historical When movies are made quite often inaccuracies are added to give the movie a greater appeal to the audience. The film "Gladiator" starring Russell Crowe as the main character Maximus Decimus Meridius is no exception. Many of the scenes in the movie are inaccurate in a number of ways. These historical inaccuracies add to the entertainment of the movie. Some of the wrongly portrayed things were combat, characters and the way gladiators were treated.
In the film "Gladiator" an all out, violent fight to the death style of combat was shown. Real Gladiators almost never fought to the death because it was expensive and took a lot of time to train a gladiator in fighting skills and tactics. Each fight had a set of rules that had to be followed. There could be weapons involved or the gladiators could be put into teams. These rules added to the already exciting gladiator bouts.
The film also missed a very large part of gladiator fights from what historical evidence has showed us. All fights were watched over by referees. These referees were used to make sure the fighters followed the set rules and they were fighting fairly. The use of referees did show that people were starting to set rules and boundaries for everyday activities. In the film the subtraction of the referees was probably done to show the wild fights that would happen if there were referees.
Another no large inaccuracy in the film "Gladiator" was some of the characters portrayed in the movie. The main character Maximus Decimus Meridius was not a real
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person in Roman history. Another character was Senator Gracchus who was a widely hated character in the movie but was well portrayed as a man who lied to his people and his family. He also opposed Commodus' leadership who helps Maximus in his attempt to overthrow the emperor. In the film he was one person but history shows that the character was actually made up of two historical figures these figures being Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. Who were both seen as martyrs in Roman social reform. This was probably done so the story line could be followed better.
The film was well directed by Ridley Scott and won a large number of awards even an academy award for Best Picture. The actors did a great job portraying the Roman citizens. When historical movies are made quite often inaccuracies are added to give the movie a greater appeal to the audience and Gladiator did appeal to the people who attended this movie.
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Bibliography
Wikipedia.org- (Gracchus. Retrieved January 4, 2008 , Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracchus). Wikipedia.org- (Gladiator. Retrieved January 4, 2008 , Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_%282000_film%29)
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