No, the reason I liked it Gladiator II it is not having been able to see Peter Pascal for two and a half hours dressed as a general – although it helps, of course – but it does have to do, in part, with his clothing. Being an art historian has by default what any other profession does: the professional deformation that, in this case, involves watching a historical film and discovering the mistakes that its director has made in bringing a part of our past to the present.
Yeah, Gladiator II It has errors, and historians have already pointed them out one by one: if the Romans didn’t drink coffee, how could a member of the Senate be reading a newspaper at that time… And the truth is that they are absolutely right. . It would be worthy of praise and even reward if Ridley Scott would have made a completely perfect film historically speaking. On the other hand, no one has ever done it either.
The director of Alien It is neither perfect, nor does it want to be, and that is something that must be clear. What sometimes happens with your film licenses? We won’t say no, but, as with any other job, sometimes you have to put aside your professional defect if you want to enjoy things. I’ll admit that I personally have little trouble doing it, and here’s why.
‘Gladiator 2’ is not a documentary
Let’s rewind to about two months ago, when I saw the film at a special press screening and, three days later, interviewed Ridley Scott. On the video call there was another journalist who came from the Venice festival. When it was his turn to ask, he told the director that, after watching so many movies in a row, Gladiator II It had been a great enjoyment for him.
“Let me tell you, people say a lot of things about how you tell historical events in your movies, but I don’t care,” the journalist began before asking him about the type of entertainment Scott wanted to achieve with this sequel. But before he could finish the question, the director interrupted him: “I don’t care too”he said laughing.
When it was his turn to answer, the filmmaker admitted that he thought it was good that the films were “marginally educational” and that he believed that “it could be very useful”, but he also wanted to make one thing clear: “I’m not making a documentary, I’m making entertainment”. The question is whether that statement and that way of thinking convinces the viewer and, above all, the historian who goes to see his film, to decide to enjoy instead of criticize.
It is a risk, of course, to ignore the truth as Scott does, but it is up to us to believe everything a movie tells us. does not especially want to show the Roman Empire as it was nor does it aim to explain the real history of the characters that appear on screen. Let’s think that, if that were the case, Maximus Decimus Meridius wouldn’t even exist to begin with.
What movies like GladiatorIn any case, it is to awaken curiosity, but it is in our hands, when leaving the cinema, to ask ourselves if naumachia existed, if there really were sharks in the Colosseum or what is the true story of the brothers Geta and Caracalla. And the best of all is that, if we look for it, we will find more than one surprise.
The historical truths of ‘Gladiator 2’
Recently there was an interview in which a journalist I told Ridley Scott that there were no sharks in the Coliseum. Surprised, the director replied that it was possible that those battles had existed. And the reality is that, technically, as strange as it may be to see Paul MescaWhen faced with them, the filmmaker was right.
It is known that Emperor Commodus, the one he gave life to Joaquin Phoenix In the first installment, he was a fan of fighting in the arena and he even had a rhinoceros and numerous bears brought to Rome to kill as entertainment (the thing about gladiators riding them… That’s something else). Naumachias were also real for a time before the Colosseum was renovated, and Nile crocodiles are even known to exist there, although the specific existence of sharks is not confirmed.
But, after this parenthesis, we must admit that, if there is something that, as an art historian, I enjoy what seems to be a saga about gladiators, it is representation of the Colosseum and now yes, What the characters’ clothing impliesespecially the white and gold armor of General Acacio (Pascal).
There are several times during the film that we see the Flavian amphitheater in its entirety or from above. It was during the time of the Flavian dynasty (hence the name), thanks to the emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian, that Rome had its first stable amphitheater, which helped it have new features for the time.
As Scott recreates, The Colosseum was divided into four registers. As for the first three, each of them had semicircular arches flanked by semi-columns (Doric in the first, Ionic in the second and Corinthian in the third). Furthermore, on the second and third floors, sculptures were placed in each arch.
The fourth register was the attic with a smooth wall with a series of windows. Among them, there were some circular motifs: They were gilded bronze shields that ornamented the façade and created light reflections.. We know of its existence thanks to the coins, where those circumferences are represented, as well as the sculptures that were in the arches. To be picky, Scott does not represent it well, since there is no trace of gilding on the façade of his Colosseum (we will return to this when we talk about the clothing).
If we go to the underground, where Máximo walked and where Lucio now does as a gladiator, it was about a space with passageways and galleries with cages for the animals and motors to make them go out to the sandsomething that this sequel shows us with the baboons and with a tiger locked in a cage that we see briefly when Mescal passes by.
As for the top, It is worth highlighting the velarium: the fabrics that covered the Colosseum and that can be clearly seen in the film when we are shown the amphitheater prepared for the naumachia. It worked from wooden sticks that rested on the corbels (elements attached to the wall that can be seen on the façade of the attic) with stakes that served to tighten the ropes. As a curious fact, it was the sailors who were in charge of assembling and disassembling it.
Rome in full color
Finally, let’s talk about the clothing, and General Acacio’s armor introduces a characteristic that is usually forgotten or consciously ignored in every historical film: contrary to what cinema has been making us believe for years, Rome and, for that matter, Greece, were the brown and white color of stones, marble and bronze..
We said that the Colosseum had golden shields, and the same thing happened with the sculptures. The bronze was covered in gold and the reliefs, that is, those horses that Máximo showed Lucio in the first film, for example, They were painted on the sculptures in different colors (I invite you to search for the polychrome of Augustus of Prima Porta on Google to get an idea). It doesn’t look so epic painted like that, does it?
Closer to contemporary taste than the real Augustus himself, Pascal’s armor colors are a nod to the real Ancient Rome that, far from being a pile of brown stones, it was a city full of life and color. If Ridley Scott had to represent everything as it was, the color palette of Gladiator It would be very different and, surely, not at all to our liking. We should still thank cinema for fooling us from time to time.
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