Gladiator – The Quintessential Roman Movie

This weekend, I watched the popular and extremely well liked Roman film Gladiator. I am not someone who usually watches or enjoys action/adventure films so I was pleasantly surprised when the second half of Gladiator really captured my interest. The film is set in 180 A.D. Rome when Marcus Aurelius, a well loved emperor, is dying of old age. He appoints Maximus, a very loyal and skilled General, as his successor despite his lack of political aspirations. Marcus has high hopes that Maximus will fix Rome’s unjust political system. When Marcus’s self-centered and greedy son Commodus finds out his father is going to appoint Maximus as the next emperor, he throws a fit and strangles his father. With his father now dead, Commodus is left in command of the Roman empire. His first task is to have Maximus executed but the cunning general escapes his execution and runs off. Commodus believes Maximus is dead but in reality he winds up in North Africa as a slave to Proximo, a famous former gladiator. The real story starts then as Maximus becomes a gladiator in his own right and fights his way back into the Coliseum. After winning battle after battle and killing countless others, Commodus demands that the gladiator reveal himself and is shocked to learn the brave and daring gladiator that has captured the hearts of thousands of fans is Maximus. After having won the hearts of many Romans the big question is will Maximus win back Rome and restore it to its former republic glory?

When watching the film my favorite part was the scene of chariot racing in the Circus Maximus and seeing how huge and packed the stadium was. It’s really hard for me to imagine the large stadium packed with hundreds of thousands of spectators. The concept of killing each other and watching the killing that takes place after a clear winner in the fight is established is a little unsettling. Another one of my favorite scenes was at the beginning when the role of Marcus Aurelius as father was made clear. He said to Commodus that his faults as a person were his faults as a father which really stuck with me and showed the connection and responsibility that fathers have over their family but especially their sons. In contrast it was really cool to see how he said Maximus was essentially a son to him and acted more like a real son than Commodus ever did.