Gladiator and the Roman Army
by Aimee Friedland

The Roman Army was a masterpiece in itself. There was no other army like it, and was impenentrable. This was probably because of the extreme patriotism and pride in battling for Rome, and maintaining their superiority. Gladiator, “RomanArmy.com”, and The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire all portray this patriotism in many aspects.

Gladiator was directed by Ridley Scott. He is a graduate of London's prestigious Royal College of Art. Scott began his directing career at the BBC doing commercials. In 1977, he made his feature film directorial debut with the period drama 'The Duelists,' for which he won the Best First Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1984, Scott made a brief return to commercial directing for what was to be one of the most groundbreaking ads ever created- The introduction of the Apple computer. Following the record-breaking success of his follow-up film, 'Alien,' Scott directed the futuristic hit 'Blade Runner,' starring Harrison Ford. In 1993, Scott re-edited a director's cut of 'Blade Runner,' which was released to great critical acclaim. He also executive produced 'Monkey Trouble' and the anthology series 'The Hunger.' Scott’s reason for developing Gladiator came from his interest in Roman history. He “loves the pride show by the Roman soldiers in their country and themselves.” He planed to bring the Roman history to us, for knowledge and understanding.
Gladiator’s purpose was to portray the life of the particular Roman general; Maximus(played by Russell Crowe)—the general-turned-gladiator whose popularity does threaten the power of the emperor—was key to the success of the project. The reason they picked this as the main focus of the movie was because the government of Rome was a very corrupt society. ''Maximus is the very soul of the movie.'' ''It was crucial to find an actor who you could believe possessed the ferocity of this great warrior, but in whom you could also see a man of strong principle and character. Russell Crowe’s name came up pretty fast. His intensity, his dignity and his utter conviction in every role he undertakes made him everyone’s first choice.''
I think ''Gladiator'' presented the prospect of helping to re-establish a film genre which had not been stumbled upon successfully in a long time. It’s an incredible period. The achievements of the Roman Empire were remarkable, but they were underscored by absolute brutality, which fascinates people to this day, and was portrayed well in this film. This film was not lacking anything in my perspective. It was a great movie. The only thing that could have been portrayed differently was the use of the coliseum. They could have show the voting, and judicial purposes of it, and its other uses besides the games.

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Aimee Friedland - aspiring writer/ fashionista/ filmmaker/ socialite/ child prodigy

http://clearblogs.com/aimeefriedland/

Gladiator was the most historically inaccurate movie ever made.

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Believing that McAfee is going to protect you from hackers and viruses is exactly like believing that republicans can actually protect you from terrorists.

When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.

I don't know, all of Ridley Scott's movies are pretty innacurate. I think Gladiator is just so fantastical that I don't even apply history to it.

The power behind the Roman Army was its military tactics, suberb organization, and effective weapons, such as the gladius for close combat as opposed to wielding a cumbersome weapon for such combat.

Every army on earth has its own pride and loyalty. Rome's was no different. You could say the Nazis had pride and loyalty... and it wouldn't matter because the superiority lay in its superior tactics and weaponry, not their will to fight, even though morale plays a heavy role in deciding victory, morale didn't save the legions at Teutoburg Forest.