‘Gladiator 2’ is “total Hollywood bullshit”, says top historian

https://www.nme.com/news/film/gladiator-ii-is-total-hollywood-bullshit-says-top-historian-3808146

49 comments
  1. A feature by [*The Hollywood Reporter*](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/gladiator-ii-fact-fiction-ai-1236047785/) published today (October 30) makes a bid to separate the historical accuracies of the upcoming epic from its wilder sequences – like the use of sharks in a flooded Colosseum, which had already garnered praise (and disbelief) from viewers [upon its reveal in the film’s trailer](https://www.nme.com/news/film/watch-paul-mescal-in-thrilling-new-trailer-for-gladiator-ii-3773164).

    Dr. Shadi Bartsch, a classics professor at the University of Chicago – and author of several books about ancient Rome – called it “total Hollywood bullshit.”

    “I don’t think Romans knew what a shark was,” she said, although adding that naval battles were held in the arena.

  2. I just want a good story and entertaining action. I don’t think Top Gun Maverick is a realistic portrayal of the Air Force and I don’t care I’m enjoying the ride. Give me some intense battles and characters I actually care about

  3. Who cares, I want to be entertained. If I wanted a historical documentary, I’d watch Game of Thrones.

  4. It’s not like the first Gladiator was some beacon of historical accuracy lmao. Sure Marcus Aurelius and Commodus were real people, but the vast majority of the events in that film didn’t actually happen.

  5. So? I swear Cinema Sins really spoiled people like this into trying to ruin movies. Its a story, a timeless thing people need, fables, myths and legends. If it was a documentary then you would be making a point, but its not so wtf are you talking about

  6. I read the article, but I don’t understand why she thinks Romans wouldn’t know what a shark was. The Mediterranean has like 40 different species of sharks, including basking sharks.

  7. A movie where William Wallace sneaks into a castle on a horse won best picture.

    We are supposed to think, on the back of a horse, he somehow sneaks through a wall without any guards seeing him. That nobody notices him clopping through the hallways of the castle, on the back of a horse.

    And he goes up and down stairs, on this horse, without anybody noticing him.

    Then he goes up a narrow tower stairway. Then, somehow, gets off the horse, leaving it in a narrow stairway, opens the door, gets back on the horse, rides it into a room, gets back off the horse, closes the door, gets back in the horse, and only then does the guy in the bed wake up.

    We then see that William Wallace is not armed with a knife, spear, or even a crossbow.

    But with a ball and chain, probably the noisiest weapon of that era to carry around.

    He kills the guy, and then flies away through the window on his horse.

    That scene, which isn’t even necessary, and it’s not even the most egregious historical innacruacy.

    But a “historical” movie where a man is flying around on a ninja horse won best picture.

    There is nothing Gladiator 2 can do wrong at this point.

  8. Yeah I got that from Denzel saying MY MAN, rap music and rhino riding in the trailer

  9. Yeah well it’s not a PBS documentary. I’m not going to be educated, I’m going to be entertained

  10. Wait until the historian hears about an island full of dinosaurs that we created from a mosquito’s blood!!

  11. It’s a Hollywood movie, therefore it will likely be a fantasy so who gives a shit? This is entertainment, not a history lesson

  12. >”I don’t think Romans knew what a shark was”

    This is a wild claim from an historian. Pliny wrote about them.

  13. Yes, but is it *entertainment?*

    Plus, you might as well add in pretty much every space or horror film if that’s how a film is judged.

  14. Tbh I’m surprised that Romans didn’t know about sharks but googled it and apparently the first descriptions of them appear in 1776.

    Obviously other civilizations knew about them (can you imagine Polynesians not?) but I really thought they’d been known in the Western tradition for as long as there’s been one.

  15. Oh for goodness sake.
    It’s a Gladiator film made in Hollywood.
    Of course it’s fantasy .
    That’s what they do in movies.

  16. It’s fun swords and sandals shit. Any given Sunday was not accurate either, but we don’t need pearl clutching football analysis.

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