A pretty good flick, but with some glaring errors :(

Rating: 6/10 (7 May 2000)

Ok, I saw Gladiator last night, and on the whole I was impressed. The acting was good and there were some interesting in-jokes. However, historically it left much to be desired.
First, the good parts: Marcus Aurelius' Meditations reveal that he did not much care for the public life, and longed to return to his quiet life on the farm back in the country. Sound familiar? Also, there had been a revolt by a senator named Cassius shortly before Aurelius' death, and he shows up in the movie, yay! I also liked the fight scenes, yes that makes me no better than the mob, but I thought it was interesting how the actual killings tended to be displayed either sped up or slowed down, in either case making them seem unreal. In regard to the mish-mash of accents, I thought it added charm to the movie, after all, Rome was a mish-mash of people, no?
** There are some spoilers in the following section. You have been warned **
As far as the history goes, I have heard some complaints from friends about Aurelius actually being in Germania (he did go out on the road with his armies) and Commodus entering the gladiatorial ring (which he also did). My major issue is the fact that Commodus enjoyed(?) a 12 year reign! He was not, repeat not, killed in the Coliseum by anyone, he was drugged and murdered the night before he was to accept a consulship. (Dressed as a gladiator, no less) For me, that brought this movie down a couple notches. Historical license is one thing, but killing emporers less than 6 months into their reign is too much for me.
Final analysis: 6/10