People need to learn some history.

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2000)

For all of you who keep complaining about the historical inaccuracies of the battle I suggest one thing. Go beyond, as one commentor put it, the "Junior High version of history". The way that the Roman legions fought while conquering the Italian penninsula in 300-200's BC was not the way they fought from that point on. By the time 300 AD rolled around the legion had been almost completely replaced by cavalry to deal the "barbarian" invaders. This movie was set around 180 AD, so unless you think the romans changed thier entire military approach all at once, don't you think it is possible that there was some evolution in tactics between the Pre-Punic era and then? The static conception of history that these commentors employ is really indicative more of a wish to show thier intelligence than anything else. Different Roman generals fought different ways on different terrain at different times. Was the battle scene fully acurate? The questions itself is sort of stupid, as that battle didn't happen. Is it consistent with the way that Marcus Aurelius' campaigns were handled at that time? To answer that we need to go beyond the simplified view of history that high school history books, and some commentors here, use to dumb down the issue enough for comprehension by children. All of this is beside the point. Movies aren't made to teach history, they are made to tell stories. Therefore, the relative accuracy of the movie is not of as much importance as whether or not the story is being told well. And by well I mean does it evoke strong emotional or cerebral responces in the viewer. For those commentors that think it did not, fine. I happen to disagree, but perhaps I am simply more susceptible to this type of movie (I also liked Braveheart a lot). But this whole vien of criticism that focuses on the historical inaccuracies is for one in some cases simply misinformed, and in all cases only relevant in so far as it enlarges the ego of those commentors.