Rome on the Screen

Gladiator to this day is still one of my favorite movies to watch. It does a really good job of grabbing the viewer’s attention. To top it off, the movie does a really good job of playing off of the culture of ancient Rome. My favorite scene comes when Commodus is talking to Maximus while Maximus is chained around his wrists and ankles. This scene does a really good job of using epics to determine how the characters interact with each other. The fact that the antagonist, Commodus is dressed in all white while the protagonist, Maximus is dressed in all black. It really makes the viewer think about the display of power that each character shows. Another reason why I really enjoy Gladiator is because the fight scenes are done very well. Each scene captures how a true gladiator would fight in an arena. An additional thing that Gladiort did a great job at was displaying the artistic design on the clothes of the upper class. From what we know about ancient Rome, people in the upper class and those connected to the monarchy dressed very elegantly with flashes of color embroidered onto their clothes. The politics during the movie are very interesting because they are almost direct actions that a Roman emperor would have and could have taken. For instance, the choosing of a general instead of kin as heir to the throne is not traditional, but for a Roman emperor, is not that far of a stretch. The only thing that I thought the movie could have done better is have Maximus live. By Maximus dying it does bring good upon Rome, but I still wanted to see what could’ve become of Rome if Maximus lived. 

I watched the movie with Jake Abraham and he thought the movie was really good. We both had watched Gladiator before so it felt appropriate to watch it again. Even after already having seen the movie, Jake was still captivated by how well the actors play the roles of ancient Romans. By the end of the movie, all Jake had to say was “I love that movie.”