As I said in a previous post on this subject Gladiator had nothing of Rome in it but costumes, sets and the names of several principle characters in all other respects is was a modern tragic romance. I do not say it was a bad entertainment, except to the degree that it was historically misleading and this is probably counterbalanced by the interest it sparked, which will lead many people to a better understanding. Hollywood simply does not produce challenging material under ordinary circumstances and an understanding of Caesar and his culture would require quite an education for most people today. Even smaller, less commercially compromised productions have problems because, while film is well adapted to giving us the experience of another time and place it is not very good at helping us make sense of it.
True artistry is required.
Even a time within living memory is apparently unreachable, witness the anachronistic post-Vietnam attitudes of the soldiers in Saving Private Ryan . This is more than just historical nit-picking. There are now millions who s understanding of WWII is shaped by this popular film. Santyanna said the 20th century would be the era of over-simplification, it would appear we have simplified so much as to have lost track of meaning entirely.