Gladiator (2000 film)

Influences from film and literature

The film's plot is drawn principally from two archetypal 1960s films of Hollywood's sword and sandal genre, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Spartacus.

Related Topics:
Hollywood - Sword and sandal - The Fall of the Roman Empire - Spartacus

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The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) tells the story of Livius, who, like Maximus in Gladiator, is Marcus Aurelius's protege and romantically linked with his daughter, Lucilla. Both films tell the story of Commodus' murder of Marcus Aurelius and seizure of power when he learns that the aged emperor is planning to appoint Livius/Maximus as his successor, and of Livius/Maximus' subsequent exile and quest to avenge Marcus Aurelius by the death of Commodus.

Related Topics:
1964 - Lucilla

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Spartacus (1960) provides the film's gladiatorial motif, as well as the character of Senator Gracchus, a fictitious senator (bearing the name of a pair of senators from the 2nd century BC) who in both films is an elder statesman of ancient Rome attempting to preserve the ancient rights of the Roman senate in the face of an ambitious autocrat — Marcus Licinius Crassus in Spartacus and Commodus in Gladiator. Interestingly, Gracchus was played in Spartacus by Charles Laughton, who played Claudius in the 1937 film I, Claudius, while he was played in Gladiator by Sir Derek Jacobi, who played Claudius in the 1975 BBC adaptation.

Related Topics:
Gladiator - 2nd century BC - Ancient Rome - Roman senate - Autocrat - Marcus Licinius Crassus - Charles Laughton - I, Claudius - Derek Jacobi

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Additionally, Maximus, Quintus and other characters, as well as the opening sequence of the film (set in Germany), are inspired by a work of extraordinary historical fiction by Wallace Breem, Eagle in the Snow (set some 200 years later).

Related Topics:
Historical fiction - Wallace Breem - Eagle in the Snow

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The film's depiction of Commodus's entry into Rome borrows imagery from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1934), although Ridley Scott has pointed out that the iconography of Nazi rallies was of course inspired by the Roman Empire.

Related Topics:
Leni Riefenstahl - Nazi - Triumph of the Will - 1934

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