Gladiator: Revenge Taken to the Max(imus)

The dying emperor’s son is Commodus, who wants to become emperor himself. Maximus wants to go home to his family, but the emperor plans to make Maximus, a respected general, emperor after he dies. The old emperor wants to bring Rome back to its true self. This is very Roman, where you need to go back to how things always were supposed to be like with the republic and two of the high officials like the two kings. Commodus is scared of Maximus’ possibility of being very political with an army behind him. Commodus kills his father, removes Maximus, and then kills Maximus’ family. Maximus escapes and goes home and sees his wife and son dead; he is captured and made a gladiator. Senator Gracchus tries to help Rome with its problems. This could reference the Grachi who wanted to help the people 200 years ago. Throughout this movie, characters mention that the senate is the people and the citizens are a mob. This is an interesting shift of SPQR where the Senate was not the people. Maximus is a great gladiator and is sent to Rome. In the colosseum, there is a reenactment of the battle of Carthage. The gladiators are Carthage and win due to Maximus’ strategy and command. In this way, Maximus was like Hannibal in directing incredible strategies to kill Romans. Maximus confronts the emperor and reveals himself. Commodus wants to kill him, but the people save them by chanting live. This is similar to when Romans can appeal their punishment to the people and possibly not be executed. Maximus wins against an undefeated champion and defies Commodus by sparing him. Maximus randomly comes across an old army friend. Maximus gets his friend to muster the Roman army and march on Rome after his ousting. This is very similar to Sulla, who marched on Rome with the loyal military when ousted from power. The escape attempt almost works, but Maximus is captured and is stabbed by Commodus to make it harder for him to fight.  Commodus and Maximus duel and Maximus kills  Commodus. This is a much better death than the usual punishment for patricide of being put in a sack with a dog, snake, rooster, and a monkey and thrown into a river. The movie ends with Maximus dying, having accomplished his revenge. This movie included many references to Roman history that we had learned about. Maximus was a hero because he had virtus and proved his worth on the battlefield, like the Horatti trial. Maximus was returning Rome to what it should be, a real Roman does, by giving the senate power again and removing the usurper. It also shows off the reason for the Roman fears of secrete meetings because, throughout the movie, there are secret plots to kill and change society. It seemed to accurately portray Rome through the values, sets, clothes, events, and people vying for power through various ways.