Hero or Rebel in the Roman Epic Film Genre: Gladiator and Spartacus.

Hero or Rebel in the Roman Epic Film Genre: Gladiator and Spartacus. Introduction: Reluctant Rebellious Heroes 1) Western Frontier and Epic Past Section one is about how the rebel hero in the US Western transferred to the gladiator hero of the ancient epic and the relating of the Spartacus and Gladiator heroes to the Western. Both Spartacus (1960) and Gladiator (2000) construct frameworks of cinematic heroism, as in the Western genre, within popular mythology, reaffirming the hero’s essential individuality and pro-social function, and depicting a world locked in a struggle between the oppositional moral forces. Both establish their path to heroism through a passage of strife, cruelty, hardship and loneliness and derive their moral values from these experiences as they establish their purposeful quests for values and identity. Spartacus’ heroism awakens within him a kinship with the landscape and creation and a sense of spiritual and social duty. Though Spartacus is an iconic hero from Roman antiquity, for the American audiences he became a quintessential hero of Manifest Destiny, a faithful husband, concerned parent, inspiring comrade and friend, decent in every way (Tatum 2007:134). In the reunion between Spartacus and Varinia early in the slave rebellion after each has affirmed love the scene adopts a western cinematic trope as the two ride into the sunset silhouettes moving across the westering sky Maximus learns his heroism through violent exile and loneliness and demonstrates that in the arena violence becomes a necessity both for his survival and as his only method or achieving his goal.. Like the Western hero, he is right to fight the villainous “bad guy” when he kills the evil Commodus in order to establish a civilising “law and order” moderation on his vision of Rome, in his visionary quest to establish an ideal and a just world. The imperial discourses of the Westerns’ expansion with their civilising and taming narrative of the American’s foundation ritual and Manifest Destiny were placed outside socialisation and civilisation, hence provided an enabling narrative function for individual heroes to assert their moral standing. The origins of the Western formula predate the cinematic narrative and are rooted in the historical realities of westward expansion across America in the nineteenth century. As Burgoyne (2008:78,79 )holds Western films and Western heroes create a nostalgic eulogy to the early days of expansion across untamed America frontiers, the borders between civilisation and wilderness, presenting a pastoral epic which the western cinematic hero re-establishes. Manifest Destiny and rugged individualism intertwined with moral simplicity created a union between man and his landscape central to the American foundation myth and inflation of America’s frontier as a vast untamed wilderness with its mountains, forests, plains and deserts. This untamed territory is the land which inspires and beckons the hero. Images of the hero and the universe are devices that enable us to identify with (and thus enter) the world of the myth. The heroes of the frontier represent rugged individualism, honour freedom and integrity and involve the spectator as being able to identify with the hero, the achievement of the frontiers and his contextualisation the natural landscape .The hero and his universe must be sufficiently evocative to become equated in our minds with foundation myth, which is America’s myth of frontier as a unifying and compelling vision seeking to validity the colonial experience of the wilderness and of America’s frontier history. The landscape was vast unspoilt wilderness treacherous but romantic with majestic mountains and rivers, redwood forests, grassy valleys, high plains, tumbleweed and beautiful sunsets. The hero’s task is to defeat the savagery of the wilderness and to obtain title and legitimacy to the land. Kubrick’s Spartacus uses this iconic visual symbolism of the natural and idyllic landscape of the western to facilitate the analogy of ancient legend with the political and moral validity of the frontier myths. He uses it to establish difference between the rebel encampments as against the militarisms of the Roman legions and the essence of the cruel Roman exploitative system. Spartacus’ encampment has an air of simplicity and purity. This connection with nature and the natural world is further established with of long shots of the landscape taken from a raised perspective, assimilating the hills around Vesuvius and the outstretched plains, reminisant of the American frontier landscape. As with the westerns the vast view offers scope of ownership if the protagonist shares the camera perspective 2001:106) .Throughout the film the gladiators sit round a campfire as Antoninus expounds a lyric of mountains, seas, sunset and meadow, home and family thus connecting the rebels with their landscape and their primitive and building community The eve of the battle scene in which Spartacus elucidates to Varinia his dreams for his unborn child, resonant with hope, in the romantic interlude with the framing shots of the idyllic landscape and reflects the American western ethos The early Western tradition of the frontier hero was as a footloose wanderer who put things right with a gun roaming freely over the landscape subduing and dominating nature through acts of violence even as Maximus, the hero of Gladiator, utilises violence in the agonistic combats of the gladiatorial arena. The Western depicts values and ideals in the world precariously balanced between the forces of civilisation and savagery which provides a cinematic narrative framework for the individual Western hero to prove himself as pro-civilising adversary in the cause of civilisation The Western hero develops as an agent of conscience, a man who seeks to realise an ideal, courageously active, social agent of concerned with the establishment of social justice and codes of law and order. There is a moral intensity in the heroism and integrity of a lone lawman or gunman against cowardice, hypocrisy and avarice of a community and as an agent of social order. As Everson (1978: 239) holds the early function of the Western was as a symbol of freedom of opportunity for conquest and to offer that escape and the conditions of life in an industrial society. The Western was popular as a cultural metaphor during the post war period of US aggressive expansionalism (Corkin 2000:68, 72). Though the Western formula facilitated this process from the late 1930s through the 1950s historical variables, the Depression with its Dust Bowl, the World War, the Cold War, the Korean conflict were to overwhelm the genre (Schatz1981: 46-49). This required a different role of cinematic narratives especially after the penetration of global boundaries and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1980s leaving the USA as a “Global Leader” and Gladiator re-elaborates the western model including the discourse of the history of imperial relations, globalisation and the imbalance of global sources of power and wealth 2) Status, Motivation, Background, Family. In Chapter two I am going to discuss the way the film presents the background to each hero and their differences. The cinematic gladiator exemplifies heroic morality against a corrupt and tyrannical Rome while the enslavement perspective has contemporary concerns about human freedom, civil and human rights. Both Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960) and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) are narratives of disgraced heroes fighting for vengeance in the arena and include their gladiatorial training and rebellion. Both Spartacus and Maximus are epic heroes cinematically positioned to present a moral debate against a Rome which has become the symbol of oppression and corruption. Spartacus and Maximus are each chattel slaves yet their beginnings could not be more greatly divergent. Spartacus is introduced in the opening sequences as an illiterate Thracian slave, part of the slave economy supporting the Roman Empire. We are told by the overvoice that Spartacus was born to a slave mother thus “increasing is master’ wealth” and sold before his thirteenth birthday into the “living death” of the salt mines of Libya where he “lived out his youth and young manhood ”(See Figure ). We see him strung out on a boulder to die for helping a fellow slave. But we are told he is “proud and rebellious” and it is this which catches the eye of Lentulus Batiatus, the owner of the ludus, who recognising his unbroken spirit and buys him for his gladiator school, thus saving his life (See Figure). The fictional Maximus is introduced as a freeman. a leading General of Rome, a loyal soldier, a friend to Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who is at the very apex of the Roman power and the slave economy of which Spartacus is subjected.Maximus is part of the political elite in military, political and social society, but also a provincial farmer and a loyal and established family man (See Figure ). However, he seems unaware of the dark underside of Rome as he sacrifices home and family for the greater good of the city he venerates and sees as the light. Spartacus is wrenched from his home as a child and has neither control nor illusion. Maximus believes Rome to be the essence of civilised moral society yet he too is soon to be bereft of such illusion when Rome destroys the defining structures and people of his life and consigns him too to its cruel underside. There is a difference in the two heroes being trained into the role of gladiator, which is interesting because though we see Maximus become a gladiator hero in the sands of the Colosseum of Rome, we do not see Spartacus fight in the arena beyond the combats of his ludus. In the ludus the gladiators and the audiences are introduced to their training schedule in an aping of the decadence of the Roman way of life and resonate of the “commodification of Rome” In Spartacus they are told that they will be “pampered, oiled, bathed, shaved massaged [and] trained by experts” and provided with female company, indeed how Spartacus and Varinia met. Yet the arena is soon to be seen as “the microcosm of a cruel unchristian world celebrating the triumph of matter over spirit” (Babington et al 1993:20).In Gladiator there are no such luxury enticements rather as Proximo introduces the gladiators to their provincial ludus by telling them these will be “the last few days of your miserable lives” and that he will “profit from your deaths.” The arena for both is “the microcosm of a cruel unchristian world celebrating the triumph of matter over spirit” (Babington et al 1993:20). Spartacus as Hero: Spartacus background The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science held that no blacklisted person could be eligible for an Oscar Bryn a Productions headed by Kirk Douglas determined to erode the restrictions of McCarthyism by their open use of black listed Howard Fast author and Dalton Trumbo screen writer (Futrell 2001:97).This effectively in conjunction with Exodus (1960) where Otto Preminger also gave full credit to Trumbo scriptwriting, broke the Hollywood blacklist (Richards 2008:87). Solomon (2001:53) holds that Spartacus to be an uncharacteristic cinematic hero “an unremarkable slave, an illiterate Thracian already defeated in the arena.” His uniqueness resides in his “splendidly rebellious spirit” and his humanity and he is metaphorically defined in terms of political oppression. Spartacus’ resolution is the moment when the members of the slave army declare their collective allegiance, each becoming capable of heroism while Maximus is the restoration of the republican ideals (Burgoyne2008:92, 93) Both Spartacus and Maximus gain authority as epic heroes by becoming as one with the marginalised and excluded, falling into or pre-existing in slavery, existing nomadically and drawing from the multitude an intensified sense of nobility and purpose (Burgoyne 2008:85). Spartacus existed as a legendary heroic figure in ancient sources, (Appian Civil Wars I: 14) the leader of the slave revolt 73-71 BC who inspired his fellow slaves to a revolt which almost brought the Roman Empire to its knees. He and a few gladiators broke from their ludus and made their base on Mount Vesuvius. They were joined by other slaves, their force swelling to some 120,000.they were eventually defeated by Crassus and ten Roman legions who crucified surviving prisoners the whole length of the Via Appia leading from Capua to Rome (Massey 1978 :58,59). Spartacus became a symbol of the eternal fight against oppression, the hero, mythology and martyrology of the organised left in Europe and the Soviet Union and of whom Karl Marx called him “the most splendid fellow in the whole ancient history.” (Murphy 2004: 10). The story of Spartacus’ revolt became a metaphor for resistance against industrial capitalism (Futrell 2001:77) As Wyke (1997: 48) states “Spartacus came to be read as acutely relevant to the consolidation of the modern class struggle.” When Kirk Douglas read Howard Fast’s novel of Spartacus he stated “I was intrigued with the story of Spartacus the slave, dreaming of the death of slavery, driving into the armour of Rome the wedge that would eventually destroy her.” He states in his book Ragman’s Son that he visualised “thousands of slaves carrying rocks, beaten, starved, crushed and dying. I identified with hem…I come from a race of Slaves. That would have been my family me” (Douglas 1988 276-277). Howard Fast was a communist in the tradition of Jeffersonian democracy and the author of novels celebrating the heroism of the oppressed in American history. The making of Spartacus occurred against the backdrop of the McCarthy Era of the sinister demands of the Un-American Activities Committee for witnesses to inform on their associates and friends, which was resisted by Howard Fast and Dalton Trumbo. This is reflected when Crassus asks the recaptured rebel slaves to identify Spartacus and they stand together in refusing to identify him, even at the costs of crucifixion. Even Batiatus, the lanista, refuses to be an informer (Richards 2008:87).The scene dramatises the solidarity and heroism of those who refused to implicate others as Communist sympathizers. “I am Spartacus” is the mantra of solidarity and heroism as they refuse to denounce Spartacus’ identity, “shielding the subversive within” (Wyke 199:67). Spartacus is a slave whose birth into slavery is analogous to the degradation of racism and the enslavement of African-Americans in the ante-bellum American south and hence enabling an audience understanding of his rebellion and to be empathetic to his extraordinary journey from such degradation to spiritual leadership and freedom. Spartacus’ innate pride in his own humanity and his ability to rebel is “a necessary precondition to shake off the yoke of servitude are America’s strengths, embodied from the beginning in the Founding Fathers” (Winkler 2007:164,165). The film opens on the red, sulphuric, desert mountainside to Spartacus, against a background of Alex North’s operatic music, toiling miserably in the barren, hostile arid environment of the salt mines of the Roman province of Libya, (filmed in Death Valley), “dreaming the death of slavery 2000 years before it would finally die.” (Figure )This statement is clearly resonant of Abraham Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation in his 1963 Gettysburg Address (Winkler 2007:154). The slaves are seen subjected to excruciating sufferings, overseered by the slave drivers and Roman guards representing Rome’s presence in the world as containment through tyranny and force (Futrell 2001:97). Spartacus wields a pickaxe as he hacks stones out of the mountain face and we see him struggle to carry a back breaking load of rocks up a ridge and throw down this load to help a fellow slave who has fallen under his load. Spartacus is ruthlessly beaten when he attacks the cruel overseer who is beating the collapsed slave and he crucified fashion to a rock, which Burgoyne (2008:80) holds to be “highly iconic moment [recalling] the epic films of the past with their formulaic conflict of Roman versus Christian.” Spartacus is rescued by Lentulus Batiatus who recognising his unbroken spirit, purchases him for training at his gladiator school at Capula to be schooled with other slaves from Gaul Africa and elsewhere. In the ludus the depictions of the training schedule by Marcellus, summoning them with a whistle, painting Spartacus’ body to indicate areas of maiming or killing choreographing their movements of combat, while Spartacus strains to catch a glimpse of Varinia, and this to North’s harsh and unyielding percussion music, summoning the modern audience to visualise the tension and pain of a gladiator slave Spartacus is paired with Draba for amusement of a private fight for bored decadent aristocratic Romans. The murder of Draba (Woody Strode) after his refusal to kill Spartacus in the arena initiates the slave rebellion and their breakout from the ludus.Spartacs gathers a private army which gathers many escaped slaves to its number and evades the ruthless might of the Roman army sent against them, and sets up an idyllic family camp. Spartacus is eventually defeated and is crucified but lives long enough to see his wife Varinia and his son survive and gain their freedom as they escape from Rome. Spartacus only has one cinematic gladiatorial sword fight, empowered only with the bodily adornment of a chain mail sleeve, and in the provincial arena. His second combat occurring with Antoninus when he fights to save him from crucifixion. During the last battle Spartacus refuses to assume the symbolism of generalship by refusing to ride on horseback, thus appropriating the true resonance of a Hollywood hero declaring he had no need of a horse how ever the battle resulted, despite this he came close to reaching Crassus before he was felled Maximus, Gladiator Maximus embodies the values and dreams of Roman republicanism as he engages in an ideological battle against oppressive totalitarianism as epitomized by the evil emperor Commodus. He is a hero of masculine bravery and goodness displaying old fashioned virtues “by both modern and old fashioned standards ...forced by circumstances to perform extraordinary feats” (Cyrino 2004:128,131, 132) .Like Judah Ben Hur in Ben Hur (1959) he is enslaved and brutalised by the Roman system and driven by revenge against the perpetrator of the destruction against him and his family and finds justice in the arena of violence. Gladiator promotes Maximus as gladiator hero by reinforcing resonant tag lines such as “What we do in life echoes in eternity” and “A hero will Rome.”Maximus is presented as the hero of moral significance, noble and incorruptible, who rises with single-handedly resistance to takes on the evil emperor Commodus who is the antithetic to the ideals of individual freedom and morality.Maximus, from the political and military heights of the Roman Empire’s “greatest general,” is reduced to slavery, but he rises again as a hero who defeats Rome’s greatest enemy in the evil Commodus. Maximus heroism reaches back to the idea of masculine goodness and bravery, a decent man compelled by circumstance to perform exceptional and extraordinary deeds (Cyrino 2004:131).Solomon (2001:94) likens Maximus’ old fashioned heroic characteristics to those attributed to Cincinnatus, “an early Roman exemplar of nobility,” the farmer-turned- general, who rescued his country in a fifteen day war before returning to his farm, thus displaying old fashion virtues. Maximus is focussed single minded on revenge however the appalling nature of his family’s death justifies for the audience his single minded focus and brooding menace of his bloody revenge. Maximus, just as was Spartacus, is subjected to brutality, degradation and brutality in the arena and like Spartacus he is subject to a sacrificial death in his quest to exact revenge on his antagonist, this last being a rare visitation of fate upon a Hollywood hero. While Spartacus having first sought personal freedom then moves to and adheres unremittingly in the justice of his struggle to free his people, Maximus is a reluctant hero who initially hesitates to accept the role of saviour which the ageing philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelia tries to bestow upon him, to become the protector of Rome in order to rid Rome of its corruption and return it to its foundation republican values. “Won’t you accept this great honour that I have offered you?” Maximus replies “With all my heart, no,” which elicits Aurelius inevitable response “That is why it must be you.” Maximus articulates his belief in the ideal of Rome “The light” but in the end is forced to concede that this ideal may not exist (Cyrino 2004:132). The theme of a hero who will arise at a moment of crisis, frequently a country boy, is a popular theme in American films. Like Spartacus, Maximus has never been to Rome hence is uncorrupted by political intrigue. He is a provincial Spanish farmer and a family man devoted and faithful to his family who he longs to be reunited with. This shows him as a moral hero and a universal father as he carries his family shrine and longs for his pastoral idyll and family life. This yearning he demonstrates in his grasping and rubbing the earth in his fingers each time he goes into combat and of his daydreams of caressing a field of grain. Though Maximus’ enslavement is at the fringes of the Empire he rises through the gladiatorial ranks to avenge the murder of his family.Maximus’immense familial devotion means that the murder, rape crucifixion and burning of his wife and child by Commodus justifies and validates Maximus counter violence and vengeance which drives the narrative to its conclusion of the killing of Commodus in the arena and after his death the reunion of Maximus with his wife and son whose name we never discover. When Maximus dies Juba buries the familial figurines in the earth of the arena symbolising the hero’s religious piety, family devotion and Maximus bond with the land (Albu 2008:190- 194).Though Maximus is devastated beyond redemption over the deaths of his wife and his son which he was unable to prevent despite being the catalyst for them yet he is enough of a moral hero to seek to ensure the security of Lucille’s son. The gladiators reside in a dehumanised place, their humanity a pecuniary investment only. As Proximo their owner states to them, “I did not pay good money for your company. I paid so I might profit from your death.” As Maximus the pragmatic hero states to Proximo, “I kill because I’m required to.” Maximus demonstrates killing as a necessity, when he kills Commodus at the conclusion of his revenge quest in hand to hand combat in the “sands of the Colosseum.” Maximus, unlike Spartacus’ rare exhibitions of arena conflicts, has five gladiatorial combination combats, including hand to hand combat, combat with wild animals, mythical re-enactments. The first gladiatorial contest after arriving in Rome is a re-enactment of the Fall of Carthage .Just as in the opening battle scene Maximus as a General of Rome had strode through the ranks of his army and been greeted affectionately by his troops as “General” this affection is mirrored in solidarity before his site of second combat when he is greeted by the gladiators with “Spaniard” the same resonance of esteem .On the battlefield as General he fights his battles against the savage German hordes, for the glory of Rome, now as a gladiator his battle and role transmutes as he fights for survival as he himself becomes one of the “barbarian hordes.” and the arena symbolises as part the militarism of empire.Maximus demonstrates his leadership skills and his training and experience on the real field of battle as he gains control of the arena and gains a decisive victory against the well armed and charioted force who are in the guise of the Legionnaires of Scipio Africanus . By this symbolic demonstration of defeat it manifest that of the forces of the empire and the emperor are not inviolate (Russell 2007:171).It also demonstrates a collective solidarity emerging among the community of gladiators. Maximus is in particular danger having caught the hatred of the vengeful Emperor .His only protection is the adoration of the crowd, his determination to revenge against and depose Commodus and to restore the values of the Roman republic in accordance with Marcus Aurelius wishes. (Russell 2007 :156).Maximus’ determination to seek revenge transforms him into an invincible warrior and though he is fatally injured he dies heroically achieving his revenge by killing his enemy the evil Commodus and reversing his reputation from an outsider to heroic warrior. As in William Wyler’s Ben Hur (1959) there is double reversal of fortune from exalted status in society to chattel slavery to triumph over a powerful antagonist. Both Spartacus and Maximus endure resembling experiences as gladiator slaves and each establishes a relationship off with a black fellow gladiator. Though Maximus is triumphant in his contest of revenge and despite the overwhelming odds through the gladiatorial arena avenges the death of his family and of Marcus Aurelius, he pays with his life. Despite his eventual death Maximus is still seen as a victorious hero serving justice by vanquishing the evil Commodus (Winkler2004: 24).The legacy of Maximus’ heroic life and death is the inspiration for the restoration of the Republic Maximus is introduced, unlike Spartacus a subject slave, as archetypal hero, a friend to Emperor Marcus Aurelius,a loyal soldier and General of Rome. When Aurelius, after Maximus defeats the German rebels, asks him to become Protector of Rome to generate a transition back to the Republic Maximus .Maxims has served his time for the defence of the Empire now wishes for the return to his agricultural roots as he reiterates his desire is to return to his family and the agrarian roots of his idyllic heartland, in line with the predilection for American heroes being in harmony with the soil. These predilections for familial and pastoral values present Maximus as an essentially neoclassical conservative hero functioning with virtue, honour and concern for society at large as well as the individual and this is exemplified in the film’s narrative of liberty and equality even at the risk of death and, will Maximus’motto of “Strengthen Honour” (Winkler 2004:26, 27). The introductory titles of Gladiator establish the narration that a Roman victory against Germania will establish “the promise of peace throughout the Empire” hence seeking to establish the contradiction that freedom and peace are the natural result of military conquests. Rome the aggressor is attempting to conquer the “barbarian tribes” of Germania, who it codifies as the Other at the northern borders of its empire. These statements are reinforced by the visual sequence of the idyll of a hand brushing across a field of wheat the symbol of sustenance of life. The camera cuts to a medium close-up of Maximus as military general of Rome. The dark cold battlefield of Germania is burning and levelled into wasteland, contrasting with the warmth of the golden brown wheat field, with its life-giving symbolisms and the juxtaposed desecration and death of the burnt forest. The symbolism ideologically contrasts “freedom and domination” The ageing philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurellius having secured the borders now seeks to assail the corruption at the heart of his empire by seeking to designate the virtuous and morally strong hero Maximus to this task and to return Rome to its foundation republican values. He offers him the autonomy of dictatorship in order to restore democracy to Rome. “I want you to become the protector of Rome after I die. I will empower you, to one end alone, to give power back to the people of Rome and end the corruption that has crippled it… Maximus it must be you, you have not been corrupted. You are the son I should have had.”Maximus tells Aurelius that he desires to return to his farm and his family in Spain. This codifies our hero as “non- cosmopolitan and humanitarian” (White 2002: 19).When Aurellius insists that the Maximus becomes the Emperor in order to “give power back to the people of Rome.”Maximus’ reluctance is common coinage of the quintessential heroic hero who has his heroism thrust upon him(Winkler 2004;25).Maximus is the hero who rises in Gladiator , representing right against overwhelming might, as single-handedly he challenges the evil Emperor, Commodus, who is “absolute ruler of world power” (Winkler 2004;24). The narrative seeks to transform Maximus, the most powerful military leader of Rome, into a cinematic knight errant ,“a man on a white horse…who will restore Rome to democracy by becoming a dictator” (Klawans 2000: 34). Gladiator has an appealing plot, inspiring acting, distinctive characters and breath-taking cinematography and films a political and cultural ideology placed in a manipulated historical setting which precisely attuned to America in particular moment in its history. Gladiator was released in May 2000 six months before the presidential elections during a period of political polarisation. Despite a healthy peacetime economy President Clinton reflected a perception of the country’s moral decline while George W. Bush, a devoted family man ran on the ticket of “A restoration of honour and dignity to the office of chief executive,” pledging to restore family values and decency. the Roman Empire was an allegory for contemporary America providing a foundation model for empire and power and assessing to provide “the mythical qualities of archetypal heroes” 3) Opposition to Roman Authority: Commodus, Crassus. Having discussed the backgrounds of Spartacus and Maximus I now turn to focusing upon their major opponents, Crassus to Spartacus and Commodus to Maximus. Crassus Spartacus is a slave and a gladiator subjected to a powerful Roman world but also through the development of the narrative becomes intricately defined by his contrast with Marcus Licinius Crassus who is a personification of this Roman power(Paz 2007:190). Crassus’ depiction as a sadistic Roman elitist, is further strongly emphasised by the oratorical stage diction of the English actor Laurence Olivier (Wyke 1997:71)The narrative of Spartacus is largely constructed as oppositional to Crassus the richest most powerful patrician in Rome, politically hugely ambitious, corrupt and demagogic who eventually commands his Roman legions to victory against Spartacus’ slave army. As Solomon (2001:53) holds the real essence of Spartacus is “the contrast between the simple humanity of the slaves and the shrewd cynicism of Rome” and these are personified in the oppositional differentiation between Spartacus and Crassus. While Crassus’ ambition is to establish a dictatorship, Spartacus champions freedom and is intent to establish a humane egalitarian community. The cinematic associations with love and friendship are seen as the exclusive property of the slaves exemplified by the first action of Spartacus who rushes to the aid of a collapsed fellow slave in the mines (Tatum 2007:132). This is again demonstrated in the cross cutting between Crassus’ pre-battle speeches, Crassus to his legions and Spartacus to his “brothers “of his slave army before their final battle, while Spartacus’ is devoted to freedom Crassus represents the pinnacle to the Roman slave system The slave revolt is instigated by Crassus’ arrival at the ludus and his insistence to the fawning Batiatus, the school’s owner, of a gladiatorial entertainment of a “fight to the death” for the amusement of his company. Crassus arrives at the school on a white horse magnificently adorned in white, brocaded in gold accompanied by his lover Helena her brother Glabrus and his new bride Claudia, all with a perverse taste for violent spectacle for which he is prepared to pay in excess. Crassus remains inhumanly unmoved and cold as he watches Spartacus and Draba in deadly combat and when the compassionate Draba leaps to the viewing platform Crassus cold as ice even remains seated as he slashes Debra’s neck (Solomon 2001:50, 51).The killing of Draba by Crassus and his purchase of Varinia instigate the slave rebellion and establish Crassus as the focus of antagonism. Crassus is both sensual licentious and acquisitive with no trace of familial relations, marital or paternal, in this sterile world of Rome. He has a mistress who he accords scant fidelity and has a leaning towards slaves. Crassus’ personal immorality and corruption stands in vivid contrast to the middle-American wholesomeness of Spartacus who symbolises the ideal as both virgin, husband and father figure and his relationship with Varinia represents the “expectations of middle class American life as the ultimate fulfilment of the slave struggle for freedom” (Tatum 2007:132,139).Crassus openly exhibits his sensual interest in the slave girl Varinia in front of his mistress. Crassus is seen to be bisexual, indicating moral and political decadence, after trying to seduce Antoninus, a Greek slave, by exhibiting the military power of Rome’s legions to him. Crassus desires the total sexual domination of Antoninus, “No man can withstand Rome. No nation. How much less a boy?” That Crassus, narcissism elicits repugnance and stands at the very opposite of the spectrum of Spartacus’ moral purity which is reflected in their respective relationships with Antoninus and Varinia, who while giving love to Spartacus refuse to capitulate to Crassus Though Crassus is initially attracted to Varinia at the ludus, when he discovers her association with Spartacus he determines to possess her. If he cannot break the “unattainable myth” of Spartacus (“I ‘m after Spartacus and I mean to have him.”), he determines upon the submission of “Spartacus’ woman”( Elley 1984 111).Varinia’s rejection of him and her unbreachable loyalty to Spartacus, Crassus interprets as an indication of his impotence in obtaining Rome and he “starts to disintegrate” (Cyrino 2005:109). He is obsessed with the destruction of Spartacus and as he tells his officers before the final battle, “This campaign is not alone to kill Spartacus .It is to kill the legend of Spartacus…I’m not after glory I’m after Spartacus and I mean to have him.” When Crassus also discovers that Antoninus has joined Spartacus’ slave army he sees that he has been “doubly emasculated by Spartacus” and his rage becomes murderous as he issues a terrifying scream (Elley1984: 111). He compels Spartacus and Antoninus to fight to the death and each try to save the other from crucifixion, “We will test this myth of slave brotherhood.” But this final contest validates the familial bonds of Spartacus’ community as Antoninus dies in Spartacus arms “I love you, Spartacus, as I love my own father” “I love you, like my son that I’ll never see” thus their brotherhood is confirmed and excludes Crassus and the cruel Roman system (Cyrino 2005:111).As Spartacus says to Crassuss “He will come back and he will be millions. Like the death of Draba, catalysis for the slave rebellion, Antoninus’ death will have continuance (Cyrino 2005:109). Crassus has a chilling Cooper (1991:23) holds that Crassus’ passion for Rome gave him a compelling personality. Crassus passion for Rome is “bigger than himself” but has a chilling concept, with resonance of Commodus fascist totalitarianism as represented in Gladiator which took the patterning of Nazi propaganda films. After his defeat of the slave rebellion his chilling totalitarian intention become clear: “The enemies of the state are known, arrests are in progress, the prisons begin to fill. In every city and province lists of the disloyal have been competed.” Commodus Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is the archetype evil emperor unhinged and depraved ruler of a corrupt empire. Commodus destroys Maximus’ universe and the conditions which gave him his identity, crucifying his wife and son, burning his home and ordering his murder. Maximus escaping death is badly injured by Commodus’ men and resulting in his capture by slave trades and enslaved as a gladiator. While Maximus engages in violence only as an imperative, Commodus revels in it and as editor of the games is culpable for the carnage of death and mutilation in the arena having the absolute decisioning over the life and death of the gladiators. Commodus epitomized totalitarian oppression and the antithesis of Maximus who is the embodied of moral heroism and noble and just Republicanism. Maximus is the virtuous and dutiful family man, married to a good wife and mother a loyal Roman general and soldier but with no political ambition, his only wish to return to his homestead his plough his wife and his child. In his role as paterfamilias Maximus encourages his son to perfect his horse riding skills while Commodus tries to incite his nephew towards the violence of the gladiatorial games. . Commodus is driven by materialistic love of luxury and sexual debauchery personified in his unnatural love for his sister, Lucilla (Eckstein 2004: 54). His incestuous longing for his sister indicative of his yearning for maternal affection and a signifier of his dysfunctional childhood, with its lack of paternal affection and the absence of a mother, reflecting the modern concern and “nostalgia for traditional family values and also humanises Commodus (Winkler 2004: 107,108). Commodus only displays occasion genuine affection for one person his nephew Lucius, but even this turns to cold manipulation (Tudor 2002:6). Lucilla and Maximus had a youthful love affair and the fact that both Marcus Aurelius and his sister both favour Maximus enrages Commodus’ jealously. His desperately unrequited paternal affection and the deprivation of his inheritance in favour of Maximus, causes Commodus to murderously smother his father. With chillingly resonance he says to Senator Gracchus “The people are my children, and I am their father. I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly.” When Maximus refuses to swear allegiance to him, Commodus orders the murder of his family and the destruction of his farm. Commodus iconic evil power is allegorically reflected in Scott’s use of fascist iconography, and neoclassical architecture and spectacle copied from the cinematic injection of German Nazism propaganda from Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film Triumph of Will (1935) (Magid 2000: 55), patterning the arrival of Hitler at the Nazi rally in Nuremberg utilising the presentation of flowers, the crowds, the Eagles and the drums (Richards 2008: 177). Commodus’ triumphant entry into Rome is greeted by Senator Gracchus’ sneering “But what has he conquered?” This use of visual ideas from fascist totalitarian films associated with the Third Reich helps to evoke the character of Commodus’ evil. Commodus’ autocracy is bolstered by the support of the evil senators and the indifference of the crowd who are susceptible to easy devotion by the violence of the gladiatorial games which Commodus initiates to appease the mob but ostensibly to honour the memory of Marcus Aurelius(Albu2008: 198).As Gracchus states, “Rome is the mob. He will conjure magic for them, and they will be distracted. He will take away their freedom, and still they will roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate. It is the sand of the Colosseum. He will give them death, and they will love him for it.” His use of the arena is a function of his moral depravity. As Russell (2007:169) states “Commodus uses the sport in the arena as a violent political distraction, and the adulation he craves is the adulation of people driven wild by displays of senseless violenc 4) Supporting Companion Having discussed the major opponents of the heroes in Spartacus and Gladiator, I now turn to their supporting companions: Draba to Spartacus and Juba to Maximus. Spartacus and Draba The inclusion of Draba, (Woody Strode) as the noble black, magnificently physiqued Ethiopian gladiator companion to Spartacus and the sole black gladiator in the school gave a timely civil rights dimension to the film. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his performance in Spartacus. Woody Strode was a football star and an Olympic athlete who then established himself as a pioneering African-American film actor appearing in a number of classic westerns including Sergeant Rutledge (1960), John Ford’s reform western, where Strode portrays an African American soldier wrongly charged with raping and murdering a white girl, a film which “marked an important step in the evolution of racial consciousness.” (Bogle 2001: 185, 186). In Spartacus the film underscores Draba’s racial difference as when he is chosen at the ludus by Lady Claudia who states “I want the most beautiful. I’ll take the big the black one” (Cyrino 2005:118). Draba tells Spartacus, “Gladiators don’t make friends. If we are ever matched in the arena together, I’ll have to kill you.” he sets himself apart from the other slaves, rebuffing Spartacus’ friendly approaches of communisation by stating “You don’t want to know my name I don’t want to know your name.” Despite this when he is matched with Spartacus to fight to the death in the provincial arena at the Capuan gladiator school, for private entertainment, Draber dies rather than kill his defeated opponent (Richards 2008: 87,88). At the end of their duel when the victor Draba holds his trident to Spartacus’ throat we see him brace himself for his death, but a reverse angle close up on the face of Draba shows his innate nobility with the comprehension of the inhumanity of his bidden task .Comprehension and resistance increases as he is repeated taunted by the aristocratic obscenities of the Roman “Kill him, kill him, you imbecile!” (Winkler 2007:169).Instead of slaughtering his friend he becomes master of his own fate as in a gesture of self sacrifice and self mastery, he hurls his spear at the elevated box of the supercilious and jaded Roman spectators, but also at the camera placed in the balcony hence expanding to a new disturbing spectator placement and compliance for the modern cinematic audience, suggesting an identity between the Romans and the cinema audience (Tatum 2007:134). As Wyke (1997:70) states, “Suggesting that to take pleasure in looking upon such a scene is to become no better than a Roman.” Draba reverse his identity as an object of entertainment through his revolutionary gesture of rebellion, as he leaps to attack the patricians. Though he is cut down and executed by Crassus his sacrifice takes on a specifically allegorical and national meaning. As Davis (2000:36)holds , Kubrick makes use of the “divisive social space” in the combat between Crassus and his guests sitting safely established well above the arena space where Spartacus and Draba are forced to fight., hence when Draba attacks the Romans his jumps upward is a startling and difficult leap connecting “the two worlds through violence.” As Burgoyne (2008:89) states, “The black gladiator leaps into the parapet as if he were leaping onto the balcony of history, as if to remind us of the legacy of slavery and the way it is bound to our idealized conceptions of freedom, Roman and American…suggesting that slavery and race are at the centre of US history, as slavery was at the centre of the history of Rome.” This scene is echoed in Gladiator in an “astonishing visual link” when Maximus hurls his sword at the viewing platform thus associating Maximus and Draba in their suffering and isolation” (Cyrino 2005:242). Draba’s body is hung upside down from the roof of the gladiators’ barracks as a timely warning against resistance and rebellion to other slaves and evokes the sheer horrors of the racist lynching of the Ku Klux Klan and the supremacy of a system sustained by violence and lynching, thus a timely reminder of the institution of slavery upon which American history is based. Despite the blatant act of terror and intimidation Draba’s martyrdom becomes an impulse of emancipation for the gladiators’ rebellion, thus sustaining a role of pivotal importance for the African gladiator. The inversion of his dead body gives resonance of the iconic imagery of Saint Paul’s martyrdom and becomes the instigation for the slave rebellion “the struggle of the black man becomes the visual icon of every man’s struggle to be free…Spartacus responds to the centrality of black activism and civil disobedience as the civil rights movement began to gain momentum “(Cyrino 2005:118). As Murphy (2004: 14) holds, “Draba’s sacrificial death and dangling corpse condense a shameful history of slavery, lynching, and racial oppression in the United States and legitimate Spartacus’s revolt in terms of contemporary civil rights efforts.” Woody Strode was the recognisable symbol of individual struggle against racial discrimination for American audiences having in 1946 became one of the two first African Americans to play in the National Foot ball League (Cyrino 2005:118) While the Eisenhower administration refused to yield on issues of racial civil rights, nevertheless progress was affected through the legal challenges of civil rights activists such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, (1954), a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which overturned the decision of Plessy v Ferguson of 1896 and enabled black and white children equal education as a constitutional right. The anti-systemic protest movements against racial discrimination helped reshape the political institutions of America's struggle against segregation against which they were lawfully directed. This new civil rights movement began in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 with Rosa Parkes’ inspirational act of individual defiance in refusing to obey a bus driver and surrender her seat to a white man. Her subsequent arrest caused a boycott of city buses until seating was integrated. This action also inspired the nationwide campaign of resistance and enlightenment and generated Martin Luther King’s inspirational activism. Despite the Preamble to the American Declaration of Independence 1776 declaring that “All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” anomalously, growing side by side with this notion of equality as a universal value, there existed a narrative permitting the degradation of racism and the enslavement of African-Americans. While in Colonial British America, civil emasculation was a natural condition for the English, who in the 18th-century settled in Virginia, the African-American slave was politically excluded and unrepresented constitutionally. The Africans were forcibly removed from different cultural and geographic locations and relocated for economic, political and cultural purposes to the benefit of white society. Historically African-American people had their fundamental cultures, status and legal and human rights and very humanity threatened and subject to control by the dominant white Eurocentric society which excluded them from the Constitution and political process Their constitutional position was stated in the Dred Scott (1857) judgment of the Supreme Court, which held that the Constitution had never intended that African-Americans should be citizens and possessed “no right to which any white man was bound to respect.” During their enforced slavery, and even after Emancipation the African-Americans were culturally and politically excluded from civil society and even life itself by lynching, rioting, intimidation and the Ku Klux Klan (Pieterse 1996 p 228 p 235). Maximus and Juba The relationship between Juba and Maximus is clearly inspired by Spartacus (Rose 2004:163) and reiterates the pairing of Spartacus and Draba encodes into a different message. Unlike the tension presented as Kubrick’s cinematic theme in the relationship between the African, Draba and the Thracian hero Spartacus, that between the Nubian, Juba (Djimon Hounsou) and Maximus is portrayed as unproblematic. Nevertheless Maximus’ African companion, Juba, provides contemporary concerns of race and remembrance of the civil rights struggles and is a reinforcing resonant of the significance of Spartacus’ fictional African gladiator, Draba, who provided allegorical screen significance to the American civil rights (Wyke1997: 68). In addressing the issues of the identity, representation and place of the African-American in American history and society once again as in Spartacus in the unfolding of political antagonism “the black among the gladiators unhesitatingly accept and appreciate the white hero’s leadership qualities without question”(Pomeroy 2004 ;120) .However, in Gladiator there is a racism theme and of Hitler’s megalomania Nazi eugenics when Commodus declares his intention to marry Lucilla, his sister, in order to “produce an heir of pure blood so that Commodus and his progeny will rule for a thousand years.” As Pomeroy (2004: 120) states, this is “an isolated case and a moral aberration.” Maximus is presented as a Spaniard set alongside the diversity of racially mixed gladiatorial fighters and as he rises in popularity and prestige through combat skill and bravery in the arena he is known affectionately as “The Spaniard” to the crowds and to his fellow gladiators. The discourse adds to the persuasive and imaginative power of the film and its cultural effect on audiences. However, Maximus’ enslavement is different from the other slaves, he was part of the political and military elite before his reduction to chatteled slavery .While the other slaves are backgrounded and rarely personalised, Maximus is the natural focus of audience identification. Juba, the African Numidian Hunter and Hagen, (Rolf Mueller) the Germanic warrior, till Maximus arrival Proximo’s prized gladiator, receive some, though unextensive personalisation variables. We discover that Juba, Maximus closest gladiator ally was taken by slave traders from his family and his homeland. Where Maximus is first captured and badly injured Juba instructing him to let the maggots consume the infected flesh and applies healing paste perhaps saving his life, and when Maximus resists fighting Juba codifies the mechanisms of survival for him, “Why don’t you fight? We all have to fight!” The two captive gladiator comrades develop a profound friendship resonant of the intense bond as between Spartacus and Draba, Juba becoming Maximus’ fighting partner. However, while Draba sacrifices his life for that of Spartacus, Juba becomes a spiritual healer and survives to help Maximus “articulate his purpose during the rest of his brief, brutal life” (Cyrino 2005:228,229). Juba reminds Maximus of his destiny “You have a great name [Commodus] must kill your name before he kills you.” In the re-enactment of the Battle of Carthage in the Colosseum Juba picks up a sword and throws it to the weaponless galloping Maximus thus ensuring Maximus complete the compelling victory which wins the crowd and enables moments of great exultation within the company of gladiators(figure ). Maximus and Juba converse about their home background and families family lives before their enslavement and the two gladiators share moments of profound spirituality as they speak of the afterlife. Juba confides that he has no expectations of being reunited with his family before he dies in the arena and Maximus reveals that his wife and son are already dead and that he shares Juba’s belief in the afterlife reunion. “Can they hear you your family in the afterlife? What would you say to them?” “I tell him I will see him soon.” Juba with his love of living attempts to stay Maximus’ gloomily preoccupied with death, “You will meet them again, but not yet.”(Cyrino 2005:229). When Maximus’ plot to overthrow Commodus is discovered Lucius Verus rounds up the conspirators including Juba at Proximo’s gladiatorial barracks and with the other survivors is imprisoned. When dying in the arena after he has dispatched Commodus, Maximus instructs Quintus, the captain of the Praetorian Guards, to release Juba and the other surviving gladiators, thus even at his end giving meaning to his empathetic friendship .The gladiators including Juba, Quintus and Senator Gracchus carry the body of Maximus out of the Colosseum arena while they leave Commodus behind. Later that evening Juba returns to bury the figurines of Maximus’ wife and son in the sands where Maximus fell and which are stained with his blood. Juba issues a vow to one day meet Maximus again in the afterlife, but for now he takes his leave to journey to his homeland and to reunite with his family. Djimon Hounsou played the rebellious slave leader in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997) and achieves public recognition in the political struggles of black liberationist. In Gladiator, however, he plays a subordinate and compliant partner who tends Maximus’ wounds and is unable to comprehend Maximus’ rebellion against his master. By his role as the pious friend who buries Maximus’ family idols after his friend’s death, Juba’s cinematic character displays an encoding of the Republican image of nostalgia for a lost golden age of race relations, in which blacks do not question whites and obey their white superiors”( Rose 2004:163) As Tudor (2002: 2) states Gladiator provides “a comfort zone from which the audience can perceive slavery outside its usual historical context in the United States: the use of the white protagonist and the setting in ancient Rome.” This is reflected in box office responses. After five weeks of release Gladiator had achieved box office worldwide takings of $158 million (Variety May 7, 2001), in contrast to the $44 million with which Amistad finished its United States. As Tudor (2002:2) states because Maximus and many other slaves are whites men “slavery can be attributed to other things than race [hence] using the enslavement of a white protagonist in ancient Rome allows the audience to feel pity and righteous indignation for the hero without feeling any accompanying guilt.” 5) Spectacle: Space of Conflict I now turn to the space of conflict for each hero: for Spartacus the place of conflict is a place of landscape where he established his resolution and heroism while for Maximus combat and spectacle which establishes his heroism takes pace on the battlefield, in the arena and the on the sands of the Colosseum. Spectacle Spartacus Spartacus is shown as charismatic, encouraging, straight talking and handsome (Davis 2000:33).He is the central cinematic figure developed morally to challenge Rome as symbol of evil and corruption has a brave and rebellious spirit and he treats the slaves that follow him “like people instead of like animals.” Spartacus concept of freedom is that inherent and essential entitlement of all human beings and his aspirations are to free his people from the oppression of enslavement and as a Zionist Mosses like figure to lead them from the Roman oppressors out of Rome to their home lands. Thousands of men women and children join his vast slave army as it moves south down the Italian peninsular planning escape on the ships of the Cilesian pirates, eventually thwarted by Crassus and compelled into battle and annihilated. Kubrick’s Spartacus wins no major gladiatorial fights, and his personal intervention decides neither battle…nor any great... [or] super human deeds.” Though ancient Rome provides a spectacular cinematic opportunity for lavish spectacle, Spartacus appears to eschew many of the conventions of spectacle attributed to Roman epic films. Though the arena is the hyperbolic symbol for Roman civilisation in Spartacus there are no public games, and the gladiator combats are small scale private combats with little spectacle, rather the film invites the audience to comprehend the gladiators predicament where he is forced to fight and kill a human being against whom he has no grievance or with whom as between Spartacus and Draba there may have established deeper feelings of brotherhood. Later there is a reinforcement of this occurrence when Spartacus prevents a vindictive combat between two slave owners initiated by drunken slaves;” I swore that if I ever got out …I’d die before I’d watch two men fight to the death again…what are we becoming Romans ?” (Davis 2000:31, 32). Spartacus to be “The thinking man’s epic… and deserves praise for its human sensitivity, sharp characterisation, visionary photography and bold political realism.” The simple humanity of the slave community compares vividly with the powerful and oppressive Roman system of the ludus. The slaves of the ludus are humiliated, painted on, forced to train, held in silence and leered at and incarcerated in small claustrophobic cells as where Spartacus encounters Varinia. The rebel community is seen living experiencing freedom at last, huddled in family groups, marching through snow and rain, tending and milking their goats, exchanging folk tales and smiling with contentment in their experience of freedom. This is particularly poignantly exemplified when the slaves sit round the camp fire while Antoninus delivers a song of seas, mountains meadows and family (Solomon 2001:52-55). The slave army set up strategic camp on Mount Vesuvius which is shown as a utopia of aspirational equality where families of individually valued human beings live in a genuine community of equals described by Spartacus as a brotherhood. They have succeeded in forging bonds of community and family beyond the boundaries of the cruel system of Rome (Cyrino 2005:112).As Davis (2000:38, 39) states the appearance of children snuggling with their parents in the rebel encampment is a sign of resistance, for as the film makes clear with both Spartacus and Varinia sold before their thirteenth birthdays, masters had power of sale and separation within slave families. The camera picks out women, children, and old people, each improvising and contributing to the community according to their talents and their means and training men and women for battle. There are many shots of families, young lovers and old couples engaged in their daily routines of life, dancing, grieving, kissing, frolicking, eating, drinking, cooking in a” folk pastoral …celebration of the Common Man” (Murphy 2004:14). They connect with their landscape as they build their community. Parents carry their children, the young help the old and in one sad scene a couple is seen burying their infant child in the ground, returning its body to mother earth This idyllic interlude is further harmonised by tender and lyrical love scenes between Spartacus and Varinia (Jean Simmons), a slave girl from Britannia, whose pregnancy provides the symbolism of hope for the future and humanises and domesticates Spartacus. The rebel encampment is a place of new life and living and violence is used only as a tool of liberation, unlike the ludus a place of death, and violence a tool of entertainment. As the camera tracks Spartacus riding about the camp there is a feeling of openness and liberation unlike the claustrophobic dungeons of the ludus. The cinematic technique encourages the audience to see the gladiators identifying with nature and the landscape (Futrell 2001: 107).When the rebels move through the landscape Spartacus as a spokesman for the universality of freedom in his last speech to the fellow members of his encampment states: “I’d rather be here a free man among brothers, facing a long march and a hard fight, than to be the richest citizen of Rome, fat with food he didn’t work for and surrounded by slaves…As long as we live, we must stay true to ourselves. I do know that we’re brothers, and I know that we’re free.” As Spartacus states to Antoninus with whom he develops a father son relationship,” When just one man says ‘No I won’t,’ Rome begins to fear. And we were tens of thousand who said no-that was the wonder of it!” For Spartacus the essence of victory is not the outcome but struggle . These sentiments echoes the provenance of the Old Left embracing “domesticity en masse [ a]slave army [which] is actually a slave society.” Before the battle the forces of the rebel slaves seem Kirk Douglas transforms Spartacus from Fast’s “parable of equality” the Marxist rebel, to a Zionist hero who does not want to attack Rome but to lead his people “out of a repressive Italy(with Crassuss as Pharaoh)to an unspecified Promised Land.” The recurring cross cutting between the rebel utopian encampment and the mechanical functioning of the Roman cohorts, reinforced by contrasting orchestral motifs, emphases the brutality of the Roman system supported by enforced economic slavery, which supplies abundance, wealth and amusement for the Roman uncaring elite. It provides “a visual translation to screen of the Marxist concern with the conflict between labour and capital manifest in Fast’s novel” Wyke (1997:65).The difference is visually illustrated in the Roman dress code of the senators bordered white togas which contrast with the single huge tunics, rough furs and the brown woollen cloaks of the rebel army as they walk through the idyllic country rustic landscape (Davies 2000:36). The scene of the last climatic battle was shot on a plain near Madrid, in Spain. Spartacus and his army of thousands of men and women stand on a hill in their ramshackled battle attire holding their weapons watching Crassus and his legions of soldiers as they gathered and fall into place on another long green rolling hill across the valley in the distant gloom, forming a powerful and inhuman military machine, “straight phalanxes of icy death,” gleaming and weaponed, in their armour and crimson cloaks .The camera is set up to place the audience behind the rebel army to view the Roman legions on the opposite hill. (Solomon 2001:53 55) .We the audience watch the soldiers with Crassus from a close proximity, then view them through the eyes of Spartacus and his rebel army from the distant hill. The legions move efficiently and symmetrically over the hill across the valley, which by a wide angle shot are seen marching forward in endless ordered waves of men, a colossal military war machine like gigantic symmetrical insects, with the seeming infinite heartless collective efficiency of Roman power. Spartacus rebellious slave army is defeated by Crassus in a chaotic sequence of close combat, including the fire weapons by which the rebels surprise the legionnaires. The battle resolves with the camera cutting to vast field of slaughtered rebels (Davis 2000:36-38). The brotherhood is affirmed when Crassus demands the prisoners identify Spartacus in exchange for their life and one by one the slave stand up and declare “I am Spartacus” (Richards 2008:86). Spectacle The ancient world has long been an entrenched and pervasive part of popular culture and in many manifestations hence ancient Roman epics became a popular subject for cinematic narratives. In Hollywood Rome is exhibited as both opulent and decadent and a site of both excess and civic virtue and also imperial domination echoing social iniquities in contemporary United States (Burgoyne 2008:7). Their monumental architecture, heroic narratives and heroes and copious excesses appeal to the classical Hollywood style of lavish spectacle.Elley (1984:76) states, “If there is one civilisation that has dominated popular idea of what a historical epic film ought to be it is ancient Rome.” Epics response to television in the 1950’s and 1960’s was to provide visual effects unobtainable on the small screen, offering locations of great size, scope, beauty ,colour, crowds, exterior locations, magnificent costumes and interiors with pomp and circumstance. The arena provided opportunities for spectacle with it multiple gladiatorial combats terraces crowed with extras, prolific and giant sets and bodies which were partially clad, “The epics became demonstrations of what a studio could do, they were the last great flings of illusion” (Wood 1975:168,169). While Spartacus is a lavishly displayed classical film in Gladiator as the Dreamworks Gladiator Press Kit states “ Director Ridley Scott brings the glorious battles of the ancient Roman arena back to the big screen in a sweeping story of courage and revenge.” Maximus The film production team of Gladiator , determined to resurrect and recreate the grandeur of ancient Rome, with its the sights and sound ,its architecture and its magnificent Colosseum with lavish spectacle, had not only an aesthetically formidable tasks but also a financial challenge to detract from bankrupting the studio, “that was the challenge and there was no margin for error” (Magid 2000: 55). Ridley Scott’s achievement in Gladiator is his ability to empower a modern audience with the emotional dimensions of an ancient Roman crowd by “bringing the experience of spectatorship alive” (Potter 2004: 86). Gladiator provides an example of the capacity of the Roman film epic for the exhibiting and utilisation of new cinematic technological advances. As Burgoyne (2008:76) holds this provides the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the battle and combat scenes with “a visual depth and apparent authenticity that is unsurpassed … [a] vivid resurrection of the ancient world…both seem familiar and deeply other.” Combat, ancient battles architecture, the Colosseum was all important for locating spectacles with large crowd scenes and costuming. In Gladiator Scott and his production team raised the imperial palace and totally restored Colosseum, using existing buildings in the ruined Spanish fortress on Malta (already the subject of classical restoration by Napoleon), and rebuilding collapsed sections. As Max states “we then built partial, full-sized, real sets of gigantic walls inside the fortress, which really helped put our sets within the context of the city…The formidable task [was] re-creating ancient Rome … to bring the scale of ancient Rome to life” (Magid 2000:56). The opening sequence of Maximus and the army of the Roman empire against the barbarians of Germania and the awe-inspiring explicitly detail computer aided recreation of Rome’s Colosseum, presents Rome in exquisite, often historical accuracy. The new computer digital imaging technological breakthrough of CGI, (Complete Graphic Imaging) radically reduced the cost of spectacles, scenes and imagery of ancient Roman, securing awe-inspiring, unprecedented detail and scale of the Colosseum with the exceptional opportunity of close-ups views of the fighting and carnage of the arena thus empowering the audiences with the opportunity of moral outrage against the depraved proximity of the evil Commodus. Gladiator begins with the massive battle campaign in Germania where Maximus Decimus Meridius, General of Rome, leads his legions to victory over German barbarian hordes in vivid and brutal spectacle. Maximus strides through the ranks of his men “At my signal, unleash hell.” Against the rousing music of Hans Zimmer, the scrolling written prologue announces, “At the height of its power the Roman Empire was vast, stretching from the desert of North Africa to the borders of northern England…one final stronghold stands in the way of Roman victory ad the promise of peace throughout the Empire.” The opening battle is cinematically portrayed in a snow squall with a fire enveloping the forest on a bleak northern frontier of the Empire. The film’s initial sequence in Germania, the massive battle campaign, was shot over 18 weeks entirely on location during the English winter time. This sequence was originally destined to be filmed in Slovakia, however the discovery that an area of forest near Farnham in southern England was due for replanting by the British Forestry Commission enabling its appropriation for the battle field scene and the saving of a massive relocation ).Ridley Scott was able to cut down then fire the tracts of forest trees , hence producing a muddy and charred battlefield of visual daring and intensity reminiscent of chaos and turmoil of the Normandy invasion of the first reel Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private 227).Scott selected British cinematographer John Mathieson for the production filming who used the Super 35 format ably deployed to capture the thousands of extras in combat with its zoom lens facility. He filmed the combat scenes with a 45-degree shutter and at several frame rates which revealed clear sword movements and contrived to make the antagonist combatants appear more aggressive. Roman archers fire flaming arrows into the kerosene-saturated battlefield, pots of pitch were launched by catapults which ignite the earth, while the Roman cavalry charge through the forest (Bankston 2000:36-41). The modern special effects and cinematic techniques with multiple cameras filming at various film rates spectacularly embellish and update the Roman epic genre. All the fight sequences render “a breathtaking technical advance upon the combat scenes of earlier epics” which were previously filmed generally in a single wide angle shot (Cyrino 2004: 130). When Commodus assumed the throne, after he has murdered his father, he revives the games he declares “I will give the people a vision of Rome, and they will love me for it.” As Russell (2007: 170) states, Commodus is “a ruler whose ultimate downfall is his heavy reliance on the destruction of the arena.” Gracchus observes that Rome is a mob which is susceptible to distraction by violent political entertainment of the arena. This dangerous place of bread, circuses and brutality, the bedding ground for the rise of despotism, is also an arena for the opportunity for social change. As Russell (2007: 169) states, “Maximus effectively uses the gladiatorial circus in as a medium for social change…a dissenting political opinion.” While Commodus takes delight in violence Maximus uses it only when it is imperative. Commodus, who holds the power of life and death in the gladiatorial arena contests and thus retains culpability, takes glee in the parade of the mutants and encourages his nephew to watch violence, this compares with Maximus’ paternal concern as he focuses on instructing his son’s equestrian skills. Maximus has real battlefield experience and he sees triumph in the arena as the way to political power, popularity, and revenge. He is able to use the gladiatorial arena as a medium for ridding the world of Commodus and fulfilling the democratic ideals of Aurelius’ last wishes for the restoration of the Roman Republic (Russell 2007: 156,167-169). Both in the battlefield and the arena exceptional courage, performance and army discipline are the key to freedom and honour, and his triumph in “the sand of the Colosseum” engenders him with political power, translated by Lucilla, Commodus’ sister, in the words “Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.” Maximus also sees combat and the gladiatorial spectacle of the arena with its crowd enticing properties, as the only hope to win his freedom and his right to be recognised as a Roman and as a civilised man. In Maximus’ fight against Tigris of Gaul he refuses to kill Tigris and this act of mercy is not only makes the crowd loved him more (Rushton 2001: 38), but it also has a civilising effect on the mob who cheer him wildly as “Maximus the Merciful.” The scenes of gladiatorial combat are scenes of incredible spectacle but they are part of the dark world of authorised murder subjecting gladiators to the debased condition of chattel slaves subjected to total dominance for the entertainment of the mob. Rome is a dark grim world where killing is state organised sport and parts of a circus where the audience participate, even as we the cinema audience comply in our patterning of behaviour. In the second provincial combat sequence, Maximus expresses his disdain and comprehension as the taunts he arena spectators as he hurls a spear at them, “Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you were here?” However, the crowd responds to this taunt cheering Maximus confirming the later prognostications of Proximo’s “Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.” Spectacle... provides the environment in which tyranny thrives [and] democracy and freedom are only possible if we first of all free ourselves from the lure of spectacle.” Nevertheless it is through the utilization of spectacle that Maximus, the enslaved gladiator, establishes his position of real power. He utilises his celebrity status, his heroism and popularity amongst the mob of Rome achieved through his combat skills in the gladiatorial arena to transmit a dissenting political belief and achieve a political transformation (Russell 2007:169).His experience on the real field of battle when he is fighting for his vision of Rome provide him with the skill to fight in the arena. Because of his status with the crowd Maximus is able defeat Commodus, in the final apocalyptic confrontation in the arena, despite his mortal wound moments before the combat, and to restore the vision of Aurelius’ Rome, for which he has fought and which extradites its self from the tyranny of Commodus. Within the landscape of arena spectatorship Lucilla states “This is power.” The spectacle of the Roman arena had the ability to achieve social engineering and could undermine or reinforced the social order (Potter 2004: 74). Maximus is perceived as an idealised moral hero fighting against the corruption of Rome in the exaggerated cinematic arena of heroism and violence. “My name is Gladiator” formulates Maximus as Everyman. Maximus is not politically motivated .When he wins in the arena he rejects the spurious heroism of celebrity desirous only of reunion with his wife and son. Visions of Death/Religion Having discussed the landscapes in which each hero establishes his heroism I now turn to their visions of death and their religious beliefs and the influence of these on their voyages of heroism and resolution. Both Spartacus and Gladiator are secular narratives and departure from the ancient Rome narratives focused on conflict between the oppositional forces of Christianity or Judaism versus tyranny. In both Spartacus and Gladiator the narrative formula is the voice of resistance of against tyranny and oppression in pursuance of the heroic longing for freedom against the background of the decadence, power and cruelty of Rome. Though Spartacus is ostensibly a secular narrative it in fact “purged of its secular Marxist associations, pace Fast and Trumbo [and] becomes a proto-Judeo- Christian narrative” (Murphy 2004:13) while the oppositional narration in Gladiator is between totalitarianism and freedom (Solomon 2004:1, 14). Spartacus. Spartacus’ attitude to death from the perspective of slavery is, “A free man dies and he loses the pleasure of life, a slave loses his pain. Death is the only freedom a slave knows...That’s why we’ll win.” Spartacus states to Varinia “I imagine a god of slaves and I pray... for a son who will be born free.” The film opens with the establishing shots of the enslaved Spartacus, toiling in the desert lands of the Middle East, in the land of both Mosses and Jesus Christ, “dreaming of the death of slavery 2000 years before it would finally die.” The voiceover contextualises the cinematic narration within a Christian framework, “In the last century before the birth of the new faith called Christianity, which was destined to overthrow the pagan tyranny of Rome, and bring about a new society, the Roman Republic stood at the very centre of the civilised world…yet even at the zenith of her pride and power, the Republic lay fatally stricken with the disease called slavery. The age of the dictator was at hand, waiting in the shadows for the event to bring it forth.” Spartacus therefore seems to anticipate not only Christianity but also a new democratic and civilised society which it will engender (Murphy 2004:14). Kubrick initiates the subject of death from the outset of the film when in the opening sequence Spartacus is condemned to a living death in the infernal environment of the salt mines filmed in Death Valley. Though he is rescued it is only for the purpose of being trained as a gladiator to fight to the death in the arena, to inflict death or to be killed. (Paz 2007:191). There is a strong Christian resonance and distinctive symbolism in the last scene with Spartacus’ crucifixion on the Via Appia, a potent symbol reinforced with the tableau of Varinia holds up their infant child up to the cross of the dying Spartacus as she vows to teach her son who would grow up in freedom, and in the knowledge of “who his father was and what he dreamed of.” Varinia’s final word about freedom, death and slavery fuse both secular and sacred discourses (Murphy 2004:14). The birth of Spartacus’ son in freedom represents a symbolic triumphant over slavery and of life over death. This iconic scene is resonant of both the Nativity and the Passion and the sacrifice that Jess gave on the cross giving his life so that others might be saved (Cyrino 2005:113). Though the slave rebellion does not succeed against Crassus, Spartacus does not die in vain, he sees his son born in freedom (Winkler 2007:184,185).As Variana states, “This is your son. He is free.” she repeats the word free as the head of the dying Spartacus falls against his chest, symbolically representing his immortality through resurrection and through the freedom of his son (Parrill 1982:90). Spartacus utters one word to Varina as he dies on the cross, “Free”. This iconic scene is resonant of both the Nativity and the Passion and the sacrifice that Jess gave on the cross giving his life so that others might be saved (Cyrino 2005:113). As Winkler (2007:184,185) states though the slave rebellion does not succeed against Crassus Spartacus does not die in vain, his legacy lives on. When Crassus forces Spartacus to kill Antoninus he expresses the idea of resurrection “He’ll come back. He’ll come back and he’ll be millions!” Crassus is more afraid of Spartacus dead than alive. Maximus. As Maximus states, “Death smiles at us all, all we can do is smile back.” Gladiator opens with Maximus’ dream of death. The vision is an endless field of golden wheat which has a mythical association with Proserpina the Queen of the land of dead, the daughter of Ceres, goddess of agriculture. Maximus’ idyllic dreams are of the caressing of the field of grain, a haunting voice sings over the images and children’s laughter is carried away by the wind. This vision of death is echoed in the concluding scene and his “yearning for an eternal Elysium” (Solomon 2001:92).Suddenly we are cut from the warm summer colours of the natural world to the cold blue images of war and the sound tracked song of mourning and Maximus a Roman general determined and resolute, dressed for battle determined and resolute ready to exhort his soldiers before battle is about eternity and death: “Fratres, three weeks from now I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the lines, stay with me. If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and you are already dead. Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.” Each time Maximus prepares for military battle or gladiatorial combat he demonstrates his primordial yearning for his farming pastoral roots, his simple agrarian values and his idealistic resonance for continuity with Mother Earth. When Maximus becomes a gladiator, Proximo who had himself been a gladiator and freed by Marcus Aurellius, engenders his model of death, “Ultimately, we are all dead men. Sadly we cannot choose how, but we can decide how we meet the end in order that we are remembered as men.” He advocates that his model of death is to transcend it by meeting death heroically, “When you die, and die you shall, your transition shall be to the sound of ‘clap clap’, gladiators I salute you.” Ward (2004: 41) suggests that the enthusiasm for gladiatorial games was affiliated to the popular zeal for “the ancient warrior code that stressed overcoming death by achieving honour and underlying fame through killing others or at least meeting a glorious death in battle,” thus providing a representation of heroic death for the mob. That perception is the mobs’ obsessive willingness to be distracted by gladiatorial games powerful political variable of distraction which Commodus readily grasps and utilises. As Senator Gracchus states of Commodus, “He will bring them on death, and they will love him for it.” Maximus is as heroic in the arena as he was in the battlefield. The arena is a site where a hero can rise. Maximus’ gladiatorial skill at overcoming death in the arena achieves for him the popularity, fame and honour which enable him to achieved his goal of revenge on Commodus for the murder of his wife and son and of Aurelius, to redeem himself and become reunited with his family. Despite his fatal injuries Maximus order the Praetorian Guard to free his men. Maximus’ final scene demonstrates his agrarian idealism. Once Maximus had learnt of the death of his wife and child, his dream is to join them in the afterlife in Elysium, in a vision of pagan tranquillity. This imperative makes him fearless in the face of death thus empowering his odyssey for vengeance against Commodus. As Maximus vows to Commodus “I will have my vengeance in this life or the next.” Gladiator is without the traditional Christian eschatology of epic Roman films and has a pagan context not a Christian one, however, though the contextualised concept of a Christian vision is removed, the film has a vision of pagan tranquillity in regard to perspectives of death and the afterlife, and the narrative has a deeply conservative strategy endorsing family values (Solomon 2001, 14). The oppositional narration in Gladiator is between totalitarianism and freedom. Before Maximus dies he is surrounded by Praetorians and is honoured as a soldier of Rome. In the now silent Colosseum Maximus is beset by visions of the afterlife and of his family, yet gives instructions to release the prisoners. He dies in Lucilla’s arms as his soul wanders to greet his family in the afterlife as death takes Maximus to his journey’s end to the joyous reconciliation with his wife and son at the gates of Elysium. Maximus is borne away in triumph and homage, though in death, while Commodus remains in the dust. That night Juba returning to the sands of the Colosseum and buries Maximus’ figures of his wife and his son while he reconfirms his belief in the afterlife vows reunite, “But not yet.” 6) Conclusion: Exposure of Ideological Difference Kirk Douglas metamorphoses Spartacus from a Marxist rebel hero into a Zionist hero motivated to lead the community of slaves out of Italy back to their homes rather than to lead an attack on Rome (Richards 2008: 86). The metaphor of Spartacus which dominates the narrative is the birth of Christianity, the corruption of Rome and the final demise of slavery in America (Burgoyne 2008:80). Spartacus reflects the political climate of its time with subtexts of the McCarthy hearings, the Civil Rights movement and Zionism. It was picketed by Legion of Decency a picket which was defeated by the crossing of its line by John F. Kennedy to view the film. Gladiator treats ancient Rome as an allegory of contemporary America and its global imperialism

Gladiator: The Restoration of the Roman Epic Genre by Gillian Hammerton

Gladiator: The Restoration of the Roman Epic Genre.

The historical epics of Ancient Rome have resonance for American audiences with their narratives of political intrigue, violence and sex high places as in the contemporary Clinton administration The Rome of the historical cinematic epic stands for America, corrupt at heart, its foundations based on enslavement, pursuing pointless wars beyond its borders and whose citizens forego a civil society for the barbarianship of “bread and circuses” Gladiator (2000) was the recipient of five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor (Russell Crow as Maximus) and Best Visual Effects. The film received a great deal of attention ,was an enormous commercial success and brought back to life the traditional cinematic Hollywood Roman blockbuster epic film, with interactional characterisation reflecting contemporary concerns but with the authentic resonance of the ancient world. Gladiator created a Rome and Romans with the capacity to become symbols of current debates about the status of American society and culture and possesses a thematic resonance of collective symbolism and expression. The massive popular box-office response enshrines Maximus, the enslaved chatteled gladiator, as a heroic icon of resistance in popular culture. He becomes a clarion for the freedom and liberty enshrined in our political ideals and against contemporary political tyranny, and a symbol of independent assertion against unjust oppression against the individual freedom of the citizen. Past Cinematic Influences Gladiator uses the epic format to reconstruct and recreate a historical characterisation of the ancient world. Ridley Scott’s Roman epic revitalised the historic ancient cinematic genre which had been in hiatus for thirty five years and marked Hollywood’s return to an era of lavish productions such as Ben Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960). The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) was the last of the Hollywood historical epics, which after the disaster of the 1963 Cleopatra, had failed to attract the spectacle weary public to the box office despite lavish costumes and sets. As Arthur Max, the film’s production designer, held, it was a formidable task to recreate the grandeur of Rome without bankrupting the studio as almost happened in Cleopatra “that was the challenge and there was no margin for error. Gladiator was the first major Roman ancient history film of its era and Anthony Mann’s The Fall of the Roman Empire clearly served as its model. It coincidentally revisited the same timeframe, the second century AD, the same characters and the same events, namely the death of Marcus Aurelius and the ascent and declined of Commodus. In his evocation of earlier films Gladiator picks up where the genre died and gives it a rebirth, narrating us through the landscape of antiquity with the big technological cinematic breakthrough of CGI, (Complete Graphic Imaging). This new computer digital imaging technology radically brought down the cost of the scenes, imagery and spectacles of ancient Roman, providing awe-inspiring, unprecedented detail and scale. Gladiator enjoys the economic and visual advantages, not just of computer-generated special affects, but of an entire generations worth of developments in film technique.

 Gladiator has innovative techniques of persuasion and a compelling narrative, engaging the spectator through an interpretation of ancient history, not necessarily accurate but with a multiplicity of powerful technical achievements and cinematic devices. A further uplifting variable is Scott’s, emphasis upon the rebuilding of old Rome rather than focusing on the fall of the Roman Empire as in The Fall of the Roman Empire. As Cyrino (2005:224) states, “Gladiator was more overtly aware of its involvement in manipulating and retelling the myth of Rome.

As in past historical cinematic epics the protagonist still seeks revenge for the death of loved ones and though the Christianity is removed, Scott retains the narrative of romantic relationships. The film is not radical and though it challenges the regime, it retains a deeply conservative strategy. Maximus is loyal to his family values in his longing to be reunited with his wife and child. He creates a family shrine with tiny familial figurines wherever he goes. As a farmer and s a father he has sacrificed both his pastoral idyll and his family life for the greater good of Rome, though he is a provincial Spaniard and has never visited Rome. We see his longing to return home as his hand tenderly caresses a meadow of wheat. Though Maximus could not protect his own family and son from death he becomes not only a moral hero, but a universal father who seeks to protect not only Lucille’s son but all Rome’s children. Maximus has an African companion, Juba, which provides contemporary civil rights concerns of race and remembrance of the civil rights struggles. This is resonant of the significance of the fictional African gladiator, Draba, in Spartacus (1960) and its allegorical screen significance to the American civil rights (Wyke1997: 68).

In Gladiator such allegory also addresses the issues of the identity, representation and place of the African-American in American history and society and the way in which these concepts relate to the unfolding of political antagonism, and the mirroring of such antagonism in the political/legal institutions and in American cinema and its reception. Gladiator provides added contemporary resonance as Maximus is presented as a Spaniard set alongside the diversity of racially mixed gladiatorial fighters. The discourse adds to the persuasive and imaginative power of the film and its cultural effect on audiences. Scott wanted to reconstruct and to recreate in Gladiator another world as he had done in Blade Runner. This was to be a new millennium in filmmaking. However, Scott synchronised tropes which other cinematic representations of ancient Rome had made familiar.

We see political intrigue, as in Quo Vadis (1951), Ben Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960) , the carnage of the games, the deadly rivalry fought out in arena sequences, the presence of the evil Emperor and the resonance of totalitarianism and the fascist reconstruction of Rome. Arthur Max, Gladiator’s production designer states, “We looked at films like Spartacus and Ben Hur several times and Benji [Fernandez] had served as the set designer on The Fall of the Roman Empire.” They deliberately mixed the time periods, using a painting of Napoleon as an enthroned Roman emperor as a model for the Empress throne in Gladiator. Magid (2000: 55).As Max states, Scott “had this tremendous idea of starting Nazi propaganda films like Triumph of the Will since they copied the Roman [aesthetic].we copied them copying the Romans, which added an extra layer and another cultural interpretation…ultimately, we tried to build Rome to be as big and rich as we could. After all, size matters!” Magid (2000: 55). The power of mass spectacle has long been exploited by totalitarian regimes. Rome was natural site for the spectacle and became Hollywood’s model for decadent and corrupt empire builders such as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and for any regime seen as antithetic to ideals of individual freedom and morality. This was especially seen in the fifties and sixties films, when Roman epic films had reached their zenith were affected by the post war political climate, when there was a fear of political and military tyranny (Elly1984: 89). The signatories of Roman imperial iconography used for cinematic spectacle had long been used as tools of exploitation for the masses particularly by totalitarian regimes with iconic symbolism such as fasces and eagles. This utilisation is clearly seen in the scene Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935), whose documentary patterning of Hitler’s arrival in Nuremberg for a Nazi party rally, under the eagle his totalitarian regime supported by an invincible army, is duplicated by Scott in his dark depiction of Commodus’ triumphal entry into Rome, with the use of aerial views, the large crowds of humanity, the drums and the eagles As in Triumph of the Will where Hitler is greeted by a little girl presenting him with flowers, so Commodus is greeted by girls presenting him with floral attribute (Richards 2008: 177).

Such cinematic hyperbole produced a negative examination of the Roman Empire especially post-war Britain ( Wyke1997: 23). This scene and Scott’s narrative direction makes a connection with recent history and post-war sentiments. The gladiator as in Spartacus is positioned as the central iconic character to present the moral debate for cinema directors and audiences, against a Rome which has become the symbol of oppression and corruption and utilised as a setting of moral significance. Paintings Many British and French romantic painters painted renditions of Rome’s heyday. In fact the French artist Jean-Léon Gerome’s Pollice Verso, “Thumbs Down,” (1872)inspired Ridley Scott the entire movie . This nineteenth-century romantic vision painting was of an arena scene in which the gladiator stands at the centre of the Roman Colosseum looking at the Imperial box awaiting the Emperor’s for decision of kill against his defeated opponent. Nineteenth-century paintings and literature have long utilised the decadence of Rome and its arenas as sites of moral significance for the martyrdom of early Christians .Pollice Verso invoked within Scott “the Roman Empire in all its glory and wickedness… the ideal time to revisit what may have been the most important period of the last 2,000 years, if not in all recorded history – the apex and the beginning of the decline of the greatest military and political power the world has ever known. Pollice Verso with its depiction of the editorial combat and ferocious spectators demanding death had already influenced the arena scenes of Enrico Guazzoni’s Quo Vadis? (1913), the film most instrumental in the initial cinematic projection and articulation of this historical period (Wyke 1997: 118-120).In Gladiator this expands to a new disturbing spectator placement when Maximus, in the second provincial combat sequence, hurls a spear at his audience and cries “Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you were here?” but instead of being rebuked the crowd cheers him, confirming Proximo’s later analysis, “Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.” The world of Rome is seen as a world where killing is part of circus and therefore is a dark, grim place in which we the spectators participate and reinforce. Movie theatres themselves constitute an arena for spectatorship and a place for distraction for modern audiences to insulate against political reality. Brantlinger (1983) holds that the pseudo-leisure mass media of television which daily saturates modern America is parallel to Rome with its continual circuses. This entertainment substitution of “bread and circuses” permeates distraction in civilized society, allowing corruption to develop at the heart of a society bent on pointless wars and enslavement of others.

With parallels between gladiatorial combats and military battles there is the implied connection between militarism and oppression and there is an allegorical implication that contemporary America is distracted from political realisation and truth by the appeasing pacification of mass media (Cyrino 2004).As Rushton (2001: 36) states, “spectacle... provides the environment in which tyranny thrives.” He holds that the moral lesson of Gladiator is that “Democracy and freedom are only possible if we first of all free ourselves from the lure of spectacle.” However, it is through the spectacle of Maximus’arena contest with Commodus, “spectacle in the face of tyranny,” that Rome wins its freedom. Gladiator standing over his victim, from Quo Vadis? (1913) Rome constituted a world of beauty but a world darkness in which murder is authorised by the Emperor and by the crowd. Scott is interested in the relationship between the gladiator and the state, challenging the regime, seeking justice and freedom but also seeking vengeance for the death of those he loved. This concept Scott places within the idea of spectatorship and of the reconstruction of the world of the Colosseum. The Opening Battle Scene The opening battle with its snow squall and fire enveloping the forest on a bleak northern frontier of Rome, as the Roman army defeats the impotence German barbarians, is brutal and a vivid spectacle. Instead of the resonance of a sombre voiceover, the opening scene innovates the audience with a prologue which is scrolled across the screen and is accompanied by rousing music of Hans Zimmer. The battle manifests a visual display of intensity and daring (Cyrino 2005: 226, 227). Ridley Scott was lucky enough to obtain a large tract of pine forest schedule for cutting by the British Forest Commission and as Arthur Max states, “We made it into a battlefield by chopping down some of the forest, and then set fire to it as part of the actual battle scenes” (Magid2000:56). With the use of special effects and cinematic techniques, with multiple cameras filming at various film rates there engenders the battle scenes with the tumult of Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (Cyrino 2004: 130). This scene emphasise the concept of frontiers in the geo-political situation of Roman history and picks up where the genre had died, giving it rebirth. Marcus Aurelius the ageing philosopher- Emperor, is concerned over the corruption by despotism of the republican ideals of Rome, and holds Commodus, his son, to be immoral. Knowing that he is dying Aurelius tells Maximus, “I want you to become the protector of Rome … I will empower you, to one end alone, to give power back to the people of Rome and end the corruption that has crippled it.” Maximus, a Spaniard, has never seen Rome, the city he idolises and sees as the light, and, being from the country, is not tarnished with its deceit, decay and political intrigue. Maximus Maximus (Russell Crow) is a provincial farmer and a loyal family man who sacrifices home and family life for the greater good of Rome. He is introduced as a leading Roman general, a soldier and, as a Spaniard, showing the Rome of Gladiator to include a vast spectrum of cultures. The mixed characterisation places Maximus as an Outsider in Roman politics and as more intricately complex than his cinematic predecessors. The social construction of the Other forms the basis of an enabling response of human resources, both moral and psychological, to break through the constraints of the debased condition of chattel slavery, this despite the unrelenting endeavours by the state to subject them as slaves to total domination. “If we stay together we survive” becomes the emblematic mantra of the oppressed and racially mixed gladiators, showing an investment in the diversity of their kinship.Maximus holds that he has gladiatorial “power only to amuse the mob,” but Lucilla responds, “This is power.” Hence, Maximus, the enslaved gladiator, is able by his celebrity status, to fight back against the oppression of against a corrupt and immoral state which destroyed his farm, crucified his family and commits him to perform murderous gladiatorial conflicts.

Because of his status he responds as the signifier symbolising the moral hero determined to restore the vision of Aurelius’ Rome, which he loved and for which he had fought. The Roman Colosseum As the gladiators enter Rome Juba says to Maximus “Have you seen anything like that before?” The camera spins 360° and provides a spectacular display, bringing attention to the might and architectural splendour of the city, which is reinforced by the cinematic technological innovations of CGI while providing awe-inspiring detail of the Colosseum and the sites of historical Roman. The Colosseum was recreated through computer generation and not only were the four tiers generated but also there was a physical reconstruction of the lower tier, the combination of which allowed the viewing audience variabilities of angles and distance in mid range viewing including from the imperial box and also at ground level with the arena strewn with slain and injured gladiators. “Several ground level views create breathtaking impressions of the Roman arena in its heyday…Colosseum walls frame an arena floor strewn with fallen gladiators, their futile weapons, a roaming tigers and rose petals, all bathed in light either streaming through wooden latticework…or diffused and mottled[evoking]neoclassical nineteenth century paintings” (Solomon 2001: 93).As Winkler (2004: 101,102) states, particular explicit aural and visual violence battle arena scenes “border on the fantastic.” Such sequences include the Battle of Carthage and Maximus simultaneous fight with the Tigris of Gaul and the tigers. Gladiator presents the Roman Colosseum in accurate and reconstructed exquisite form with the use of computer-aided recreation. The Colosseum is the main place for spectacle and is a symbol not only of Rome, its empire but empire but “by extension, of all Western culture and civilisation” (Winkler2004: 87, 91). The new technology provides awe-inspiring explicit detail of the Colosseum and extreme close-ups of the fighting and carnage, empowering the spectators with the chance of moral outrage against the depraved proximity of Commodus. Arthur Max states that though they could not afford to build the whole of the Colosseum which was as 150 feet high. “We built a huge J. shaped section of the first tier, which was 75 feet tall, and some fragmentary elements like the opposite entry and the opposite box .we then cheated the reverses by flopping the negatives. This required great mental agility on Ridley is part directing left to right and right or left.” the actors for the reverse angle shots were required to hold their swords and shields in the opposite hands. The visual effects team raised the Colosseum to its intended height and added 55,000 people. As Max states “a challenge was to bring the scale of ancient Rome to life…we were very accurate (Magid 2000: 57-59). The scenes of gladiatorial combat are scenes of a great spectacle. At the beginning of Gladiator’s time period the gladiator games had being absent from the Roman arenas because the philosopher- emperor Marcus Aurelius has outlawed them, however, when Commodus assumed the throne, after he has murdered his father, he revives the games declaring, “I will give the people of vision of Rome, and they will love me for it.” As Russell (2007: 170) states, Commodus is “a ruler whose ultimate downfall is his heavy reliance on the destruction of the arena.” Gracchus observes that Rome is a mob which is susceptible to distracted by violent political entertainment of the arena. Gladiator has a voice on the moral and political value of spectacle and that the film argues Rome is self-destructing because it is hypnotised by the spectacle production of the Colosseum and that it is therefore nothing less spectacle which provide environment in which tyranny thrives. However, this dangerous place of bread, circuses and brutality, the bedding ground for the rise of despotism, is also an arena for the opportunity for social change. Maximus effectively uses the gladiatorial circus in as a medium for social change…a dissenting political opinion. Maximus has real battlefield experience and he sees triumph in the arena as the way to political power, popularity, and revenge. He is able to use the gladiatorial arena as a medium for ridding the world of Commodus and fulfilling the democratic ideals of Aurelius’ last wishes for the restoration of the Roman Republic. Both in the battlefield and the arena exceptional courage and performance are the key to freedom and honour. This route to power is translated by Lucilla, Commodus’ sister, in the words “Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.” Maximus also sees combat and the gladiatorial spectacle of the arena with its crowd enticing properties, as the only hope to win his freedom and his right to be recognised as a Roman and as a civilised man. In Maximus’ fight against Tigris of Gaul he refuses to kill Tigris and this act of mercy is not only makes the crowd loved him more but it also has a civilising effect on the mob. However, though Maximus is identified as a symbol for the oppressed, most of his cause is one of revenge, motivation which alone would have been insufficient for the earlier political historical epics Nevertheless Maximus is seen as a moral hero and an idealised figure fighting against the corruption of Rome in the cinematic hyperbole of the aren “My name is Gladiator” promotes Maximus as Everyman. Maximus has no political ambitions .When he wins in the arena of violence he rejects the false heroism of celebrity desiring only to be reunited with his wife and son. Commodus Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is an evil tyrant and ruler of a corrupt empire and his utilisation of the arena is a symbolism of moral depravity .He is a symbol of utter depravity but he humanised by knowledge of his dysfunctional childhood, with the lack of paternal affection and the absence of a mother, reflecting the modern concern and “nostalgia for traditional family values” .Rome as America The cinematic use of the Roman as a decadent empire builder became a metaphor not only for fascist and totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, but also for corrupt American society with its antithesis to American’s Foundation ideals of morality and freedom. The United States of America with its Manifest Destiny to control the world was seen as an imperial power like Rome and the military battles of Rome and the gladiatorial combats stand as parallels for militarism and oppression. In this context and allegory, Maximus is seen as an archetypal Hollywood hero, fighting against moral corruption and the loss of individual freedom. As the film’s advertising slogan declares, “A Hero Will Rise.” Because Maximus neither wants power nor visited Rome he is uncontaminated with its corruption and the corruption of its Senate. While Maximus’ heroism is connected with his military status the film presents him as an Outsider yearning for his Spanish farm, rural idyll and his family.Gladiator is not necessarily a truthful historical account but possesses the necessary narrative structure to support a film about the decline Rome. The film is about the reconstruction of Rome with emphasis of its regeneration. Gladiator reflects a resonance for traditional family values, the concept of empire in favour of old-fashioned republicanism, rural idyll and pasturism, values which George W. Bush was presenting before the aggressive American policy and American empire. These values were evocative of American political history in the framing of figures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John Adams and indicate the American need to return to the founding father principles as source of constitutional and moral civilisation. Conclusion Gladiator was the first big-screen ancient epic in thirty five years in the tradition of spectacle enabled by computer-generated technical innovations to present the Roman Colosseum with its awe-inspiring amphitheatre and its fatal combat as a major thematic functioning .Gladiator is an affirmation of spectacle and providing audiences with the apparatus of “true engagement” to replace Hollywood “bourgeois ideological representations”. The polarities in this revival of the traditional Hollywood Roman epic is not the pious orientation of Christianity versus tyranny, a contest which may now seem old-fashioned in the new millennium, but the oppositional forces of tyranny and the Republic, with the resonance echo of human rights concepts, the individual against the tyrant state. Into this arena strides Maximus, the gladiator, the Everyman hero and father. Maximus does not have to be redeemed with Christian conversion, “What he does –after a fashion-is recall the Romans to their own great tradition as free people” (Wiseman 2005: 43). Gladiator constructs its framework of cinematic heroism, as in the Western genre, with popular mythology, reaffirming the hero’s essential individuality and pro-social function, and depicting a world locked in a struggle between the oppositional moral forces. The hero’s role is to further the cause of civilisation, morality and individual freedom motivated by his own existentially derived personal code of honour and justice.The gladiator hero fights against the moral corruption of Rome in the spectacle of the arena and against the evil ruler, Commodus, at a vital turning point in Rome’s history. Maximus is true to the myths of Rome and we love him for it, the elements of which capture the vast box office audience and the accumulation of the multitude of Academy Awards and thus reviving the genre of the historical epic.