Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Gladiator a good movie, but not historically acurate.
Gladiator is a good movie (although not as great as some would have you believe), and I highly recommend it. However, I take issue with the idea that it is at all historically accurate.In reference to Trevor Cook's review (see below), there is little actual history in this movie. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor who died in the beginning of the movie, did not die at the hands of his son, Commodus. Rather, he caught a dangerous infection (possibly plague) and died at his camp at Vindobona (Vienna). And the Emperor had named his son Commodus his heir several years before that.It is not known if Commodus went mad. However, he was known for his cruelty and he did fall victim to his physical vices. He often appeared in staged lion and tiger hunts in the Coliseum, where he liked to call himself Hercules.Because he enraged many of Rome's senators, they tried to assassinate him with the help of his sister, Lucilla. But the plot failed. Commodus naturally became paranoid and therefore launched a campaign of terror against his enemies. Eventually, an assassination attempt against him was successful, and he was strangled in his bath (and not, as the reviewer below would have you believe, in battle as a gladiator).So, while Gladiator is a good movie and I have nothing against it, do not mistake it for history. It is a fictional account based on historical people. Nothing more and nothing less.