Product: Gladiator [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 5.0
Can the your chic attitudes
A lot of people have come down hard on Gladiator because its has been succesful, for that chic modish reason that if it succesful, it has to be pap. They then go over every scene with a knife looking for errors. The amusing thing is that they find many errors that are not errors at all. Firstly, the archers. Though it is correct that the legions did not use archers, the legions were only half the Roman army. The other half were the support units of archers and cavalry that backed up the heavy footmen of the legions. Roman cavalry swords were indeed used to slash, unlike the infantry swords. The romans did have saddles, but what they did not have were stirrups. The movies avoided shots of the horsemen's feet, so they would avoid that inaccuracy. Except for truncating Commodus reign and the idea that Aurelius wished to restore the Republic, this was a very accurate movie. To enjoy this movie you have to be uncynical and not automatically disbeleiving of anyone with noble motives. Then you can enjoy the first rate writing, wonderful costuming and sets, killer soundtrack, and well done action sequences. This is a supurbly crafted movie about a noble hero, no more and not a bit less. For an action movie, it also has a message that can be hard to get: You are not told at the end whether or not the Republic was restored. Historically, it was not, but that last scene is speaking to us in the present: saving something that is good is not done by large impersonal forces, but by a few good people willing to strive and sacrafice.