Do you think Gladiator depicts historical facts?

[TheLoneGunman]

I am curious since there are many highly educated people here if you think that the movie Gladiator is basically a historical recreation?

In reality, while Marcus Aurelius and Commodus were real people, much of what was ascribed to them is completely different than depicted in the film.

For example, Commodus was loved by the people and hated by the Senate. He served for many years and died by being murdered in the baths by Narcisus.

The character "Maximus" does not refer to any identifiable person at all.

I collect ancient coins (I have some from each of these rulers) and it disturbs me that someone would watch the film and thing it was similar to history.

[jase71]

I think the filmmakers were pretty clear that it's not based on any series of events from history. It's just
an interesting story set it a particular historical era.

I can't think of ANY movie off the top of my head that
I would consider extremely historically accurate. I'm sure there are some... just don't recall 'em.

At best they're usually dramatizations of actual events that play with a lot of details to make a better script...

[hapoo]

I thought that it was common knowledge that Gladiator is the most historically inaccurate movie.

[Jihforce]

Since when did we actually take movies seriously anyway?
The most amusing movie I've seen that "claims" to be based on a true story is The Perfect Storm. Haahaa.
If all the fishermen died at sea, how would you know what REALLY happened? Haaahaa

[hapoo]

Originally posted by Jihforce
Since when did we actually take movies seriously anyway?
The most amusing movie I've seen that "claims" to be based on a true story is The Perfect Storm. Haahaa.
If all the fishermen died at sea, how would you know what REALLY happened? Haaahaa


ROFL never thought of that.

[StonedWheat]

Another movie like that is fargo. The Cohen brothers outright lied, saying that the movie was based on a true story.

[mojo]

i thought it was funny that some ppl went to see "titanic" and were disappointed that the ship went down. i didn't know any of them, of course....so maybe i was fed a load, there.

i hear that they filled a baseball stadium in tokyo to watch pearl harbor http://news.excite.com/news/r/010622/02/film-pearlharbor . i dunno if that is common practice.

i know a lot of ppl that thought "jfk" was actually history, too. of course, since it had kevin costner in it, that has to mean that it was about kevin costner :P

i hear the doors movie was pretty accurate. then again, everyone was stoned....so who would know?

[LPMiller]

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that Gladiator was more an homage to the old...well, gladiator type movies, and not an attempt at truth in anyway whatsoever. Riddly Scott was pretty clear on that. So anyone who believes it would in fact, be stupid.

[ArkiStan]

In Gladiator, the architecture was especially exagerated. The glamorous and sublime image of the city's structures and stadium was nothing close to history: simply marvels of modern computer technology.

[plutarcho]

I thought all ancient Romans had English accents!

[TheLoneGunman]

And from Red October, I thought all Russians had Scottish accents