Tomb of real-life ‘Gladiator’ found
by graeme
The final resting place of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, inspiration for Russell Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius in the movie Gladiator, has been found in Rome. While Macrinus was a successful general and confidante of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, fans of the film will be disappointed to note that he, unlike his cinematic progeny, was not sold into slavery and spent relatively little time kicking ass.
Nevertheless, this is interesting because Gladiator is pretty much my favourite movie. Ever. Sure, you can criticize it for being mindlessly macho, self-indulgent and a complete bastardization of history. But then, you’d be listing all the reasons I love it. Lines like “Death smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back.” may seem trite, but they have more or less formed the borders of my moral universe since I saw Gladiator in 2000.
So, nifty that they found the real fellow’s tomb. If they unearth the sarcophogus, here’s hoping it’s inscribed with all kinds of badass quotes. Like, “What we do in life echoes in enternity.” Goddamn right it does!
Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained?
The best course I ever took was a joint Classics-Cinema Studies class called something like, “The Roman World in Film.” It was about how our modern conception of ancient Rome is more influenced by movies about Rome than actual historical evidence. We looked at the history of various cliches in Roman epics like the reluctant gladiator, the senator who stands up to an autocrat, etc.
Anyway, the course culminated in Gladiator which, after looking at the evidence, is more about Roman epics than historical Rome itself. It is virtually a pastiche of nearly a century of cinematic history. There’s some discussion about other films it quotes on the wikipedia page.
But yeah! I don’t care if it’s unoriginal and hitorically incorrect, Gladiator is seriously one of the best, most entertaining movies ever!
Hey, does Mr. Crowe have a boner in that picture? Its understandable. I think I’d have one too if I was in ‘Gladiator’.