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soft, admiring light of nostalgia. The depiction of Maximus follows recent
trends starting in the early 1990s to enhance the conventional Hollywood
action hero by making him a more psychologically substantive figure,
suggesting modern sensibilities require a character of greater sensitivity
and emotional depth. So Maximus’ character responds to the contemporary
tendency to romanticize rugged heroes of the past, while infusing
them with personality traits that expose and emphasize their human
sentiments and imperfections.
Yet some aspects of Maximus’ humanity might appear somewhat disturbing
to modern viewers, principally the hero’s tragic self-consciousness,
his single-minded focus on personal revenge, and his gloomy preoccupation
with his own mortality. “I will have my vengeance,” he promises in
one of the film’s most famous quotes, “in this life or the next.” Maximus
displays all the furious rage, brooding menace, and pitiless aggression
of a whole history of insulted heroes from Achilles in Homer’s Iliad to
Mad Max in George Miller’s apocalyptic film trilogy (Mad Max, 1979; The
Road Warrior, 1981; Beyond Thunderdome, 1985). His dark temperament
is the film’s ballast, providing moral weight to his excessive violence. On
the surface, Maximus seems to owe much to the character of Spartacus
from the earlier film. Both are gladiators turned heroic leaders who fight
for their own freedom and that of their enslaved brothers-at-arms against
a corrupt and autocratic Roman government. Like Spartacus, the proud
Maximus is subjected to humiliation and brutality in the Roman arena.
Both Maximus and Spartacus die virtually sacrificial deaths in the daring
effort to achieve their goals, a fate almost unheard of for Hollywood action
heroes, past and present. Yet the freedom fighter Spartacus believes
unconditionally in the justice of his struggle to liberate his people, as he
initiates the breakout from the gladiatorial school, then leads the unified
slave community in its rebellion against Roman oppression. Maximus,
however, is an unwilling savior; as a victorious general, he refuses to take
on the role of Protector bestowed upon him by Marcus Aurelius in order
to return Rome to rule of the Senate. When the old emperor says, “Won’t
you accept this great honor that I have offered you?” he answers, “With all
my heart, no.” “Maximus,” the emperor sighs, “That is why it must be you.”
At the beginning, Maximus confidently articulates his faith in the ideal
of Rome despite the frustration of Marcus Aurelius over his legacy, but
soon Maximus is cruelly forced to realize the ideal does not exist. Later,
when the disaffected Maximus is obsessed with his sole determination
to kill Commodus in revenge for murdering his family, Lucilla tries to
persuade him he has the power to help her overthrow her brother, the
230 GLADIATOR (2000)