Gladiator in my opinion, is a moderately accurate historical representation of the events that took place in the latter half of 2nd century AD. The historical setting Starts in the winter Of 180AD with the initial battle according to the opening text in the movie. The movie focuses on the events considering Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. It vaguely focuses on facts but interprets them in different ways than they actually took place, for example where and how Marcus met his death.
The movie also dds in fictional characters such as Maximus who is portrayed as the hero of Rome. Commodus was in fact an immoral man, who was rumoured to actually have an incestuous relationship with his sister and ravaged many young men and women’s bodies. Gladiator takes the actual historical facts and warps them into a way that is aesthetically pleasing to an audience. The movie’s plotline still loosely follows the series of events that actually took place but has changed quite a lot of the facts.
Gladiator warps the facts here ecause Marcus Aurelius supposedly was murdered by Commodus on the eve of this victory but Aurelius in fact passed away before going out to claim another land. Marcus did conquer many tribes and lands as emperor but did not in fact have a legendary general named “Maximus Decimus Meridius”. The events that actually took place in our historical timeline involve Marcus Aurelius passing away but not at the hand of his son Commodus. The official story states that Aurelius died from plague but some suspect that he was in act murdered by Commodus.
According to historical sources, Commodus was in fact a man of ill worth but Aurelius did give Commodus succession to the throne. I intend to find out whether the historical film Gladiator is or isn’t an accurate representation of the series of events considering Marcus Aurelius, through researching many websites and sources and cross-sourcing to see if these sources are correct. I will go through sources detailing the movie and the actual series of events that took place centuries ago.
Problems hat will arise while I attempt to find relevant information will be the reliability of the information. After all, these events took place many years ago and stories and tales will have warped and changed over time much the same principle as ‘Chinese whispers’. Also websites publish incorrect information and some post correct information. The problem here would be disti nguishing fact from fiction and I will have to cross-source my research to see if it is in fact right. Once I have completed the required research, will im to put all of it together.
