Gladiator (2000 film)

Trivia

Contrary to rumor, Enya did not record any music for the soundtrack of this film. The song often attributed to her, and in fact much of the soundtrack, was composed and sung by Lisa Gerrard. Some of the battle music on the soundtrack interpolates variations on "Mars, the Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's The Planets. Russell Crowe's line, "Are you not entertained?" was sampled at the beginning of Jay-Z's Black Album track "What More Can I Say".

Related Topics:
Enya - Lisa Gerrard - Gustav Holst - The Planets - Sampled - Jay-Z - Black Album

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Mel Gibson was offered but turned down the part of Maximus. Crowe began shooting for Gladiator a few months after The Insider (1999) wrapped. He had gained upwards of 40 pounds (18 kg) for his Oscar-nominated role in that film and yet lost it all before production for Gladiator began. He claims he did nothing special other than normal work on his farm in Australia.

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Lou Ferrigno was originally cast as Tigris of Gaul but was replaced during production by Sven-Ole Thorsen, who had been lobbying hard for the part.

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Connie Nielsen found the 2000-year-old signet ring that she wears in the movie in an antique store.

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In the Colosseum scenes, only the bottom two decks are actually filled with people. The other thousands of people are computer animations.

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Among the chanting of the Germanic hordes at the beginning of the film are samples of the Zulu war chant from the film Zulu (1964).

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The wounds on Russell Crowe's face after the opening battle scene are real, caused when his horse startled and backed him into tree branches. The stitches in his cheek are clearly visible when Maximus is telling Commodus he intends to return home. Over the course of the gladiatorial scenes, he broke bones in his foot and his hip, and injured both bicep tendons.

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In the Spanish dubbed version, Maximus says he is from Emerita Augusta (modern Mérida). The Spanish dubbers claimed that, "Trujillo doesn't combine the "qualities" to be cradle of the gladiator."

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Maximus' description of his home (specifically how the kitchen is arranged and smells in the morning and at night) was ad-libbed — it's a description of Crowe's own home in Australia.

Related Topics:
Ad-libbed - Australia

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The yak helmet worn by the gladiator who was slain by Hagen is the same one worn by the warrior slain by Sean Connery in Time Bandits (1981). During filming, director Ridley Scott wore the red cap worn by Gene Hackman in the movie Crimson Tide (1995), which was directed by Ridley's brother, Tony Scott.

Related Topics:
Sean Connery - Time Bandits - Gene Hackman - Crimson Tide - Tony Scott

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Richard Harris, who plays Marcus Aurelius, was originally set to play Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) but left the film due to artistic differences with director Anthony Mann and was replaced by Christopher Plummer. The real-life Commodus was in fact the only Roman Emperor in history to fight as a gladiator in the arena. He did so several times, not just once. He was not killed in the arena but was strangled in his dressing room by an athlete named Narcissus. In the original drafts of the script, the name of the main character was not "Maximus", but "Narcissus".

Related Topics:
Anthony Mann - Christopher Plummer - Narcissus

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Writer David Franzoni started developing the story in the 1970s when he read "Those Who Are About To Die," a history of the Roman Games by Daniel P. Mannix; Franzoni later discussed the idea with Steven Spielberg during their work on Amistad (1997), saying that he envisioned Commodus as being something like Ted Turner in the way he combined politics and entertainment to establish a base of influence.

Related Topics:
Daniel P. Mannix - Steven Spielberg - Amistad - Ted Turner

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Ridley Scott was persuaded to direct the film when DreamWorks head Walter F. Parkes and producer Douglas Wick presented him with a reproduction of the 1872 painting Pollice Verso ("Thumbs Down") by Jean-Leon Gerome, in which a gladiator stands over the opponent he has beaten.

Related Topics:
Walter F. Parkes - Douglas Wick - 1872 - Jean-Leon Gerome

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On visiting the real Colosseum, Scott remarked to production designer Arthur Max that it was "too small", so they designed an outsized "Rome of the imagination" that was inspired by English and French romantic painters, as well as Nazi architect Albert Speer.

Related Topics:
Nazi - Architect - Albert Speer

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Writer William Nicholson added the aspects of the film in which Maximus discusses the afterlife, seeking to make the character more accessible to audiences.

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David Franzoni chose not to note at the end of the film that Rome did not, in fact, become a republic again, because he thought most audiences would already know that.

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Among the changes necessitated by the death of Oliver Reed was the final scene, as it was supposed to have been Proximo who buried the figures in the sand of the Coliseum.

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Editor Pietro Scalia added the shot of Maximus moving through a wheat field to the beginning of the film; it had been filmed for the ending. Although Scott claimed the intention was otherwise, some critics have commended this shot for it's simplistic perfection of portraying the time period. I.e. a complicated series of shots, faces, buildings could always be argued to be not entirely accurate. Whereas a hand wearing a roman bracelet running over wheat fields would look identical, in 180 AD, and on film today.

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Maximus' Spanish heritage meshes interestingly with his choice of arms — as a General riding with the cavalry of the Felix Legion (in the opening battle), he wields a sword known as a spatha, popular among the continental tribes especially in Spain and southern Gaul. As a gladiator, he uses a sword similar to the spatha in appearance but shorter and broader. This weapon, known as the gladius Hispaniensis, was adopted by the Roman infantry after early campaigns in Spain. Roman infantry wore the gladius on the right side — this, facilitated by the short blade length, allowed the legionary to draw his weapon on the same side as his sword arm; cross-drawing would be hindered by the scutum (the large rectangular shield) while in formation.

Related Topics:
Gaul - Scutum

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The version of the gladius Hispaniensis used in the arena during the film is accurate as depicted; it was often shorter than the military version.

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In the scene preparatory to the first battle at the Colosseum, Lucius asks Maximus about the horses displayed on his breastplate. Maximus identifies the horses as his own, naming them Argento and Scatto. These are the Italian (and probably Vulgar Latin) words for silver and trigger. Silver was the name of the hero's horse in the television series The Lone Ranger, while Trigger was the name of Roy Rogers' horse in all of his movies.

Related Topics:
Colosseum - Breastplate - Italian - Vulgar Latin - Silver - Trigger - Silver - The Lone Ranger - Trigger - Roy Rogers

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