also desires his own sister, Lucilla. He becomes the emperor of Rome upon his father's death.
Connie Nielsen	Lucilla	The elder child of Marcus Aurelius, Lucilla has been recently widowed. She seems to have had a flirtation with Maximus in the past, but now tries to resist the incestuous lust of her brother while protecting her son, Lucius.
Oliver Reed	Proximo	An old and gruff trader who buys Maximus in North Africa. A former gladiator himself, he was freed by Marcus Aurelius, and gives Maximus his own armor and eventually a chance at freedom.
Richard Harris	Marcus Aurelius	An emperor of Rome who desires a return to Republican government but is murdered by his son Commodus before doing so.
Derek Jacobi	Senator Gracchus	One of the senators who opposes Commodus' leadership.
Djimon Hounsou	Juba	A Numidian tribesman who is taken from his home and family by slave traders, who becomes Maximus' close ally during their shared hardships.
John Shrapnel	Gaius	Another senator who is in close correspondence to Gracchus.
David Schofield	Senator Falco	A Patrician senator who is opposed to the Republic and helps Commodus consolidate his power.
Tomas Arana	General Quintus	Tribune, second in command and friend to Maximus who is yet bound to his own code of honor when Commodus gains power. Commodus appoints him Praetorian Prefectus, leader of the Praetorian Guards.
Ralf Moeller	Hagen	A Germanian gladiator owned by Proximo who later befriends Maximus.
Spencer Treat Clark	Lucius Verus	Fictional son of the historical Lucius Verus and Lucilla.
Tommy Flanagan	Cicero	Maximus' loyal servant who provides him with information while Maximus is enslaved.
Sven-Ole Thorsen	Tigris of Gaul	A supposedly undefeated gladiator who is called out of retirement to fight Maximus.

Production

Screenplay

Gladiator was based on an original pitch by David Franzoni, who went on to write all of the early drafts. Franzoni was given a three-picture deal with DreamWorks as writer and co-producer on the strength of his previous work, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, which helped establish the reputation of DreamWorks SKG. Franzoni was not a classical scholar but had been inspired by Daniel P. Mannix’s 1958 novel Those About to Die and decided to choose Commodus as his historical focus after reading the Augustan History. In Franzoni's first draft, dated April 4, 1998, he named his protagonist Narcissus, after the praenomen of the wrestler who strangled Emperor Commodus to death, whose name is not contained in the biography of Commodus by Aelius Lampridius in the Augustan History. The name Narcissus is only provided by Herodian and Cassius Dio, so a variety of ancient sources were used in developing the first draft.

Pollice Verso ("Thumbs Down") by Jean-Léon Gérôme – the 19th century painting that inspired Ridley Scott to tackle the project.

Ridley Scott was approached by producers Walter Parkes and David Wick. They showed him a copy of Jean-Léon Gérôme's 1872 painting entitled Pollice Verso ("Thumbs Down"). Scott was enticed by filming the world of Ancient Rome. However, Scott felt Franzoni's dialogue was too "on the nose" and hired John Logan to rewrite the script to his liking. Logan rewrote much of the first act, and made the decision to kill off Maximus' family to increase the character's motivation.

With two weeks to go before filming, the actors still complained of problems with the script. William Nicholson was brought to Shepperton Studios to make Maximus a more sensitive character, reworking his friendship with Juba and developed the afterlife thread in the film, saying "he did not want to see a film about a man who wanted to kill somebody." David Franzoni was later brought back to revise the rewrites of Logan and Nicholson, and in the process gained a producer's credit. When Nicholson was brought in, he started going back to Franzoni's original scripts and putting certain scenes back in. Franzoni helped creatively-manage the rewrites and in the role of producer he defended his original script, and nagged to stay true to the original vision. Franzoni later shared the Best Picture Oscar with producers Douglas Wick and Branko Lustig.

The screenplay faced the brunt of many rewrites and revisions due to Russell Crowe's script suggestions. Crowe questioned every aspect of the evolving script and strode off the set when he did not get answers. According to a DreamWorks executive, "(Russell Crowe) tried to rewrite the entire script on the spot. You know the big line in the trailer, 'In this life or the next, I will have my vengeance'? At first he absolutely refused to say it." Nicholson, the third and final screenwriter, says Crowe told him, “Your lines are garbage but I’m the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good.” Nicholson goes on to say that "probably my lines were garbage, so he was just talking straight."

Filming

File:Cityrome.jpg

One of the much-praised CGI shots of Rome.

The film was shot in three major locations between January through May in 1999. The opening battle scenes in the forests of Germania were shot over three weeks in Bourne Woods, near Farnham, Surrey in England. Subsequently, the scenes of slavery, desert travel, and gladiatorial training school were shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco just south of the Atlas Mountains for a total of three weeks. Finally, the scenes of Ancient Rome were shot over a period of nineteen weeks in Malta using a multicultural workforce whose talents were stretched to the limits.

A full-scale replica of about one-third of Rome's Colosseum was built in Malta to a height of 52 feet, (with the other two-thirds and remaining height added digitally) mostly from plaster and plywood. The replica took several months to build and cost an estimated $1 million. The reverse side of the complex supplied a rich assortment of Ancient Roman street furniture, colonnades, gates, statuary, and marketplaces for other filming requirements. The complex was serviced by tented "costume villages" that had changing rooms, storage, armorers and other facilities. The rest of the Colosseum was created in CG using set-design blueprints, textures referenced from live action, and rendered in three layers to provide lighting flexibility for compositing in Flame and Inferno.

Post-production

European post-production company The Mill was responsible for much of the CGI effects that were added after filming. The company was responsible for such tricks as compositing real tigers filmed on bluescreen into the fight sequences, and adding smoke trails and extending the flight paths of the opening scene's salvo of flaming arrows to get around regulations on how far they could be fired during filming. They also used 2,000 live actors to create a CG crowd of 35,000 virtual actors that had to look believable and react to fight scenes. The Mill accomplished this feat by shooting live actors at different angles giving various performances, and then mapping them onto cards, with motion-capture tools used to track their movements for 3D compositing.

An unexpected post-production job was caused by the death of Oliver Reed of a heart attack during the filming in Malta before all of his scenes had been shot. The Mill created a digital body double for the remaining scenes involving his character Proximo by photographing a live action body double in the shadows and by mapping a 3D CGI mask of Reed's face to the remaining scenes during production at an estimated cost of $3.2 million for two minutes of additional footage. The film is dedicated to Reed's memory.

Influences

Historical

File:Rharris.jpg

Marcus Aurelius as played by Richard Harris

The Roman emperors portrayed in the movie are Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris), who ruled AD 161–180, and his son, the deranged Commodus, who ruled between 180–192, and spent most, if not all, of his time as Emperor in staging gladiatorial combats, seemingly obsessed with the sport. The film's characterization attempts to reflect Marcus Aurelius' reputation for wisdom, but does so by placing a modern democratic slant to his actions and beliefs. The representation of Commodus is extremely watered down, as the senatorial sources such as the Augustan History present Commodus as far more bloodthirsty than he appears in the film. Commodus' murder of his father in the movie is purely fictional. Commodus was the only Roman Emperor to fight as a gladiator (discounting reports of Caligula having done so — there is no record outside of Suetonius Caligula did this). However, Commodus was killed by a wrestler, not in the arena as the film depicts.

Lucilla was Commodus’s sister and was married to Lucius Verus (mentioned in the film as the dead father of her son Lucius Verus, but not mentioned as co-emperor or seen), her father’s co-emperor until his death in 169. The incest, or attempted incest, between Commodus and Lucilla in the movie is not historically recorded, though Commodus is said to have committed incest with other sisters. Lucilla was in fact implicated in plots with members of the senate to kill her brother. In 182, following an assassination attempt on Commodus, Lucilla was exiled to Capri and subsequently executed on her brother’s orders.

File:Commodusj.jpg

Commodus as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix

The opening battle is most likely intended to depict the last fight of the Marcomannic wars. In the film, they are said to be fighting in "Germania". However, the war was actually against Germanic tribes in the province of Pannonia. The headquarters of the emperor were in Carnuntum close to modern Vienna, Austria. Of course Germania is more familiar to viewers and works better geographically with Maximus' home in Spain. Nearing the end of the battle, Maximus raises the cry 'Roma Victor!,' meaning 'triumphant Rome'—although it should actually be 'Roma Victrix' as Roma is conceived as feminine (Greco-Roman culture often anthropomorphized aspects of civilization and nature in order to depict them as gods/goddesses to be recognized). The battle opens accurately, with the Romans bombarding their opponent with arrows, ballista and catapult fire, and then sending the legionaries in tight formations to engage in close battle (with cavalry attacking the enemy from the sides) and using Testudo formation (although this was rarely used in open battle) to protect themselves from enemy arrows. However, while marching towards the barbarian horde, the entire army is shown in a line formation—which offered no tacticial benefits—and are shown using their pila, or javelins, as stabbing spears. Commonly, a Roman army would be separated into multiple groups of 500 men known as cohorts. The sequence depicting the heat of battle is not historically accurate, as legionaries abandon formation in favor of a more Hollywood-friendly action scene, engaging the Germanic Marcomannii in one-on-one battles, in which the barbarians would have excelled. In reality, the Romans favored close-knit formations, and legionaries would not break formation unless ordered to retreat (hastily) or broken under the strain. In the latter case they would almost certainly be wiped out, unless able to reform or reach friendly lines.

For further information on Historical Imperial Roman Legionary tactics, see Roman Legion.

The city of Rome is seen and the Colosseum (then actually called the Flavian Amphitheatre) is accurately seen as the stadium for the Roman people, though the topography, views and ground plan of ancient city-centre Rome around it are fictionalized.

The character of Maximus is entirely fictional, although he is similar in some respects to the historical figures of Narcissus (the character's name in the first draft of the screenplay and the real killer of Commodus), Spartacus (who led a significant slave revolt), and Cincinnatus (the savior of Rome who wished nothing more than to return to his farm).

In the film, Gaius asserts that "Rome was founded as a Republic". Rome became a republic once it asserted its independence from the Etruscans, and the king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was deposed in 510 B.C.

After Commodus' death, the general Pertinax became emperor. However, he is not mentioned in the film.

Earlier films

The film's plot was influenced by two 1960s films of Hollywood's sword and sandal genre, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Spartacus.

The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) tells the story of Livius, who, like Maximus in Gladiator, is Marcus Aurelius's heir. Livius is in love with Lucilla (Maximus was formerly in love with her). Both films tell the story of the murder of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus's seizure of power when he learns that the old emperor is planning to appoint Livius/Maximus as his successor. In Fall of the Roman Empire it is a group of conspirators who hope to profit from Commodus's accession who arrange for Marcus Aurelius to be poisoned; in Gladiator Commodus strangles his father himself. In FORE Commodus contrives to keep Livius unwillingly loyal for part of his reign; in Gladiator Commodus tries to have Maximus murdered but is unsuccessful. Livius and Maximus both seek to avenge Marcus Aurelius by killing Commodus; both films climax in their single combat.

Spartacus (1960) provides the film's gladiatorial motif, as well as the character of Senator Gracchus, a fictitious senator (bearing the name of a pair of revolutionary Tribunes from the 2nd century BC) who in both films is an elder statesman of ancient Rome attempting to preserve the ancient rights of the Roman senate in the face of an ambitious autocrat — Marcus Licinius Crassus in Spartacus and Commodus in Gladiator. Interestingly, both actors who played Gracchus (in Spartacus and Gladiator), played Claudius in previous films — Charles Laughton of Spartacus played Claudius in the 1937 film I, Claudius and Sir Derek Jacobi of Gladiator, played Claudius in the 1975 BBC adaptation. Both films also share a specific set piece, where a gladiator (Maximus here, Woody Strode's Draba in Spartacus) throw their weapon into a spectator box at the end of a match.

The story of Maximus bears similarity to Judah Ben-Hur. Both are accused of treason to the Roman Empire, becoming a slave and rising through the ranks, desiring vengeance and finding new life, be it Christian or pagan. Additionally, Maximus, Quintus and other characters, as well as the opening sequence of the film (set in Germany), appear to be based on a work of historical fiction by Wallace Breem, Eagle in the Snow (set some 200 years later). The opening battle scene features war chants that are drawn from the film Zulu (1964), which is one of director Scott's favorite films as revealed in a DVD commentary.

The film's depiction of Commodus's entry into Rome borrows imagery from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1934), although Ridley Scott has pointed out that the iconography of Nazi rallies was of course inspired by the Roman Empire. Gladiator reflects back on the film by duplicating similar events that occurred in Adolf Hitler's procession. The Nazi film opens with an aerial view of Hitler arriving in a plane, while Scott shows an aerial view of Rome, quickly followed by a shot of the large crowd of people watching Commodus pass them in a procession with his chariot. The first thing to appear in Triumph of the Will is a Nazi eagle, which is alluded to when a statue of an eagle sits atop one of the arches (and then shortly followed by several more decorative eagles throughout the rest of the scene) leading up to the procession of Commodus. At one point in the Nazi film, a little girl gives flowers to Hitler, while Commodus is met with several girls that all give him bundles of flowers.

Soundtracks

File:Gladiatorsoundtrack1.jpg

The musical score soundtrack for the film which would later be followed by another release with new songs and remixes.

Main article: Gladiator (2000 soundtrack)

The Oscar-nominated score was composed by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, and conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Lisa Gerrard's vocals are similar to her own work on The Insider score. The music for many of the battle scenes has been noted as similar to Gustav Holst's "Mars: The Bringer of War", and in June 2006, the Holst Foundation sued Hans Zimmer for allegedly copying the late Gustav Holst's work. Another close musical resemblance occurs in the scene of Commodus's triumphal entry into Rome, accompanied by music clearly evocative of two sections - the Prelude to Das Rheingold and Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung - from Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs. On February 27, 2001, nearly a year after the first soundtrack's release, Decca produced Gladiator: More Music From the Motion Picture. Then on September 5, 2005, Decca produced Gladiator: Special Anniversary Edition, a two-CD pack containing both the above mentioned releases. Some of the music from the film was featured in the NFL playoffs in January 2003 before commercial breaks and before and after half-time. In 2003, Luciano Pavarotti released a recording of himself singing a song from the movie and said he regretted turning down an offer to perform on the soundtrack.

Critical and public reaction

Gladiator received positive reviews overall, (78% of the critics polled by Rotten Tomatoes gave it favorable reviews). The Battle of Germania was cited by CNN.com as one of their "favorite on-screen battle scenes." It was not without its deriders, with Roger Ebert in particular harshly critical attacking the look of the film as "muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct." He also derided the writing claiming it "employs depression as a substitute for personality, and believes that if characters are bitter and morose enough, we won't notice how dull they are."

The film earned $34.82 million on its opening weekend at 2,938 U.S. theaters. Within two weeks, the film's box office gross surpassed its $103,000,000 budget. The film continued on to become one of the highest earning films of 2000 and made a worldwide box office gross of $457,640,427, with over $187 million in American theaters and more than $269 million overseas. The film began a revival of the historical epic genre with films such as Troy, Alexander, Kingdom of Heaven and 300.

Awards

Academy Awards record
1. Best Picture
2. Best Actor, Russell Crowe
3. Best Costume Design
4. Best Sound
5. Best Visual Effects
Golden Globe Awards record
1. Best Picture - Drama
2. Best Original Score
BAFTA Awards record
1. Best Picture
2. Best Editing
3. Best Cinematography
4. Best Production Design

Gladiator was nominated in 36 individual ceremonies, including the 73rd Academy Awards, the BAFTA Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Of 119 award nominations, the film won 48 prizes.

The film won five Academy Awards and was nominated for an additional seven, including Best Supporting Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and Best Director for Ridley Scott. There is controversy over the film's nomination for Best Original Music Score. The award was officially nominated only to Hans Zimmer, and not to Lisa Gerrard due to Academy rules. However, the pair did win the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score as co-composers.

• 73rd Academy Awards
  • Best Picture
  • Best Actor (Russell Crowe)
  • Best Visual Effects
  • Best Costume Design
  • Best Sound
• American Cinema Editors
  • Best Edited Feature Film - Dramatic
• Art Directors Guild
  • Excellence in Production Design Award, Feature Film - Period or Fantasy Films
• BAFTA Awards
  • Best Cinematography
  • Best Editing
  • Best Film
  • Best Production Design
• Golden Globe Awards
  • Best Motion Picture - Drama
  • Best Original Score - Motion Picture
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society
  • Best Costume Design
  • Best DVD
  • Best Editing
  • Best Score
  • Best Visual Effects
• London Film Critics Circle
  • Actor of the Year (Russell Crowe)

DVD release

File:Gladiatordvdext.jpg

The most recent DVD release for the film

The film was first released on DVD on November 20, 2000, and has since been released in several different extended and special edition versions. Special features for the DVDs include deleted scenes, trailers, documentaries, commentaries, storyboards, image galleries, easter eggs, and cast auditions. The DVD features several deleted scenes including:

• After the battle at the beginning of the film, Maximus walks through the Roman camp surveying his fellow wounded soldiers.
• As Maximus is led into an area outside the first arena, he sees lions, a group of Christians, and several vultures which are eating a dead body. Proximo considers making a bet with a friend that Maximus, Juba, and Hagen will survive the first fight.
• Proximo instructs Maximus to not kill the other gladiators so quickly and to provide entertainment for the crowd.
• Maximus watches as lions begin to devour unarmed Christians in the arena.
• Lucilla meets with several members of the Senate in secret at Gracchus' residence as they complain about Commodus' poor leadership. Lucilla reveals that to pay for the daily gladiatorial games, Commodus is selling off Rome's grain supply which will soon leave the city without food in two years. He also plans to dissolve the Senate, and Lucilla tells the men that Commodus must be killed. However, Gracchus tells her that they will wait until Commodus is no longer in favor with the people and will kill him once he has enough enemies.
• After learning that Maximus is alive and survived the gladiator fight, Commodus goes to a dark room with busts of previous Roman leaders. He picks up a sword and begins striking his father's bust, before tearfully hugging and kissing it.
• Commodus presides over the execution of two Praetorian Guards on charges of treason, due to their inability to ensure Maximus's execution in Germania. Quintus attempts to intervene, claiming they are good soldiers. Commodus infers that perhaps Quintus, being a General, should be held responsible instead. Quintus reluctantly gives the order and the men are shot with arrows while Commodus looks on.
• Commodus has ordered spies to surveil possible traitors. As Proximo drinks some wine, he notices three men that may be watching him.

Historical deviations

Although the film did focus on historical documents and consult with an academic expert with knowledge of the period of the Ancient Roman empire in attempt to provide for an accurate interpretation of the time period, multiple historical deviations can be seen throughout the film. Some of the inaccuracies were added by the screenwriters to make the film more interesting, specifically the battle scenes. Below are just a few inaccuracies that are found within the film:

• Stirrups can be seen used on some of the Roman cavalry, but while they were invented in Asia during the Roman Empire period, the Romans never adopted them. They are used in the movie for obvious safety reasons, a proper Roman saddle being very difficult to ride.

• Roman cavalry horses were what we today call small ponies, typically 11 to 12 hands in height and much smaller than the horses (15 hands) used in the film. Horses were not bred to be taller until 1000 years later than the movie's timeframe.

• The forest of the opening battle would not have appeared in Roman times as it does on film. The scenes were shot at a managed spruce forest near Farnham in England. Since modern forestry was not applied in Europe before roughly the 16th century, a spruce monoculture would have been a very unlikely sight in Germania in AD 180.

• While Commodus was indeed killed by a professional fighter, it was by a wrestler named Narcissus, not a gladiator. His death did not occur in the Colosseum, but he was strangled while bathing. In the original script the name of the main character was "Narcissus" not "Maximus".

• The film portrays the gladiatorial fights as having been temporarily banned by Marcus Aurelius during his reign. Historically, however, Aurelius allowed them to continue and even supported legislation to guarantee the survival of the gladiatorial games in hard economic times.

• The emperor indicates the fate of a gladiator by showing thumbs up or thumbs down. This is a common misconception, and there is no historical evidence for this interpretation. Some scholars contend that the actual sign was thumbs up for death (meaning to send the gladiator to the gods), and thumb in fist (like a sheathed dagger) or thumbs down (to indicate sticking the swords point in the ground) if the gladiator was to live. However, there is no clear consensus.

• Ancient Roman gladiators did product endorsements much as modern athletes today do. In the script, Maximus did a product endorsement in Rome for Olive Oil and had his name on billboards throughout Italy. Although historically accurate, this was discarded as being too unbelievable.

• In the movie, the Colosseum is referred to by that name; in truth during the Roman Empire it was known as the Flavian Amphitheatre. After visiting the Colosseum, Ridley Scott thought it was too small so the one in the film is larger than the real Colosseum.

• The real-life Colosseum had a mechanical contraption called velarium which, through levers and pulleys, maneuvered sail-like fabrics (Velae) to shield some sectors of the audience from the rays of the sun. This is historically proven from contemporary chroniclers although modern-day archeologists have not yet managed to figure out how it did work or how it was shaped. Hence it is not shown or mentioned in the movie.

• Maximus's name, as he gives it in full, confuses Roman practice, since Maximus is a cognomen and Decimus a praenomen: his correct name should have been Decimus Meridius Maximus. If we use the movie version of the name (Maximus Decimus Meridius) then he should have been called Meridius throughout the movie instead of Maximus.

• The time period encompassed by the film is vague. On his return to Rome Commodus decrees 150 days of games, and it would appear that the action takes place within this period as there is no obvious aging in the young Lucius Verus. Yet Maximus's rise from slavery to celebrity as a gladiator, with a journey from Spain to North Africa and then to Rome, would have to take much longer than this; and in fact Commodus's reign lasted nearly 13 years.

• Commodus tells Lucius Verus a story "about our ancestor, the emperor Claudius". Since Commodus's forebears were provincial Romans from Spain and Gallia Narbonensis, they claimed no descent from the Julio-Claudian family of which Claudius was a member.

• There is no basis for the idea that Marcus Aurelius wanted to restore the Roman Republic. By this stage in Roman history that idea was completely dead. Instead, contrary to the film, it seems to have been very much Marcus's intention that his son Commodus should succeed.

• The extent of senatorial opposition to Commodus is much overplayed. Such danger as he was in tended to come from individual senators who were related to him and had a claim on the throne, not the Senate as a body. Dio Cassius, who was a senator during Commodus's reign, makes clear that though they might resent and mock him, the Senate was entirely supine and cowed as the Emperor and his minions held the real power - especially his chamberlains Saoterus and Cleander, and the Praetorian Prefect Perennis, none of whom appear in the film.

• The boy Lucius Verus is the son of historical Lucius Verus, Marcus Aurelius's co-emperor, who was indeed Lucilla's first husband. They had three children, but only a daughter survived to adulthood. The impression is given that Lucilla is only recently widowed, but Lucius Verus had died eleven years before the death of Marcus.

References

• Landau, Diana; Walter Parkes, John Logan, & Ridley Scott (2000). Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic. Newmarket Press. ISBN 1557044287.
• Reynolds, Mike (2000). "Ridley Scott: From Blade Runner to Blade Stunner". DGA Monthly Magazine. Directors Guild of America. Retrieved 2007-01-31. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Schwartz, Richard (2001). The Films of Ridley Scott. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-96976-2
• Ward, Allen (2001). "The Movie "Gladiator" in Historical Perspective". Classics Technology Center. AbleMedia. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
• Winkler, Martin (2004). Gladiator Film and History. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-1042-2

External links

• Gladiator at IMDb
• Gladiator at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gladiator at Metacritic
• Gladiator at Box Office Mojo
• David Franzoni (1998-04-04). "GLADIATOR: FIRST DRAFT REVISED". Retrieved 2007-01-01.
• David Franzoni and John Logan (1998-10-22). "GLADIATOR: SECOND DRAFT REVISED". Retrieved 2007-01-01.
• Monomyth.org - Gladiator MonoMyth breakdown using Joseph Campbell's Hero Journey

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