by Aldus Marius on Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:29 pm
Salve and Welcome back, mi Tarquini!
I loved Gladiator. Your disappointment seems to be based on the expectation that it would be a historical movie. It was not, and didn't pretend to be. It was, if anything, an alternate-history movie, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy it on that basis.
What Gladiator got right, I think, was the feel of being a good Roman in a hopeless situation. Stereotype? --I saw no Iron-Handed Oppressors, no crucifixion scenes, nothing out of a Passion play. I did see a Legion commander with tremendous fides towards his Emperor, who upon that Emperor's death was torn between loyalty to principle (virtus) and loyalty to the State. I saw a man, a fugitive, demonstrate pietas in setting up his little clay gods wherever he happened to find himself. (This was probably the first sympathetic portrayal of the religio Romana in the history of cinema.) I saw, and the movie revolved around, a good man being reduced to a dreadful state, finding his wrath (defined as "the rage of love unreturned"), and clawing his way back to redemption. Indeed, "the anger of the righteous availeth much."
Perhaps the story struck such a chord in me because I was, at the time, in a very similar situation in Nova Roma. I, too, had been a useful citizen, now wrongly-accused, now roundly condemned, voluntarily exiled once, and under threat of involuntary exile. It did occur to me that my loyalty might have been misplaced... Even so, it'd be another nine months before I came to my senses and got the hell out while I was able to do so with even a shred of dignity.
Nevertheless, Gladiator remains the only Roman flick that I actually love. Most of the supposedly great ones, like Spartacus, Ben-Hur and Fall of the Roman Empire, I have endured rather than enjoyed; too often, "Roman" movies end up being about America or Christianity rather than Rome, and tendentious moralising abounds. Gladiator only had the Corrupt Evil Empire-vs-Virtuous Republic angle for me to dislike. But then, so did Star Wars.
Strength and Honor!
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.