I have probably seen Gladiator two dozen times.
Commodus was a cowardly Emperor who avoided military service, but loved to take credit for the heroic feats of others. His father did not love him, so he was desperate for love and acceptance by the people. He learned that he could thrill the mob through staged violence and death in a public arena.
Any similarity to current leader(s) is purely coincidental.
Obama with a golf club … Sarah with almost anything … in the arena.
I’d pay a lot to see that.
#2 in al Quida, Al Zawahiri, may have given up bin Laden location
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384358/Was-Osama-bin-Laden-stitched-deputy-Power-struggle-Al-Qaeda-led-Zawahiri-turn-leader.html
great movie
What first impressed me about this movie was the battle with the Germans in the woods, which realistically showed the kind of military methods the Romans conquered their empire with. Though the Germans held the line in their woods.
His ‘death’ dream was beautiful imagery.
Got a bit of a hockey stick for the Emporer’s sister.
The bread and circuses is definitely in effect these days, with the emphasis on the latter. In the current movie the Gladiator could already have freezer burns when killed. Or it could be his double. Could have been The Alien. Its Hollywood. Either way, this Emporer was in an office watching TV with Joe Biden and Hillary.
Interestingly in the directors commentary that comes with the DVD, Ridley Scott and Roman Historians argued over the set action pieces in this battle.
In reality there are no written documents of how actual on the ground battles progressed as they altered with each commander.
For example in one scene a long trench has been dug and filled with pitch. The trench was fired and archers with fire arrows lit there arrowheads from the trench. The official Roman Historians argued that this was not how it was done. Ridley Scott asked them how it was done in reality and they didn’t know – never documented. A mutual agreement took place and all agreed that the fire trench was “probably” the way it was done.
They also found that the real Roman’s would have had to have been extremely fit to stage a battle as per the German one.
And you will have your revenge, in this life or the next.
Fun to see Claudius, Derek Jacobi, have small part too.
If you read White House insider, Obama is said to have hesitated all along to go ahead with this mission (why he hesitated, is another story, and is not known as of now). It was the Clinton group which pressed ahead, on and on. Obama, however, did not hesistate to take credit for Osama’s death. What else could he have done? He could not have appeared sad that his buddies in the White House and the administration ran out of control. He had to appear pleased and take credit – just as a president would.
In other words, Obama appears to have displayed pre-assassination indecisiveness in articulating his reasons clearly for why he did not want a ‘take-out’ mission, if he had any, and post-assassination cowardice in glibly taking credit at public venues for the sake of his ratings and re-election