FAQ for
Gladiator (2000) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Gladiator can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/parentalguide.

Maximus conducts the same war ritual four times in the film: he picks up a small quantity of the ground beneath his feet and rubbing it around his hands. He also smells his hands after rubbing them but this is only seen in the first two occurrences. He does so each time before he is involved in combat.

These are:

1. Before the start of the opening battle sequence in Germania, while he is talking to Quintus.

2. Before the start of his first gladiator fight in Rome (the Colosseum), while in the armoury.

3. Before the start of his first duel in the Colosseum with Tigris of Gaul.

4. Very weakly before the start of his final duel in the Colosseum with Commodus.

The practical reason for conducting this ritual is to make friction (by absorbing the sweat) between his hands and the object he is holding: it is to form a better grip on his sword, like chalk. The personal reason is to remind Maximus of his villa, which is full of rich memories of the harvest, his wife, his son, his horses and general actions akin to the soil. Director Ridley Scott points this out during his DVD commentary. During the victory celebration after the battle in Germania, there is conversation between Maximus and two of his officers which relate to his villa:

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Valerius: Back to your barracks, General, or to Rome?

Maximus: Home. The wife, the son, the harvest.

Quintus: Maximus the farmer. I still have difficulty imagining that.

Maximus: You know, dirt cleans off a lot easier than blood, Quintus.

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The Romans had a system of messengers for their army, "Cursus Publicus", much like the Postal Services in Europe or the Pony Express in the USA, with fresh horses every 30 km or so. So a number of messengers could make their way much quicker to Spain (Merida, where Maximus' family lived), than Maximus alone with two horses that grew progressively more tired. Once the messengers reached the Guards in Merida, these would send a detachment over to Maximus' farm. Et exeunt...

The Wikipedia has an article on the "cursus publicus" ("public transportation"). By the time of Marcus Aurelius, this system had been in use for about 200 years. Quote from the Wikipedia article:

"Cursus publicus was the courier service of the Roman Empire. It was created by Emperor Augustus to transport messages, officials, and tax revenues from one province to another. A series of forts and stations were spread out along the major road systems connecting the regions of the Roman world. These relay points (or stationes) provided horses to dispatch riders, usually soldiers, and vehicles for magistrates or officers of the court. ...the system simply provided an infrastructure for magistrates and messengers who traveled through the empire. It consisted of thousands of stations placed along the main roads; these had to supply fresh horses, mules, donkeys, and oxen, as well as carts, food, fodder, and accommodation." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus_publicus)

So even with two horses, there was no way Maximus could have beat a messenger that changed horses every 20 miles or so and was fed and bedded by the stations on the "cursus"... -they had a head start on him and travelled much quicker. Still, this journey would have taken weeks by horse (2100 km or 1300 miles from Vienna to Merida, as the crow flies). He tried, though.

It is not the German language as we know it today. In the time the movie is set, there was in fact no common "german language" but a whole lot of different tribal languages and dialects like those of Angeln, Friesen, Sachsen etc. Those languages were the base of todays german but also (mixed up with the colloquially latin brought in by the Romans) of many other european languages.

What the warrior says can not be understood by a today's german speaker, as it is way too different from the modern language.

Most likely he means to say "Ihr seid verfluchte Hunde!", which means "You are (a bunch of) cursed dogs!"

Most notable is his next-to-final scene when he gives the keys to Maximus. You can tell that he was digitally removed from another scene because the focus doesn't change on anything, even though he is moving closer, the lighting is different enough to stand out, and all his new lines are said by an impersonator(added later) while Proximo is off screen. Also, his final line, when he is looking up and says "shadows and dust." right before the soldiers stab him, it's taken from the earlier scene where Maximus argued with him about the vision of Rome and Proximo shouted "We are but shadows and Dust Maximus! Shadows and dust." Look in the background during his last line and it is clearly from the arena barracks.

Most characters playing inhabitants of Rome speak English with a British accent. Russell Crowe's Australian accent indicates that he is from a different region within the Empire. In this case, Hispania (present day Spain), which was a region previously conquered by the Romans, so they would have spoken Latin with an accent. Concomitantly, Hagen (the German gladiator) and Juba (the African gladiator) speak English with a German and African accent respectively.

Several years after its initial release a Extended Cut got published on DVD that runs approx. 16 minutes longer than the well-known theatrical version. Anyway this longer version is a deceptive package, because those new scenes were featured as deleted scenes on the old release. A detailed comparison between both versions with pictures can be found here.