Gladiator Themes

Once he gets to Rome, Maximus' whole life revolves around revenge. Commodus's directly responsible for the brutal death of his wife and son, and Maximus vows to continue fighting in the arena until...

Death is all over Gladiator. It's not only Maximus' job as a gladiator to kill guys in the arena…but it was also his job as a general in the army to vanquish Rome's enemies. And, while it isn't C...

"There once was a dream that was Rome," is a line we hear several times in Gladiator. That "dream" is the politically ideal situation of a Roman Republic…and Marcus Aurelius wants to restore that...

Maximus, Juba, Hagen, and the other gladiators are all slaves. Lucilla, despite being nominally free, is really a slave to her brother. Proximo is a slave to the whims of the crowds, and the market...

With so many stunning, computer-generated images (the Roman Colosseum, for example), Gladiator's definitely a film that evokes awe and amazement. It thematizes awe and amazement as well—what are...

Gladiator's a movie about family…but in a very strange way. (No one is accusing this movie of being family friendly, for example.)It's about both the perversion of the whole idea of family, and a...