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the provincial arena in Zucchabar, before the pivotal battle of Carthage,
and before his final, fatal confrontation with Commodus. Writer Franzoni
noted: “Some thought he did it when his life was in danger. But really,
the impulse was, he does it when he’s about to kick ass” (Soriano, 2001).
Maximus cannot lose as long as he keeps in contact with the ground.
This portrayal of Maximus as a simple man of the land responds to
modern society’s idealization of the countryside and its supposed virtue
and purity, just as many American families continue to abandon crimeridden
metropolitan centers in favor of simpler, safer suburban communities.
In the cinematic imagination, no city in history is depicted as
more treacherous and perverse than ancient Rome, where the inhabitants
“are occupied by an overriding lust for power, lust for wealth, or lust pure
and simple” (Bondanella, 4). Gladiator revives the spectacle of Roman
corruption and debauchery so lavishly portrayed in earlier toga films that
equated oppressive political power with social and sexual deviance. As
in earlier epics, Gladiator employs images of transgressive sexuality to
suggest the moral depravity of Roman tyranny. Commodus expresses his
incestuous yearnings for his elder sister, Lucilla, in several scenes that
connect his aberrant erotic desires with his despotic plans for Rome.
In the same breath that he announces his wish to dissolve the Senate,
Commodus invites Lucilla to stay the night with him. After the conspiracy
is discovered, he spares Lucilla but demands she provide him with an heir
to cement his dynasty, bellowing at her: “Am I not merciful?” Commodus’
perverse sexuality parallels the depiction of the bisexuality of wealthy
Crassus hinted at in Spartacus, where the inversion of conventional sexual
relations also revealed the dysfunction of the Roman value system, and
maintained an equation “between aristocratic promiscuity and political
rapacity” (Futrell, 2001, 105).
In profound contrast to these images of Roman sexuality gone awry,
Maximus honors his wife and remains celibate through a series of tension-filled
encounters with his ex-lover, Lucilla. Their first meeting after
years of separation takes place in Germania, where they grieve together
over the suspicious death of Marcus Aurelius. This tenuous bond is quickly
erased after Maximus has been betrayed, enslaved, and his family murdered
by Commodus. Chained to the wall of the gladiators’ quarters,
Maximus is met by a veiled Lucilla who emerges from the shadows: “Rich
matrons pay well to be pleasured by the greatest champions.” In an angry
and sexually charged exchange, Maximus accuses Lucilla of complicity in
his family’s deaths. Their next encounter occurs at the gladiatorial compound
as the coup attempt is set in motion. “You risk too much,” Maximus
250 GLADIATOR (2000)