GLADIATOR
Cert. 15
Director: Ridley Scott
Universal/Dreamworks
What was the glory that was Rome? According to this story, it was the vision of a republic based on principle and moral judgment, which had been lost under the tyranny of the Caesars. But this is also the story of one man's stand for those principles against the son of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, as he takes up the throne.
From being the commander of the armies of the north, Maximus is sold as a slave and his family destroyed. Finding himself in a gladiatorial school, he soon excels and becomes the darling of the crowds at the Coliseum (beautifully recreated by computer graphics). But all the while he is biding his time, trying to wreak a terrible vengeance on the usurper Commodus. In the end he realises his desires and his principles are vindicated.
This is a brilliant and exciting film, and highly recommended viewing, not least because there is no swearing or sex, and because the main character is motivated by the virtues of love for family, justice, love of country and loyalty. If you can stand the bloody scenes in the amphitheatre (which are in no way gratuitous), then you will find this film an ennobling experience.
But what is the point of all this? Can stoic values of honour and love of country maintain an ethical standard on its own terms? Apparently not, for Maximus longs for release into the afterlife where he hopes to meet his family as much as he fights for the principles instilled by the Emperor Aurelius. So this is as much about the emptiness of values with no transcendent hope, as it is about the need for hope and the belief that there is something more than this brutal life.
Comparisons with Ben Hur are inevitable. Whereas the story of Judah Ben Hur speaks of redemption and the supercession of forgiveness over vengeance in Hur's encounter with Christ, Gladiator speaks instead of the need for some kind of values in the midst of a meaningless world. There is a kind of redemption here, but it is somehow blunted.
Maximus does his duty and then finds his release, but Elysium seems a shade compared to the world in which he fought for the pleasure of the crowds. Hollywood again seems to be plugging a sense of false hope about the afterlife.
And the principles by which Maximus lived? We are left to believe that perhaps they were vindicated, and Rome returned to its former glory. But history teaches a different lesson.
Olivius D. Crispus
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