Jealous and skeptical of the new gladiator’s success in the ring, Commodus ultimately goes head to head with Maximus as much of Rome looks on. Meanwhile, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius’s son Commodus (Phoenix) - who ordered the slayings of Maximus’s family - kills his father and seizes his throne. “Gladiator” follows a widowed Roman general Maximus (Crowe), who is forced into slavery as a gladiator, shunted from the battlefield to the arena, where he faces his opponents in brutal death matches. The Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix action drama paved the way for more historical epics like “300,” “Troy” and “Centurion.” Steven Spielberg at Dreamworks, already in a three-picture deal with screenwriter David Franzoni, signed on to produce the picture, and the crew started filming in England, Malta, Italy and Morocco. Raking in over $460 million dollars globally on what Scott told Variety was at the time a massive budget of $103 million, the film triumphed at the box office when it debuted on May 5, 2000. Without even knowing what the film’s story would be, Scott signed on to build a Roman Empire saga that would go on to score five Academy Awards. In the end, we do our best with what we've got.For director Ridley Scott, it was one look at a 19th-century neoclassical work of art that convinced him to make the Oscar-winning picture “ Gladiator.” Jean-Léon Gérôme’s painting “Pollice Verso” depicts an armored gladiator in the ring, triumphantly facing onlookers as the crowd reacts with thumbs turned down, signaling their approval for the fighter to deliver a final, fatal blow. As filmmakers we do take exceptional pride in our work, and we'd love to have the time and the money to get everything absolutely perfect, but that's just not the reality of low budget filming in the UK. So it's to be expected that through the almost constant barrage of compromise, a few factual mistakes may slip through the net. For the scene involving the fireballs, we had 3 days. On Centurion we had 7 weeks to shoot the entire film, battles included. This films entire budget was about the size of the costume department budget on Gladiator! To make another simple comparison, on Braveheart they had 7 weeks to shoot just the Battle of Stirling. I know this sounds unbelievable, but it's absolutely true. And if it made a few mistakes along the way, like using the wrong kind of spears, I know it's because the budget was so tight they couldn't afford enough Pilum's for the number of troops they had. The reason I defend this film is because I worked on it myself. That's where their strength lay, in discipline and formation, and this is how the Picts (and the Germanic tribes) used their biggest strength against them. The Romans were trained to hold the line. With that many fireballs coming in from both sides, into a densely packed column of Romans, there simply wasn't anywhere for them to go. And since the Romans where back to back, if you did get out of the way, you're just allowing the fireballs to rolls into the backs of the troops defending the opposite flank. How do you move out of the way of fireballs when you've got men on both sides of you who are also trying to get out of the way of fireballs? You just end up with men piling into each other, utter chaos, and still achieving what the Picts intended in the first place, which was to break the Roman line. Finally, did you actually watch the battle? The Romans were stretched out in a long column for miles, surrounded on both sides. Also, where did you get that his Dad is a history professor?! He said his Dad loved history, and that's all. He never once tried to claim that this was in any way a true story. In practically every interview, Marshall made it very clear that the film was based on a myth, a legend, nothing more. First of all, if you're going to claim to be an authority on these things, do some research. This is in direct response to davidfurlotte's fairly asinine 'review'.
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