FAQ

After crushing Germanic barbarian warriors in armed conflict, Maximus Decimus-Meridius (Russell Crowe) the commander of the Roman imperial army is stunned when the frail Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) arrives and asks Maximus what he wishes for in return for his loyal service to the Empire and Maximus wishes to retire and go home to his family. However before Maximus retires and returns home, the Emperor asks Maximum to obey one last order from him and that he wants Maximus to be "protector of Rome" and to ensure that Rome becomes a republic again when he has passed on. However, the Emperor's jealous son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is displeased about this and in his rage he murders his father and orders Maximus to be executed and Maximus's family assassinated. Escaping and failing to save his family, Maximus is captured by slave traders and is enslaved. Bought by the former gladiator turned wealthy gladiator trainer Antonius Proximo (Oliver Reed), Maximum becomes a reluctant gladiator and Maximus decides to fight in the arena in Rome so he can get close to Commodus and kill him. Upon learning Maximus is alive, Commodus, now the new Roman Emperor begins his plot to rid himself of Maximus. However, Commodus's beautiful sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and the Roman senator Gracchus (Derek Jacobi) decide to aid Maximus in killing Commodus and set Maximus free. Discovering Lucille has betrayed him, Commodus has Gracchus arrested and Proximo killed and sets a trap for Maximus which Maximus is captured when Proximo releases him and Commodus forces Maximus to face him in the arena in armed combat.

The movie takes place right at the death of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus fully becoming his successor in 180 AD (Commodus and Marcus ruled jointly from 177 AD until Marcus' death in 180 AD). Commodus would rule until his assassination in 192 AD. Romans under the rule of Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity in 313 AD. So, Romans during the time that the movie takes place would still be polytheistic, worshipping multiple gods and goddesses.

Maximus conducts the same war ritual five times in the film: he picks up a small quantity of the ground beneath his feet and rubs it between his hands. He also smells his hands after rubbing them but this is only seen in the first two occurrences. He does so each time before he is involved in combat. These are:

1. Before the start of the opening battle sequence in Germania, while he is talking to Quintus.

2. Before the start of his first gladiator fight in Zucchabar, while Proximo gives the pep talk.

3. Before the start of his first gladiator fight in Rome (the Colosseum), while in the armoury.

4. Before the start of his first duel in the Colosseum with Tigris of Gaul.

5. Very weakly before the start of his final duel in the Colosseum with Commodus.

The practical reason for conducting this ritual is to make friction (by absorbing the sweat) between his hands and the object he is holding: it is to form a better grip on his sword, like an Olympic athlete would do with chalk. The personal reason is to remind Maximus of his villa where he is a farmer, full of rich memories of the harvest, his wife, his son, his horses and general actions akin to the soil. Director Ridley Scott points this out during his DVD commentary. During the victory celebration after the battle in Germania, there is conversation between Maximus and two of his officers which relate to his villa:

Valerius: Back to your barracks, General, or to Rome?

Maximus: Home. The wife, the son, the harvest.

Quintus: Maximus the farmer. I still have difficulty imagining that.

Maximus: You know, dirt cleans off a lot easier than blood, Quintus.

Another reason could be a ritual performed to get the person into a proper frame of mind. Think of modern day athletes, such as a baseball player who goes through the exact same series of motions every time before stepping into the batter's box.

Most likely he means to say "Ihr seid verfluchte Hunde!", which means "You are (a bunch of) cursed dogs!" It is not the German language as we know it today. In the time the movie is set, there was in fact no common "German language" but a whole lot of different tribal languages and dialects like those of Angeln, Friesen, Sachsen etc. Those languages were the base of today's German but also (mixed up with the colloquially Latin brought in by the Romans) of many other European languages.

Most notable is Oliver Reed's next-to-final scene as Proximo when he gives the keys to Maximus. You can tell that Reed was digitally removed from another scene because the focus doesn't change on anything, even though he is moving closer, the lighting is different enough to stand out, and all his new lines are said by an impersonator (added later) while Proximo is off screen.

Proximo's final line, when he is looking up and says, "shadows and dust", right before the soldiers stab him, is taken from the earlier scene where Maximus argued with him about the vision of Rome and Proximo shouted, "We mortals are but shadows and dust! Shadows and dust Maximus!" The background during his last line indicates that this is clearly from the arena barracks.

Most cast members playing inhabitants of Rome speak English with a British accent. Russell Crowe's Australian accent indicates that his character is from a different region within the Empire. In this case, Hispania (present day Spain), which was a region previously conquered by the Romans, so they would have spoken Latin with an accent. Concomitantly, Hagen (the German gladiator) and Juba (the African gladiator) speak English with a German and African accent respectively.

Juba had said he was a hunter. The slave trader didn't want Proximo to buy Juba because he could have been sold at a higher price elsewhere to a different customer. As the trader had said he was willing to give a discount in his new stock to make up for the "queer giraffes" he sold Proximo. However, Proximo saw right through the ruse knowing that Juba would make a great gladiator-not even the slave trader could hide Juba's muscular physique.

After Gladiator's initial release in 2000, an Extended Cut was released in 2005 on DVD (and later on Blu-ray) that runs approximately 16 minutes longer than the more familiar theatrical version. All of the scenes that were restored for this version had previously been included as deleted scenes on previous DVD releases. The restored scenes are mainly character moments, though some deserve singling out.

1. Proximo tells Maximus to be "entertaining" before his first fight as a Gladiator. This gives context to Maximus shouting the question "Were you not entertained?!" and throwing his sword into the balcony after his victory.

2. Lucilla is seen secretly meeting with the senators, Graccus and Gaius, for the first time, much earlier in the narrative than in the theatrical cut of the film. This indicates far earlier her unhappiness with Commodus' rule, even stating her brother has to die.

3. There are the various scenes featuring Maximus' former ally, Quintus, being forced to follow Commodus' orders, leading to the soldier eventually betraying his Emperor.

Zucchabar was located in modern-day Algeria, in the north part of the country. The area is now referred to as Miliana.

They're going though a semi-audition to find out if they'll make good or great gladiators. When Juba fights with Hagen (using wooden swords), he fights pretty fiercely and receives a red mark on this tunic on orders from Proximo himself. Proximo seems to be the sole judge of the candidates. He sees that Juba has a fighter's spirit & it puts him at the top of the running. Maximus blatantly refuses to fight and receives a yellow mark that puts him somewhere in the middle of the candidates, however Proximo likely suspects that Maximus is a skilled fighter and has the potential to be a great Gladiator. He does, primarily because of his need for revenge.

It is also an homage of sorts to another famous movie about Roman gladiators, Spartacus, where the gladiator trainer, Marcellus, demonstrates to Spartacus and the rest of the trainees about regions of the body where you can either cripple or kill an opponent using red and yellow paint.

Historians and archeologists have been searching for many years for evidence that there was an awning or velarium to provide shade. Coins and other artifacts have been found showing the Colosseum with the awning and there are pieces of stone called corbels on the outer facade of the Colosseum (and other, more intact Roman amphitheaters around the Mediterranean Sea) that would have supported wooden masts for this purpose. In May of 1998, the PBS show NOVA had some archeologists attempt to reconstruct two different types of Colosseum awning systems on an old bullfighting ring in Barcarrota, Spain with varying degrees of success. The episode is titled Secrets of Lost Empires: Colosseum (4) (1997).