Being able to watch a movie as an assignment during finals week was a nice change of pace and I don’t think I could have found a better movie to watch than Gladiator. Gladiator is a film about an extremely successful Roman general, Maximus, who is sold into slavery and eventually becomes probably the most successful gladiator of all time. This all happens because Marcus Aurelius chooses Maximus as his heir over his own son, Commodus. Commodus does not like this when he finds out, and kills his father before it can officially occur, then tries to kill Maximus, along with his family. However, Maximus is able to survive, and he becomes such a fantastic gladiator that he even overshadows Commodus, the new emperor, upon his return to Rome.

I really enjoyed this movie for many reasons. First, I think the plot was excellent and although the movie was long, I never felt bored and was engaged the entire time. Another big thing that made this movie really enjoyable was the acting, specifically Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus and Russell Crowe as Maximus. I also thought the scenery was really cool throughout and liked how the lighting of scenes was used to symbolize certain things. One example of this is at the beginning of the movie when Maximus says he wants to go back home, Marcus Aurelius warns him that Rome is no longer “the light,” and actually somewhat corrupt. After this, the first scene we see in Rome has significantly dimmer lighting than the previous scene, which set somewhat of a gloomy mood and I think may have reflected the state of the capital. This can also be seen at the end of the movie in the scenes where Maximus enters the afterlife.

I found a few things in this movie consistent with what we learned in class. The main consistency was Romans being in touch with their ancestors and respecting Roman traditions. In the movie, Maximus mentions his ancestors in one of his prayers. Later, Commodus’s sister warns Commodus about breaking traditions when he suggests getting rid of the senate after he becomes emperor. I feel like this was consistent with mos maiorum which we talked about in class.

There were also a few things that occurred in this movie that we didn’t really talk about in class so I wonder how historically accurate they were. The main thing I am talking about is the idea that a father would give up the throne to a non-family member. I feel like based on what we discussed about families and the role of a father in Roman times, it is unlikely that they would just give up familial ties to the throne. Another thing that I found interesting was the relationship between Commodus and his sister. This was an extremely intimate sibling relationship and made me wonder if that was accurate to Roman times.

Pompeii Reflection

I am a huge fan of movies so doing this assignment was very enjoyable and an obvious first acta for me to complete. I chose to watch Pompeii because it was one of the more recent films, had a lot of actors and actresses that I like, and I have also been to Pompeii so know a lot of information about it. For all of these reasons I decided to watch Pompeii and I’m extremely happy that I did.

Right from the start the gore and visual effects in the movie were two things that really stood out to me. From the very first scene, there are dead bodies hanging upside down from trees and this type of intensity was a constant throughout between the gladiator fights and eventual eruption of Pompeii. As far as the visual effects were, I thought the scenery and costumes were really impressive, especially during the eruption, which made me happy with my choice to watch a newer film. 

I also really enjoyed the structure of Pompeii. At the beginning of the movie, all different social classes are introduced in their separate ways between the slaves, slave owners, and senator. At first it is almost like two separate story lines which I think provided a really good base for the characters in the movie. Eventually, all of these characters were brought together in a larger conflict, and the eruption followed. I thought this was a very cool aspect of the movie for two reasons. First, it gave a look into the hierarchy of the Roman Empire through the representation of multiple social classes. Second, I think it really emphasized the magnitude and importance of the eruption. I say this because nature doesn’t care what your social status is. When an eruption like that happens every other problem becomes insignificant and no amount of money or status can save you.

In relation to what we have learned in class so far two things from this movie stood out to me. The first thing was how the slave class was treated during the Roman Empire. I remember in class we talked about how Roman slaves had more freedoms than how we might think of slavery these days. In the movie, however, this was far from the case. There was severe mistreatment of these slaves and gladiators between the fighting, living conditions, and other general restrictions on their lives. I’m not sure if this was something that was done for dramatic effect, or if this was actually an accurate representation of Roman slavery. The last thing that was similar to what we learned about in class was the idea of Romans thinking they are better than everyone else. One particular line that stood out to me was when the Roman champion is fighting Milo and says “no savage could ever compete with a Roman.” I think the quote really sheds light on the superiority that Romans felt they had over everyone else.