Are you not entertained??-Gladiator Reflection

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.