or Commodus was not named for a toilet and other misapprehensions
Ridley Scott's blockbuster, Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe as general / slave / gladiator Maximus, is historical fiction. To attend the movie under the impression that it will be anything else will lead to disappointment. As a Hollywood production, it is almost amazing how few gaffes there are.
"Most of the criticism I am hearing is from people who don't know anything about Roman history. To whit: ... 'As if an Emperor would ever get in the arena!' 'What are those dumb little clay people he has in that shrine, that's lame.' Of course it isn't historically accurate, I hope nobody thought it would be, but!"
-Comment on Gladiator, from a Classics Email List
Some reviewers have panned the film:
"At my signal, unleash hell," intones Gen. Maximus (Crowe), the hero of this turgid slab of big-budget bloodletting called Gladiator."
-From David Edelsteins' review (slate.msn.com/MovieReview/00-05-05/MovieReview.asp) "Crapus Maximus"
Others have applauded the production. Either way, they have focused on the spectacular scenes of destruction in Gladiator, whether of the English forest that surrendered to the flaming missiles of the Roman troops stationed in "Germania":
"Director Ridley Scott literally burned down England's Bourne Woods (British officials had previously slated the area for deforestation). Professional archers and production crews shot 16,000 flaming arrows to help things along and expended an additional 10,000 unlit shafts."
-(mrshowbiz.go.com/reviews/moviereviews/movies/Gladiator_2000.html) Cody Clark's Review of Gladiator
or the severed dummy body parts that wound their terrifying way into residential neighborhoods:
"[Malta] Police sources said that they were called on a number of occasions when such dummies were used to scare or pull a fast one."
-(www.gruntland.com/Gladiator.htm) Body parts stolen from 'Gladiator' used for hoaxes
Computer technology made the fight scenes appear a bit surreal -- a plus for those of us squeamish about real blood and guts, while the large number of humans killed in the arena would have sated the rapacious Roman taste for gore.
Some of the mistakes rankled. "No, it wasn't!" I wanted to scream when it was stated so matter-of-factly that Rome began as a Republic. That line must have been inserted after Harvard Classicist Kathleen Coleman read the script. Also, the pronunciation of the name of the old emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was inconsistent. The final "u" disappeared once, but not for long: it resurfaced in the word for the wooden sword Oliver Reed won when Aurelius freed him: The "rudis" became "rudius."
Some plot elements were distracting:
"A few elements of the plot of Gladiator are poorly motivated, such as what a Middle Eastern caravan is doing passing through Spain, or why Maximus near the end needs to have his freedom bought before he can be sprung from confinement to join his former troops out at Ostia."
-From a Classics Email list
That Commodus lusted (with restraint) after his sister and his nephew seemed elements designed to tie him in with the Hollywood concept of the evil Roman emperor who is epitomized by the Emperor Caligula. Likewise, although those in charge must have known a raised thumb probably did not mean "let him live," there was no alternative modern audiences would have accepted or recognized.
The most jarring element, however, was the conclusion. Though foregone and devoid of suspense, no other ending would have worked. Instead of having Commodus, dressed in gladatorial garb, die shortly before he is made consul, the ending is more typically heroic. Thanks to actor Joaquim Phoenix, Commodus is, notwithstanding Edelstein's quip ("Could this villain, Commodus —- the name sounds like Latin for 'of the latrine' -- be any more repulsive?"), much less of a pathetic, profligate, evil fool than he is ambitious, unloved, almost sympathetic, and strangely attractive.
