Gladiator (2000)
The Gladiator is the story of a soldier from Rome who became a slave. He is trained as a gladiator and escalated to challenge the empire. The Roman soldier is Spartacus. The Gladiator movie is set about 250 years after his death. The gladiator of the title is Russell Crowe who channels manliness for two and a half hours as Maximus. The film Gladiator (2000) is directed by Ridley Scott who was trying to portray the culture of Romans more accurately. However, there were some divergences from historical facts to enhance interest, to preserve narrative continuity, and for safety or practical reasons. The unbeaten gladiators were the movie stars. They were famous and consequently free men lined up to try their chance on the ground.
The imprecision’s are legion from the opening scene. The movie starts in the last part of Marcus Aurelius’s rule. He is renowned as one of the Five Good Emperors. He depicts what would happen when his son, Commodus, took his place. Marcus Aurelius is depicted as a great emperor who cared about his Republic. He looked forward to being the best monarch he could put his all and seeking to give the people of Rome their freedom. (Potter & David, 2010) The movie states that there was the last battle which was great on the eve of Aurelius’ death with the tribes from German. Nevertheless, in reality, there was a daylong battle in the campaigning season of 170 A.D., but the death of Marcus was on March 17,180 A.D, as he was almost launching another military campaign. The scriptwriters needed to shorten the chronology to save time in a lengthy movie, but they played loose and fast with some aspects of that battle. The movie has drastically squashed the chronology of the sovereign Commodus’ reign. He became the only emperor upon the death of his father in 180 AD and he was murdered thirteen years later on December 192 AD. Ward & Allen 2001, Even though the Gladiator has not precisely shown time covered, it appears Commodus was murdered not more than two years later.
Like its hero Maximus — the squinting, beefy, unassuming, indomitable Roman general-turned-gladiator — Ridley Scott’s film Gladiator is brave, impressive, ambitious, confident, competent, and commanding. Maximus’ story is epic in scope and expertly told; the world he inhabits is convincingly realized and vividly photographed; his enemy is unsettlingly dissolute and depraved; his defeats and setbacks are tragic and daunting; his struggle to overcome is heroic. If he has never heard of the Christian theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, he is, at any rate, an embodiment of the classical cardinal virtues of fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice; especially contrasted with his contemptible opponent, who explicitly avows lacking them all.