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long-sought-after dream by defeating the reigning champion. During the
tense interview on the ground in the arena, when Commodus discovers
the true identity of the “Spaniard” as the rival he once tried to destroy,
Maximus is again saved, this time by the adoration of the spectators.
Amid the sound of ecstatic fans chanting “Maximus!” the exhausted and
bloodied gladiators exit the arena in a wide shot like a victorious football
team leaving the playing field, while the close-up of Maximus’ face reveals
that moment of pure satisfaction when an athlete is named his team’s
Most Valuable Player.
Just as sports television influenced the shooting of Gladiator, the film
has also influenced the production and broadcasting of contemporary
sports. During the NFL 2002 playoff games televised in January 2003,
Hans Zimmer’s Oscar-nominated musical theme for Gladiator was used
before and after commercial breaks and half time. Hearing the familiar
rousing strains, the television audience was invited to associate the games
they were watching with the gladiatorial fights in the film. A series of
public information ads sponsored by the NFL to celebrate the playoffs
and announce the upcoming Super Bowl XXXVII featured actor Don
Cheadle talking about great moments in football history. In one of these,
Cheadle riffs on the use of Roman numerals to designate Super Bowls:
“That’s how big the Super Bowl is. It took Roman numerals and turned
them into . . . Roman numerals.” The spot not so subtly associates the
colossal number of Americans who watch the Super Bowl with the spectators
in the ancient Roman arena, and even suggests American sporting
events are so enormous and extravagant that they validate the historical
grandeur of the ancient Romans. Gladiator’s depiction of the Roman mob
offers the American audience an unnerving mirror-image of themselves
in the stands, eager to be entertained at all costs, demanding ever more
intricate, dangerous, and realistic spectacles. In the film, the Colosseum
emcee cries with familiar gusto: “Caesar is pleased to bring you the only
undefeated champion in Roman history: Tigris of Gaul!” Gladiator is a
cinematic representation of the centrality of entertainment spectacle in
the culture of ancient Rome, but at the same time it demonstrates the
modern obsession for expensive, action-packed, technologically sophisticated,
and realism-enhanced amusement.
The arena in Gladiator offers another provocative interpretation of the
relationship between the people and their rulers. In an interval of real or
imagined threats to individual and national security, tensions often arise
between the exercise of authoritarian rule to preserve liberty under attack,
and the ability to express personal freedoms in an atmosphere of alarm.
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