‘Gladiator’ by Ridley Scott: Plot and Historical Facts

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Introduction

This essay deals with the movie ‘Gladiator’. “The story takes place in A.D 180” in Rome. First part of this essay consists of analysis of the movie and second part explains the historical facts of Gladiator based on a source.

Movie

The movie Gladiator, “directed by Ridley Scott,” narrates the story of ancient Roman rulers. “The story takes place during the Roman empire in 180 A.D.” In the leadership of General Maximus Decimus Meridius, Rome wins the war against Germanic Barbarians. Emperor Marcus Aurelius becomes proud of the ability of Maximus and decides to hand over power to him. “The gens Annia, into which Marcus was born, was not particularly celebrated in the annals of Rome.” “Marcus father died young during his praetorship.” “Thus Marcus can scarcely known his father.”

Maximus is murdered by the Emperor’s jealous son Commodus. Commodus declares himself as emperor of Rome. Maximus realizes the facts about murder of his emperor and he isn’t ready to give loyalty to Commodus. Angry Commodus orders to end Maximus and his family. But, only his family is murdered by the guards of Commodus. Later, Maximus is taken to North America by slave traders. There he is sold to Antonius Proximo, who owns a gladiator institution. Even though he is not ready to fight as a gladiator at first, he has to do it to defend himself. Later, the fighting skill which he got during the time he led the army of Aurelius makes him a perfect fighter. Thus, Maximus becomes the most popular fighter in the Gladiators team of Antonius Proximo.

Commodus starts the gladiator games again in Rome to get popularity. Gladiators of Proximo come to participate in the game in the leadership of Maximus. Maximus is known as “The Spaniard” among his fans and fellow fighters. So, his identity is not revealed to Commodus. In the fight against major power teams, Maximus reaches to victory. To appreciate the winners, Commodus enters into the arena and asks “The Spaniard” to reveal his identity. Even though Maximus reveals his identity, Commodus could not kill him because of his increased popularity. Humiliated Commodus leaves the arena and decides to make Tigris of Gaul, the most powerful fighter in Rome, fight against Maximus. Maximus defeats Tigris in an amazing fight. To make Commodus ashamed, Maximus leaves Tigris alive.

Maximus finds some people like Lucille, Sister of Commodus, Cicero, and Gracchus etc. who are ready to be loyal to him. Maximus makes plan to remove Commodus from power. But, Maximus knows about this from Lucille and defeats the plan by arresting supporters of Maximus. Finally, Commodus challenges Maximus for a duel. Even though got hurt, Maximus kills Commodus in the end. Before dying, Maximus orders his followers to bring Rome under a senate.

Scene selection

After the team of “Spaniard” winning the fight against the warriors of Rome, Commodus enters into the arena to appreciate the victors. Seeing him in the arena, Maximus takes a dagger from ground to kill him. But, he sees a boy running towards him, and he changes his decision. Maximus does not want to reveal his identity. But, he is compelled to do it. He not only reveals his identity, he also declares his intention to Commodus. Commodus orders to kill him. But, because of the protest of the crowd, Commodus has to leave the place. Maximus and his friends become happy seeing the support they are getting from the Roman people.

Summary

Gladiator game has got great popularity among Romans. This is the main reason that brought Maximus Rome again. The scene mentioned above is one of the most powerful sequences in the film. Maximus was carrying a mountain of revenges against Commodus. He could have killed the emperor in the arena, but he changes his decision realizing that it is not the appropriate time to do it. This scene also shows the humanity inside the ‘Gladiator’

Source analysis

Gladiator movie is actually based on the people who lived in ancient Rome thousands of years ago. The actual people included in this story are Commodus, Narcissus and Marcus Aurelius. In this, “Marcus born in 121” Gladiator mainly fought for pleasure, entertainment and popularity.

External description

The historical perspective of movie Gladiator has been explained from the source in which there is an article on “‘The movie “Gladiator” in historical perspective’” which describes everything in historic point of view. One of best things about this film is it keeps interest of the viewer alive throughout the film. The reason behind this movie is part of books, plays or dramas or piece of art.

The whole movie revolves round the reign of Commodus. He becomes emperor after his father’s death. His father dies of plague. Speaking about Commodus, he is very fascinating person who shows interest in hunting the beast, racing in chariot and gladiatorial combat. Lucilla, elder sister of Commodus fought many wars and she gets married to Marcus. “Lucilla was faithful to her husband’s memory and did not remarry.” This article reviews complete portrayal on the gladiator movie and its history. The movie of gladiator is not exactly what it is in history. There are some changes.

The language used for writing is English (US). The length of this paper is nearly 1100 words. Short and simple sentences are used throughout in this paper.

Context of production

Commodus reign began after his father’s death and it was in March 180 AD. The film involving all these characters was produced “in May 2000.” The origin of the film was in Hollywood, USA. In the film, some deviations had been made from history. The general context of the film is based on history and historical facts. Specific context or genre is based on action, adventure and drama.

It was Ridely Scott who directed the film. The official sponsor or producers of the film are Douglas Wick, David Franzoni and Branko Lustig. David Franzoni wrote Story of the film and David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson prepared screenplay of the film. Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard prepared the music. John Mathieson and Pietro Scalia did cinematography and editing of the film respectively. DreamWorks did domestic distribution of the film and Universal studio did international distribution.

Critical Analysis

There are many situations described in the source, which are a little bit controversial in this context. These include identification of persons, functions etc which are related to the document. One of the main issues to critically analyze is whether the gladiator film is a true story or not. The answer for this question is both yes and no. While making the film, the filmmakers had undergone lots of scholarly and historical research. The film represents lots of fiction, but it is not what exactly is in the history. It has some sort of reconstruction of events.

Another controversial issue is on issues regarding death of Marcus that is “did Commodus really kill his father” In the film, Commodus kills his father. But, official story reveals that Marcus died due to plague. These are small issues that have got variations.

Another critical issue is on fighting of Commodus as gladiator. The question here is whether he really fights or not as a gladiator. Here, what it says is Commodus is more adventurous than what is shown in the film. In reality, what it says is Commodus kills five hippopotami at a time. Not only this, he kills several animals such as elephants, rhinoceroses etc very easily. Not only this, Commodus wears lion’s skin which is much huge than what i]s shown in the film.

Another issue regarding film and history is restoration of republic after the death of Commodus. On this count, the film went wrong. The republic system didn’t restore even after death of Commodus.

Gladiator spoke different issues that persisted in the roman empire of 180 for more headship and republican principles. An allusion used in the gladiator is typical 1960 Spartacus. The aim is to appear more progressive in front of the people. The violent entertainment of gladiatorial combat is common. The person identified for this is a custodian.

Interpretative statement

Source gives the clear idea regarding what has happened in history, and how it looks like when it is filmed. The source has contributed more to understand about the history on gladiator and what are all the differences made while plotted the film.

The historical context of the film shows wave towards roman ancient world. The source provides better understanding of the context. It creates interest in the audience. It tells the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius. The film highlighted more roman culture. The film provides knowledge regarding the ancient history of roman and its culture. This movie has become a teaching tool to throw knowledge in roman history. Gladiator film can be called as “cop story, a western, or a science fiction film.” The film uses ethically corporeal expression of moral qualities. The film provides spectacle entertainment for the viewers. But one of the limit of the film it lacks the roman political ethnicity.

Confrontation

The film is “simply breathtaking.” “Gladiator is an enjoyable film.” Every scene costume, computer-generated graphics etc made everything superb than what is described in history. It describes all about Commodus, the real hero. He is the person who comes to power after his father’s death. There are arguments on how his father died. Battling scene shown in the film is spectacular one. But, even though the film is hit or “blockbusters,” there are some arguments that certain facts shown in the film are not correct, but story line is good. The gladiator film is “enthralling and totally immersing production that will probably be viewed as a classic in years to come.”

The historical value, limit and representatives of the source which has been selected have to be analyzed before it is taken as major source for analyzing the movie and its historical values. The article written by Allen Ward analyzes the movie Gladiator and the real Roman history. It focuses on comparison of the movie and certain important sequences with the facts about roman emperors. At first it points out the major contradictions between the movie and history. But the article appreciates the importance given to the presentation of cruelties of roman emperors. The main value of this source is that it gives a new view for the gladiator fight and related sequences in the movie.

This source compares the movie and real historical facts. But it doesn’t tell about the reliability of the sources on which the article depends. That is the major limit with this one. The author tells about specific years in which the incidents took place. So it is necessary to explain from where those details collected. Analyzing certain sequences and dialogues related to gladiator fight the author compares it with fight of human being for existence. “Why don’t you fight? We all have to fight!”

Conclusion

The film Gladiator has been very successful in giving the audience some historical information. But when the entertainment contents increased in the movie, the makers interpreted certain historical facts in their own way. Creativity shown by the makers of the movie, especially in reproducing the gladiator games is appreciable. “The film was a box office smash at the time of release and picked up the awards it truly deserved.”

Reference List

Birley. 2000. Marcus Aurelius. Routledge. pp.28-31.

Bob, Billy. n.d. Movies for Guy’s Original Review of the Theatrical Release. Movies for Guys. Web.

Caesar, Decimus. 2009. Gladiator DVD – Theatrical Version by Ridley Scott. UNRV History.

Family, Melodrama and Politics. 2006. Jump Cut.

Gill, N.S. 2010. Roman Gladiators vs the Gladiator Movie. About.com: Ancient/Classical History.

Gladiator. 2000. Web.

Gladiator Review. 2009. Blue Ray Entertainment Center. Web.

Gladiator: The Real Story. n.d.

Greydanus, Steven D. 2010. Gladiator (2000). Decent Film Guide.

Leong, A. 2000. Gladiator Movie Review. Media Circus Navigation.

Maximus Decimus Meridius. 2010. Freebase. Web.

North, Gray. 2001. A Review of Gladiator. LewRockwell.com.

Scott, Ridley. 2000. Gladiator/Ridley Scoot: Gladiator. The Films. Web.

The Gladiator. 2004. NOA. Web.

Tudor, Deborah. 2006. Nation, Family and Violence in Gladiator. Jump Cut.

Ward, Allen. 2001. The Movie “Gladiator” in Historical Perspective. Classic Technology Center. Web.

Ward, Allen. 2005. The Movie “Gladiator” in Historical Perspective. Classics Technology Center. Web.

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