Speaker 1: Warning. Today's episode contains spoilers for the twenty five year
Speaker 1: old movie Gladiator of I Ridly Scott. Well Gladier two
Speaker 1: in theater soon. Be warned if you have out watched Gladiator,
Speaker 1: then watch it before listening to this before seeing Gladiator
Speaker 1: too and aply connected guys. Hello, my name is Jason
Speaker 1: Casepsiote co host to a pod and I will have
Speaker 1: my revenge in this life of the next.
Speaker 2: I weesday night. Are you not entertained?
Speaker 1: And welcome back to x me vision of the podcast
Speaker 1: where we dive deep. It's your favorite shows, movies, comics
Speaker 1: and pop culture coming from My Heart podcast where we
Speaker 1: bring you between two and three and sometimes war episodes
Speaker 1: every week Tuesday Thursday, with extra episodes on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: In today's episode, in the air Lock, we are revisiting
Speaker 2: the five time Oscar winning film Gladiator by Ridley Scott
Speaker 2: starring Russell Crowe, and in the omnibus, we are going
Speaker 2: to dig into some of the history, both real life
Speaker 2: and production wise, that gave us Gladiator and we'll lead
Speaker 2: us in to the eagerly awaited Gladiator two.
Speaker 1: Dun dundun all right. Gladiator the year two thousand, directed
Speaker 1: by Ridley Scott, Gosh, what a film. I saw it
Speaker 1: in the theaters. This is when I was working in
Speaker 1: movie theaters, saw every movie and my reaction was, Wow,
Speaker 1: what an insanely violent and good movie that.
Speaker 2: Was so violent, like when I rewatched it for the pod.
Speaker 2: So let me set this up. When I was a kid,
Speaker 2: I saw this movie on VHS at my dad's house
Speaker 2: and I was so upset when one of the guys
Speaker 2: walks out to fight in the gladiatorial ring and just
Speaker 2: before he goes out, he pisses himself, and I I
Speaker 2: was so upset for how scared that guy was. I
Speaker 2: think I just disassociated for the rest of the movie.
Speaker 2: I've watched it since, but on this watch, I was
Speaker 2: just blown away by the violence and also like, as
Speaker 2: a horror fan, how inventive it is, Like Ridley Scott's like, really,
Speaker 2: what are the craziest ways that people could die in
Speaker 2: the Roman Empire? We're gonna do tiger fight shooting like
Speaker 2: huge steaks into people's chests from shields. Yeah, Like I'm
Speaker 2: gonna catapult a glass ball full of fire like a
Speaker 2: hyper Molotov cocktail. Like there's so much invention in this movie.
Speaker 2: When it comes to that and it is my little crew.
Speaker 2: We always talk about like a dude's rock movie, and
Speaker 2: this is definitely in that vein. Oh, this is a
Speaker 2: dude's a rockin.
Speaker 1: This is a dude's being dudes hanging out with dudes
Speaker 1: type movie where their dudes come together as a team
Speaker 1: to accomplish the goal of reforming.
Speaker 2: Their rob That shit hit me really really hard when
Speaker 2: I was rewatching it this morning. One because I love
Speaker 2: Gime Hansu, who's so fantastic love. But also I have
Speaker 2: to say, for such a violent movie that seems to
Speaker 2: have a pretty simple premise, it actually does a really
Speaker 2: interesting job of crafting those male friendships, those male connections,
Speaker 2: the way that these men come together against the face
Speaker 2: of this evil, maniacal sociopath leader of Rome. This movie
Speaker 2: hit a lot harder for me this time. I'm really
Speaker 2: glad that we're talking about it.
Speaker 1: It has a what I consider to be an iconic
Speaker 1: soundtrack by Hans zimmer Yes that I still listen to,
Speaker 1: particularly when I'm on a walk or running or trying.
Speaker 2: Is really good walking music, main character musicastic.
Speaker 1: This is the breakout role for Russell Crowe, who got
Speaker 1: the role off The Power of his performance in La Confidential,
Speaker 1: where he plays a extremely angry cop, and looking back
Speaker 1: at this movie after my now billion three watch, the
Speaker 1: thing I like about Russell Crowe in this movie is
Speaker 1: he looks like obviously he looks quite fit and big,
Speaker 1: but he's also it's not the eighties and nineties where
Speaker 1: guys were like no Sylvester Stallone Schwartz in it.
Speaker 2: And it's not like the MCU where you've got do
Speaker 2: the diet.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, he looks like just a guy.
Speaker 2: He looks like a guy who could probably win in
Speaker 2: a fight.
Speaker 1: And I love that about this people. So Russell Crowe
Speaker 1: plays Maximus Decimus Meridius, a general the Roman Army currently
Speaker 1: on campaign in Germania. It is one eighty a d
Speaker 1: in the Emperor Marcus Aurelius's reign is coming to an end.
Speaker 1: He's quite old, and his campaign against the Germans is
Speaker 1: also coming to an end. With this victory at Vinda Bona,
Speaker 1: it appears that the Roman Empire's northern border will be solidified.
Speaker 1: Marcus Aurelius is so taken by maximus goodness, his loyalty,
Speaker 1: his dedication, his low family, his love of family, his
Speaker 1: rejection of power. He really just wants to like get
Speaker 1: this war done with and go home. He doesn't want
Speaker 1: a politic in Rome. He doesn't want to do any
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff. And Mark this is so
Speaker 1: impressed by this that he decides to overstep his own son,
Speaker 1: the extremely immoral Commonists, and raise up Maximists in his stead.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately he makes the grave mistake.
Speaker 2: Rosie, why does he do that?
Speaker 1: Grave?
Speaker 2: Why does he do that?
Speaker 1: Grave?
Speaker 2: Your son is evil, bro Like, don't do that.
Speaker 1: Of telling his son alone. Don't, of course tell him,
Speaker 1: but you gotta tell him in this take your door, yeah,
Speaker 1: in the presence of your daughter and your guards and
Speaker 1: probably Maximus, and just say, hey, Commonist, here's what's up.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be emperor. It's gonna be Maximus. Does
Speaker 1: everybody see this?
Speaker 2: And guess what though, You're still gonna be living the
Speaker 2: life of luxury. Yes, nothing bad's gonna happen to you.
Speaker 2: You just don't have to be in control.
Speaker 1: Commonists played with wonderful beta energy from Jaque Phoenix break.
Speaker 2: Out role really here for Joaquin in this terrifying, terrify, terrifying.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like, well, if Caligula was an Inceel
Speaker 2: it's this really specific enjoyment of violence and cruelty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he's got this sniveling there's a weakness, hatred and
Speaker 2: resentment and weakness. Yea. The ironically is just of his
Speaker 2: own making.
Speaker 1: And it makes him so effective as a villain. This
Speaker 1: is a conversation I was having with my Coast of
Speaker 1: Six Trophies, Chase Rano. I think that there are basically
Speaker 1: three ways to do a great villain. I say two
Speaker 1: ways on that pod, but having thought about it, I
Speaker 1: think there's three ways.
Speaker 2: Tell me what you think exclusive third way?
Speaker 1: Right? I think that the first way is even match
Speaker 1: Batman and the Joker. They're evenly matched in different ways,
Speaker 1: and it's a twelve round about the whole way through
Speaker 1: who's gonna win? Second way is overpowering villain Darth Vader. Right,
Speaker 1: he's so powerful and so scary Michael Myers, Sadie always
Speaker 1: come back. You just don't understand how the hero could
Speaker 1: possibly beat this person. How could they do it? This
Speaker 1: villain is so scary. And then the third way, which
Speaker 1: they do here is weak villain who has all the
Speaker 1: cards in his favor. He's the leader of Rome, he's
Speaker 1: got the army in his disposal. He's got any number
Speaker 1: of minions that will do his will. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, if you go one on one versus the hero,
Speaker 1: there's no way this guy wins. Yeah, because he's such
Speaker 1: a coward. He's weak. And I think that is so
Speaker 1: effective in this movie, because you just are like, God,
Speaker 1: let Maximus get this guy one on one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, right, And every time something I think
Speaker 2: Ridley Scott does incredibly well narratively. Here he sets up
Speaker 2: multiple moments where you think he will be able to
Speaker 2: do it, but then something happens. A child attends, there's gods,
Speaker 2: there's he misses the moment, commodist stands up, and they
Speaker 2: really have you like chomping at the bit, like just
Speaker 2: fucking get this guy. But I think you're right. I
Speaker 2: think that's a really great read on those three and
Speaker 2: I bet you and Shae could do a great little
Speaker 2: mini book about that, like how to make a great villain.
Speaker 2: But also as well, I think for me, this is
Speaker 2: the scariest type of villain, and I think because it
Speaker 2: is relatable, I agree to real life. It's also a
Speaker 2: nightmare scenario where like the guy who bullied you at
Speaker 2: school is the guy in charge gets all the power
Speaker 2: in the world and is in charge, but never changes,
Speaker 2: never grows, never learns anything, and instead is just so
Speaker 2: furious and resentful that all they can do is just
Speaker 2: create more cruelty.
Speaker 1: Maximus refuses to serve Commonists, who he suspects of killing Marcus,
Speaker 1: and so Commonists basically says, well, this guy's gonna die.
Speaker 1: He orders Maximus's execution, and he orders the execution of
Speaker 1: his entire family. But Maximus escapes. Oh and he rides
Speaker 1: his horse from Germania to Spain, which I will talk
Speaker 1: about later. How long that probably took.
Speaker 2: Yes, let's put like an asterisk like that, because we
Speaker 2: are definitely going to be doing some extra vision of footnotes,
Speaker 2: because that's a really good point. Is he Also something
Speaker 2: that I've found really profound about this segment of the movie,
Speaker 2: especially as it moves on, is you see Marcus's second
Speaker 2: in command, Brutus, who's been there, who's been his ally,
Speaker 2: who's been on the war with him, he just turns
Speaker 2: on him and he's like, chopped this motherfucker's head off.
Speaker 1: Immediately is like I can see which way the wind
Speaker 1: is blowing, I'm going that way.
Speaker 2: And that lack of loyalty is becomes so profound when
Speaker 2: he then finds this community in the gladiatorial realms of fighting,
Speaker 2: and I just thought that hits so hard. And also
Speaker 2: this is one of my favorite parts where they're walking
Speaker 2: him and he's gonna escape and it's cold, it's really cold,
Speaker 2: and the guy tries to pull out the sword to
Speaker 2: kill him and it gets stuck in Maximus goues sometimes
Speaker 2: they get stuck in the cold and then just kills
Speaker 2: them all because he has the moment. And that's when
Speaker 2: you realize that this has almost like a proto John
Speaker 2: Wick element to it, where it's like Maximus is like
Speaker 2: a very good fighter, he's a killing machine and also
Speaker 2: crazy in of deaths. In this moment as well, like
Speaker 2: you already see what this man can do, just and
Speaker 2: throwing swords.
Speaker 1: On the like on the movie.
Speaker 2: He throws the sword at him and hits him in
Speaker 2: the chest. I was like screaming. I was like, put
Speaker 2: this back in the fit as guys the modern cinema
Speaker 2: audience would be like yelling and yelling.
Speaker 1: After his epic ride, he is exhausted and he finds
Speaker 1: that his wife and child have been executed and his
Speaker 1: farm is burned and now exhausted by his journey, he
Speaker 1: collapses where he's found by slave traders who take him
Speaker 1: to North Africa. He wakes up there. He's also was
Speaker 1: injured when he escaped the Praetorian guards. He's got this
Speaker 1: nasty injury, and when he comes to he realizes that
Speaker 1: he is at a gladiatorial school, basically where they take
Speaker 1: these enslaved folks and then make them fight for the
Speaker 1: entrainment of people out here in the provinces of North Africa.
Speaker 1: Guess what Maximus is good at. That he's really good.
Speaker 2: At and also because he has history as a soldier
Speaker 2: and as a lieutenant and stuff. Sorry if I got
Speaker 2: the wrong name wrong, but basically as a leader, right,
Speaker 2: he trains his fellow gladiators in how to protect themselves
Speaker 2: and how to fight together and win against these ever
Speaker 2: growing threats that they throw into the ring. I have
Speaker 2: to say, I just thought this was like an exceptionally
Speaker 2: cool and interesting take. You know, we're recording this on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: November six, so I think I was moved by some
Speaker 2: of the moments of solidarity and community that they find.
Speaker 2: And also I just thought it's unexpected when you think
Speaker 2: about movies about men and the idea of lone wolf heroes.
Speaker 2: But Maximus actually saves himself by helping other people and
Speaker 2: teaching them how to save themselves, and I thought that
Speaker 2: was It's really interesting and cool. And in one of
Speaker 2: the earliest fights, we get what is maybe my favorite
Speaker 2: fight in the movie, which is when Maximus and the
Speaker 2: character played by jam and Hansuba Juba they're chained together
Speaker 2: and they have to fight, and it's so amazing to
Speaker 2: see the way that they learn each other's moves on
Speaker 2: the go. It's you and you are just rooting for
Speaker 2: them instantly. It's really really cool. And also I have
Speaker 2: to I almost texted you this days, but I was like,
Speaker 2: this is going to be so out of context if
Speaker 2: I just randomly text you this. I was watching this
Speaker 2: movie and I was like, man, I love Oliver Reed
Speaker 2: in this. I fucking love Oliver Reed. Oliver Reed Proximo
Speaker 2: the leader of the kind of gladiator.
Speaker 1: Guys during the movie, and they have to do some
Speaker 1: CG stuff yea allow him to finish out his scenes.
Speaker 2: And that was one of the first times I think
Speaker 2: they really did.
Speaker 1: One of the first times that was done, and it
Speaker 1: was done quite seamlessly for the day. Even now watching
Speaker 1: that scene, it works, It doesn't bump at all, and
Speaker 1: he is just chewing the scenery.
Speaker 2: I love his energy. I feel like you need something
Speaker 2: like that in one of these movies because if you
Speaker 2: think back to the movies that this hearkens back to, right,
Speaker 2: like Spartacus, those Sword and Sandals esque era movies, even
Speaker 2: like Lawrence of Arabier Eve, like just movies that old
Speaker 2: Hollywood epic scale. You're going to have at least one
Speaker 2: scene Chua and I feel like Oliver Reed is delivering
Speaker 2: in this role and it's kind of amazing to see
Speaker 2: that against Jaimon and Russell, who are just doing these
Speaker 2: really like straight down the line serious performances where you
Speaker 2: really believe they have to survive.
Speaker 1: Maximus and the team, because of their success out here
Speaker 1: in North Africa get taken by Proximo to Rome. They
Speaker 1: called up to the big leagues, and there takes place
Speaker 1: my favorite fight, Rosie, which is the fight in which
Speaker 1: they are cast as the barbarian, these Hannibal's barbarians that
Speaker 1: are supposed to lose the climactic battle between Rome and Carthage,
Speaker 1: I think the Third Punic War or whatever, and instead
Speaker 1: they turn the table. I love this because it gets
Speaker 1: them all to work as a team. He's like, has
Speaker 1: anybody been here in the army? One guy's like, I
Speaker 1: fought with you, and he says, Okay, here's how we're
Speaker 1: going to do it.
Speaker 2: And he understands the Battle of Carthage and what happens,
Speaker 2: so he can basically use his knowledge to defeat. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that is one of the coolest moments. I also love
Speaker 2: how this is one of the moments I think Ridley
Speaker 2: Scott does so well in this movie that often we
Speaker 2: don't get nowadays in like a historical epic, the moment
Speaker 2: when everyone in the audience is like cheering for them
Speaker 2: and the gladiators start to realize that they won, and
Speaker 2: you get these looks on the face of like pure joy.
Speaker 2: And actually when they first go to Rome, there's this
Speaker 2: really great, slightly dated but in a way that I
Speaker 2: really love bit that Ridley Scott does where he overlays
Speaker 2: all different people like cheering and talking and it feels
Speaker 2: very very nineties, but it just fits so well. Like
Speaker 2: it's ironic because there is a lot of violence in
Speaker 2: this movie, but it's classical Hollywood energy. Does give me
Speaker 2: like a kind of nostalgic feel. If this comes on TV,
Speaker 2: I will always just put it on.
Speaker 1: There's a great moment in this fight where Hagen, who
Speaker 1: is the big german guy, yeah, who doesn't immediately warm
Speaker 1: to Maximus. Certainly during the time that they were at
Speaker 1: the gladiator school, he's always been like, Hagen's a huge,
Speaker 1: muscly guy, and I think he in some way looks
Speaker 1: at Maximus and is like I could do what you're doing,
Speaker 1: Like whatever.
Speaker 2: What can you do?
Speaker 1: And so he goes off on his own to try
Speaker 1: and fight, separate from the group, and Maximus risks his
Speaker 1: life to save him after he's injured, brings him back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's that moment that seals Hagen's loyalty to Maximus
Speaker 1: and shows the value of everybody working to so they
Speaker 1: win this exactly. They win this massive fight. Commonists comes down,
Speaker 1: everybody's cheering, and Communist loves to be popular, so he
Speaker 1: comes down to meet the gladiators.
Speaker 2: He's like, these guys seem cool. I should get them
Speaker 2: on my side. That definitely couldn't be any weird connection
Speaker 2: between us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's there that Maximus reveals his identity, which
Speaker 1: how many people could you think could actually hear it
Speaker 1: in the arena, Like, definitely the people right on the ground,
Speaker 1: but I don't think that.
Speaker 2: But otherwise, no one else, no one else, You're just
Speaker 2: hearing cheering, scream people taking bets. I also love this
Speaker 2: because this is another great moment in the woaquin Phoenix
Speaker 2: kind of weak villain. He gets himself into this problem
Speaker 2: because Maximus is happy to not reveal his identity, right,
Speaker 2: He's got his little MF Doom mask on, he's hiding, and.
Speaker 1: He makes him do it. He's like, hey, he makes him.
Speaker 2: Do it, and then it's like, okay, bro, okay, you're
Speaker 2: setting yourself up for a very big issue here, especially
Speaker 2: because obviously your sister Lucilla played by Connie Nielsen the Legend,
Speaker 2: she is a fan of Maximus and she thinks he's dead,
Speaker 2: and nobody else is gonna be on your side if
Speaker 2: you want to get rid of this man who knows
Speaker 2: what you did, and obviously he does.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Commonist then really really wants to order the execution of
Speaker 1: all of these gladiators, including uh Maximus who spurred him.
Speaker 2: He's trying to do the thumbs down kill us.
Speaker 1: But again, he loves being popular and everybody, and he
Speaker 1: can tell the crowd would immediately be really upset if
Speaker 1: they did that, so he very begrudgingly goes thumbs up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that must have been the hardest thumbs up that
Speaker 2: man had ever done in his life. He was resembling.
Speaker 1: He was very resentabul This leads to one of the
Speaker 1: funniest scenes I think in the entire movie, where they
Speaker 1: immediately smashed cut commonist. It is palous and he's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, him, what are we gonna do? This
Speaker 1: is so sad about crying.
Speaker 2: And you know what's really interesting is, like I think
Speaker 2: it's a very interesting performance by Waki and who really
Speaker 2: goes very hard on the villainy of it all. Because
Speaker 2: actually this scene which is hilarious and I was cracking up,
Speaker 2: But like, if you read this scene a different way,
Speaker 2: or you had a different act to portray it, this
Speaker 2: could be a scene that would give you empathy towards
Speaker 2: this Carria who, no matter what he does, he's never
Speaker 2: good enough for his dad, he's never good enough for
Speaker 2: his people. Everyone else always comes above him. There's a
Speaker 2: version of this character who that at least a certain
Speaker 2: part of the audience would find relatability in but Joaquin
Speaker 2: allows none of that. He is like, I'm going to
Speaker 2: make this the most vile, hateful, loser character. And he
Speaker 2: does a great job, honestly, and you just won't hand.
Speaker 2: You're like, everybody conspire to get this motherfucker out because
Speaker 2: he is not the one so communist.
Speaker 1: Then sets up a rigged fight that Maximus has to
Speaker 1: take part in against the retired greatest gladiator ever and
Speaker 1: there's tigers that are waiting to attack him in the
Speaker 1: moment he steps outside of the squared circle, but hears anyway.
Speaker 2: This is that stuff where I think when you think
Speaker 2: about Gladiator, where when they're having this kind of climactic
Speaker 2: fight and the rose petals are falling. Yeah, that's the
Speaker 2: kind of stuff that Ridley Scott does well. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm very excited for Gladiator too, because I've seen some
Speaker 2: hilarious Ridley Scott quotes. Because in the trailer they teased
Speaker 2: that they flood the Colosseum and then the historians, since
Speaker 2: historians were like, this wouldn't happen, and then this is
Speaker 2: what Ridley Scott said. He said, if they can build
Speaker 2: the Colosseum, they can flood it, and find a couple
Speaker 2: of sharks. That's what he said, and I was like, yes,
Speaker 2: Ridley Scott, I want to see Prescal punching a shark.
Speaker 2: I really do that cinema to me.
Speaker 1: As Maximus's popularity grows, a cadre of disgruntled senators who
Speaker 1: want to return Rome back to the Republic that it
Speaker 1: once was, basically conspire with Maximus to try and elevate
Speaker 1: him and bring back the Republic. Before any of that
Speaker 1: can happen, Communist sets up the big fight between him
Speaker 1: personally and Maximus.
Speaker 2: Absolutely unbelievable gumption.
Speaker 1: What told you?
Speaker 2: How did you ever think this was gonna work? Bro?
Speaker 2: Of all the terrible plans in Hollywood movies, this is
Speaker 2: probably the worst plan. I get it, you want to
Speaker 2: look like you're stronger than him, But to me, I'm like,
Speaker 2: my guy, just get some more gladia as somebody can
Speaker 2: kill him, like someone can do it.
Speaker 1: Yes, somebody will eventually, and then.
Speaker 2: You can go down and chop off his head or
Speaker 2: whatever you want to do. But this was a terrible plan, Commodist.
Speaker 2: It was always going to end badly for you.
Speaker 1: Before the fight, you know, he's got Maximus chained up
Speaker 1: and he's telling him we're gonna fight, but then he
Speaker 1: like stabs him in the armpit a wound, like a
Speaker 1: steadily bleeding wound from which and obviously disabled slowly die. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They go into the ring and there's Maximus. He's wounded,
Speaker 1: but he manages to fucking beat commedists. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: dies on the floor of the arena with his old
Speaker 1: lieutenant and Connie Nielsen and the body of the Emperor
Speaker 1: next to him and all these other people watching, and.
Speaker 2: He can see the afterlife and he's thinking about his family.
Speaker 2: He's walking back in to.
Speaker 1: The afterlife and that actually you mentioned it, the fwalling petals.
Speaker 1: There's all these moments. This is why Ridley Scott is
Speaker 1: Realley Scott. There's all these poetic moments that enhance the vibe,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, the charm and the themes of the movie.
Speaker 1: And one of those is this scene that was actually
Speaker 1: filmed by Russell Crows stunt double, the scene of like
Speaker 1: touching the wee.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: He saw at one point Ridley saw this guy doing
Speaker 1: this and was like, get the steady cam and follow
Speaker 1: this guy. That's a cool oh.
Speaker 2: Wow, And that became such a huge image.
Speaker 1: To touch back on and It's this moment of a
Speaker 1: wonderful spirituality that is threaded throughout the film, and it
Speaker 1: gives the film the weight. It's the beyond, just like
Speaker 1: a John Wick this guy Kills Everybody type of movie.
Speaker 2: Also as well, I think that it is a rare
Speaker 2: kind of hopefulness for a movie like this, because you're
Speaker 2: going for the tragic ending. Maximus dies, but the end of.
Speaker 1: The movie they do not overthrow the rumin Emperor.
Speaker 2: Shocks. But the most important thing is not the fact
Speaker 2: that Lucilla recognizes him as a hero in Rome and
Speaker 2: they try and regain their freedom. The most important thing
Speaker 2: is you get to see him walking back to his family.
Speaker 2: Another one of the scenes that just devastated me when
Speaker 2: I saw this as a kid was when he goes
Speaker 2: back to his family, he sees their like burnt feet
Speaker 2: where they've been hanged. And but yes, I really love
Speaker 2: that if you watch the movie and you watch the
Speaker 2: brutality and you follow this story, you actually get to
Speaker 2: see him reunite with them in that same space, in
Speaker 2: this kind of almost like black and white limon or
Speaker 2: space that Ridley created. And I think that's very rare
Speaker 2: for a movie like this to have that poetic nature,
Speaker 2: that spirituality, that moment of hope, of like, actually he
Speaker 2: does get to do the thing that he wanted the most,
Speaker 2: we don't snatch it away from him. His death is
Speaker 2: not the end, it's actually the beginning. I think that's
Speaker 2: very beautiful. I will also say as well, I like
Speaker 2: your use of the term poetic because in that moment
Speaker 2: when he's Maximus is on the floor and he is
Speaker 2: struggling to breathe and Lucilla's looking down on him, the
Speaker 2: color of the sky behind her is just the brightest blue,
Speaker 2: the brightest blue you've ever seen. Like, the way that
Speaker 2: he uses color and con trass is so interesting. And also,
Speaker 2: you know what, Jaimenhns, who's there at the end, Jubi
Speaker 2: is there. You know I would have watched Gladiator two
Speaker 2: with him. We're gonna talk about the many Gladiator two options,
Speaker 2: actually because I'm obsessed with one of them. But yeah,
Speaker 2: what a movie. I'm actually so so glad that we
Speaker 2: got to revisit this because I don't know in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, Man, this just hit so hard for me
Speaker 2: and just spoke to me as a fun like dude's
Speaker 2: rock bros hanging out almost slice of life. Like a
Speaker 2: lot of times they're just like, this is what it's
Speaker 2: hanging out the life of a gladiator. It's like a
Speaker 2: lot of this movie is actually like very character based,
Speaker 2: very slow, lots of waiting, lots of talking, lots of
Speaker 2: not even much scheming or plotting. More just like we
Speaker 2: might die what is important to you? And I think
Speaker 2: that's really really cool and actually unusual and makes the
Speaker 2: film age well. Also visually it looks so good. I
Speaker 2: feel like if the kids on TikTok and it's watch
Speaker 2: this movie, I feel like they're gonna do like comparisons
Speaker 2: between how washed out modern cinema looks and the like
Speaker 2: absolute saturated, beautiful color, big colors. Yes, is so appealing
Speaker 2: to watch. Ridley Scott, you did it man, this is a.
Speaker 1: Well this is two thousand and it's on film correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's And that's why it looks so good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: That'll lead us to Gladier two, which is set fifteen
Speaker 1: years after the events of the original film and is
Speaker 1: focused on the adventure of the son of Lucilla played
Speaker 1: by Connie Nilsen, the nephew of Commedis.
Speaker 2: Who is the main part of this movie, he is
Speaker 2: essentially commedist almost uses him as like a human shield.
Speaker 2: Most times we see him brought out as if he's worried,
Speaker 2: he wants to look good, but he doesn't really care
Speaker 2: about him. But Lucias did grow up in this very
Speaker 2: royal regal household, so I'm very interested to see how
Speaker 2: they set it up where he ends up in a
Speaker 2: similar situation. Because also something I want to say about
Speaker 2: this movie that I do also love. I love Alexander Dumas,
Speaker 2: and I love the Count of Montey Cristo, and this
Speaker 2: is essentially a Count of Monty Cristo's story, revenge story.
Speaker 2: It's like and also the idea that you can rise
Speaker 2: up the ranks and hide your identity until you need
Speaker 2: to reveal it and get your revenge, just very Count
Speaker 2: of Monty Cristo.
Speaker 1: Early superhero archetype.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so he's gonna be basically he loved Maximus
Speaker 2: and now that's gonna be the person who's fighting his
Speaker 2: way up through the trials. Jason, I got to ask
Speaker 2: you an important question. Yes, does Paul Mescal have the juice?
Speaker 1: We were gonna fuck, We're gonna find out, We're gonna
Speaker 1: apparently they're saying that he has the juice. He's the juice.
Speaker 1: Here's your top ten movies of the year two thousand.
Speaker 1: Number one Mission Impossible Too, John wu.
Speaker 2: Probably lots of slow mo.
Speaker 1: Lots of SlowMo. Sadly one of the weakest. I think,
Speaker 1: Oh it is.
Speaker 2: It's a Vibes movie, and you can enjoy a Vibes movie,
Speaker 2: but it's definitely not the high point of a very
Speaker 2: very high point filled franchise.
Speaker 1: That made half a billion dollar. Number two Gladiator. There
Speaker 1: we are just under half a billion dollars. Number three Castaway,
Speaker 1: Oh incredible Tour de fource by Tom Hanks, who's basically
Speaker 1: in that movie alone.
Speaker 2: That is another movie. I will say, even though it's
Speaker 2: just him and his beach ball, his football, I should
Speaker 2: say that is a dude's rock movie. Dudes love Costaway
Speaker 2: and they love to see this dude just chill him
Speaker 2: on his own on the Costaway Beach.
Speaker 1: Number three What Women Want starring the terrible Awful Mel
Speaker 1: Gibson and Helen Hunt. The Wonderful Helen Hunt, The Wonderful
Speaker 1: Mersey Tome, in which mel Gibson can hear women's thoughts.
Speaker 2: Creepy.
Speaker 1: Next up, Dinosaur, Oh, Dinosaur DNA. We've never spoken about
Speaker 1: Dinosaur the movie ever.
Speaker 2: Ever. The only reason that it's still relevant to people
Speaker 2: is it has a very terrifying ride in Animal Kingdom
Speaker 2: that has traumatized many people, which I believe they're about
Speaker 2: to take away. So good on Dinosaur. Who knew that
Speaker 2: that was one of the top five biggest movies. I
Speaker 2: would never have seen it coming.
Speaker 1: Next Jim Carrey, Oh, how the Grinch Stole Christmas? Number six, the.
Speaker 2: Loved Christmas movie. Still people love it to this day.
Speaker 1: Number seven, and you forget what a huge smash this
Speaker 1: was and the sequels that came from it. Meet the Parents,
Speaker 1: Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller.
Speaker 2: Dude, that was a time when a mid range comedy
Speaker 2: could become a full quadrant success.
Speaker 1: Yes, could be the number seven movie for the year. Wow.
Speaker 1: Number eight The Perfect Storm, Oh my Gosh, starring a
Speaker 1: Wahlberg and Clooney and about the fishing boat that goes
Speaker 1: up the wave CG Wave, The CG Wave. I saw
Speaker 1: it in the theater and I thought, what was what's
Speaker 1: the fuss about?
Speaker 2: What's the fuss about? It's just okay?
Speaker 1: Number nine, Get this X Men. Number nine what imagine that?
Speaker 2: What turn around for the books, especially because X Men
Speaker 2: was still seen as a massive success.
Speaker 1: That's right, and number ten rounding out the top ten,
Speaker 1: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, What Lies Beneath?
Speaker 2: Okay, I love that movie. I love a good weird
Speaker 2: eroic thrill.
Speaker 1: I do like that movie as well.
Speaker 2: Wow, what crazy year, and honestly Gladiates to be up there.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that people went to see it.
Speaker 1: Other notable films of that period Crashing Tiger, Oh Hidden,
Speaker 1: Dragon Love.
Speaker 2: It should have been on that Love that traffic, Oh.
Speaker 1: Love It almost famous, bombed at the theater, but cleaned
Speaker 1: up critically.
Speaker 2: Became a full cult classic.
Speaker 1: Aaron Brockovich, Julia Roberts has come Back.
Speaker 2: That's a truly groundbreaking movie for ha and also just
Speaker 2: for like the waste in a mock perceived like a
Speaker 2: true story movie. So that's huge.
Speaker 1: And file this one under another movie that they don't
Speaker 1: make any more, wonder Boys. Oh wow, the Curtis Hansen
Speaker 1: Steve Cloves production. That's I think one. An Oscar for
Speaker 1: Best Original Song, starring Michael Douglas and a young Tobey
Speaker 1: Maguire has his kind of acolyte, who loves Michael Douglas,
Speaker 1: who plays an author his writing. Next up, Rome Facts.
Speaker 4: Welcome back, and it's time for Rome Facts Room facts
Speaker 4: in the omnip Facts about Rome.
Speaker 2: This is what men love. They love a fact about
Speaker 2: Jack And how often do you think about the Vermin
Speaker 2: Empire a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm looking back at my I'm looking back at my
Speaker 1: bookshelf right now. There's a recent book on the history
Speaker 1: of Ravenna, which became the second capital of the Western
Speaker 1: Roman Empire. There's a bunch of other stuff, the history
Speaker 1: of Byzantine emperors. I think about it a bit as
Speaker 1: a person who loves history.
Speaker 2: You are history love.
Speaker 1: I'm a history lover. So let's start at the very
Speaker 1: beginning for Rome. You know what I love. I love
Speaker 1: foundational myths.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and love a good man.
Speaker 1: And Rome has a really cool foundational myth. They thought
Speaker 1: of their history as like part legend and part history,
Speaker 1: which is really cool. According to Roman foundational myth, one
Speaker 1: day during the reign of the seventh and last King
Speaker 1: of Rome, Tarquinis, tarquin Is the star Wars fans now
Speaker 1: came before the king, and she had nine big books
Speaker 1: of Greek oracular poetry, which she offered to the king
Speaker 1: at like an insane price, like whatever, like the GDP
Speaker 1: of Rome for a year like this was when Rome
Speaker 1: was just like a middling kingdom, not a big deal.
Speaker 1: But she offered it to them at like a price
Speaker 1: that would bankrupt the kingdom. The King's like, no, are
Speaker 1: you kidding? It's too much.
Speaker 2: Get away, I don't need these books.
Speaker 1: She goes off, burns three of the books, comes back
Speaker 1: with six, and says, here's the six remaining books for
Speaker 1: the original price. The king refused again, but this time
Speaker 1: he was a little concerned.
Speaker 2: He was stress.
Speaker 1: He's like, hold on a second, Okay, I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: decline it.
Speaker 2: It seems like maybe something is important in these maybe
Speaker 2: she goes off.
Speaker 1: She burns three more books, comes back with the remaining three,
Speaker 1: again offering at the original break the bank price. Now
Speaker 1: the king, probably very anxiously, goes to the priests and says, hey,
Speaker 1: what do we do about this? These books? Do we
Speaker 1: need these books? The priests are absolutely alarmed that six
Speaker 1: of the books have already been burned and says buy them.
Speaker 1: Let over the price, buy them. So Tarkanis buys the books,
Speaker 1: and they contained We actually don't know what the prophecies.
Speaker 2: Were, how they the text didn't like survive, that's.
Speaker 1: Right, But it's generally thought that the poems were in
Speaker 1: hexamin or Greek verse, and then written in an acrostic
Speaker 1: form where the first letter of each line read down
Speaker 1: vertically down spelled the first line of the prophecy. And
Speaker 1: these prophecies dealt with things like twins are born, or
Speaker 1: a calf with two heads are born, or there's wildfires
Speaker 1: a comet, and when Rome would face an emergency, they
Speaker 1: would go down. These were kept in the temple of Jupiter.
Speaker 1: We know they really existed because they were kept in
Speaker 1: secrecy for hundreds of years, and only they were a
Speaker 1: state secret, and they were referenced like when Rome really
Speaker 1: needed them, so they would go down. The priests would
Speaker 1: go down there and look up the thing in the
Speaker 1: book and see what the prescription would be, and it
Speaker 1: would be some sort of ritual that would offset disaster.
Speaker 1: Now we again we know that they really existed. They
Speaker 1: were kept under the temporal of Jupiter until they were
Speaker 1: destroyed by a fire in a three BC. And this
Speaker 1: tells you how valuable the Romans considered these books. They
Speaker 1: then sent emissaries out all across the known world looking
Speaker 1: for copies of the books, and one of the ways
Speaker 1: they were able to kind of in their minds authenticate
Speaker 1: like the real pages was if they were also acrostic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they were prioritizing other acrostic poetry from books that
Speaker 1: were similar, and they kind of reassembled the tone, but
Speaker 1: that they were lost for good, like in the fifth
Speaker 1: century sometime they were burned again. Wild, Let's talk about emperors.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of emperor talk. Let's go down the
Speaker 1: line with the emperors.
Speaker 2: If you've ever read like a history book or even
Speaker 2: just Greek and Rahman myth. So you've watched the movie
Speaker 2: with Elizabeth Taylor and Darren come up in Gladiate Away,
Speaker 2: You're like, oh, I understand as a real history. That's
Speaker 2: the hang out passed. So Jason tell us some emperor
Speaker 2: fact Emperor facts.
Speaker 1: We start with the first emperor ever, Augustus, the adopted
Speaker 1: son of Julius Caesar. He ascended in twenty seven BC
Speaker 1: and basically Rome was still used to the Senate playing
Speaker 1: an important role in political life, and so Augustus slow
Speaker 1: played it. He accrued power very gradually, and he didn't
Speaker 1: put himself forward as an emperor. He basically said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm just a senator, but I'm like kind of the
Speaker 1: best one. But I'm still part of the Senate.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the chill guy, but I am in control.
Speaker 1: That's right. He died of old age, and then his
Speaker 1: adopted son Tiberius came in. This is fourteen eighty to
Speaker 1: thirty seven eighty that he reigned. He was a general,
Speaker 1: he was an abled diplomat. The Senate really didn't like
Speaker 1: him for various reasons, and he spent his last years
Speaker 1: basically in seclusion on his estate on the island of Capri.
Speaker 1: If you read people who really hated him from that period,
Speaker 1: he was doing all kinds of perverted in evil things
Speaker 1: on the island of Capri. We don't know if that
Speaker 1: was true, but he left romean control of his top
Speaker 1: assistant during this time, and then he died.
Speaker 2: I just want to say, as well, Augustus, shout out
Speaker 2: to you, because it's very rare that you get to
Speaker 2: live and die of old age in ancient Rome.
Speaker 1: In this format. That's true.
Speaker 2: Julius Caesa stabbed obviously. I just want to say, I
Speaker 2: think you did a good job of Augustus Tiberius, I
Speaker 2: probably should have done a little bit more leading, a
Speaker 2: little bit less chilling on your weird island.
Speaker 1: And by the way, there's a lot of Roman emperors,
Speaker 1: some of which have been forgotten and some of which
Speaker 1: are like recently discovered, like oh, here's a guy that
Speaker 1: reigned for a little while. Anyway. Next up Caligula, son
Speaker 1: of the famed Roman general Germanicus, who that was the
Speaker 1: honorific name given to him. His name was like Gaius,
Speaker 1: something like they all are, but he went to Germany
Speaker 1: and had many great victories, and so they named in Germanicus.
Speaker 1: His wife was Agrippina, Augustus's granddaughter as z Agrippina the elder,
Speaker 1: So Coligilia is their son. And his name is actually
Speaker 1: a nickname because his name also is like Gaya Caesar
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it meant little boots, and it's a
Speaker 1: reference to the little soldiers boots kids size soldier's boots
Speaker 1: that he would wear when he was on campaign with Dad.
Speaker 1: The soldiers gave him this nickname and it stuck. He
Speaker 1: went insane with power and was assassinated by an alliance.
Speaker 2: Did the craziest, wildest stuff.
Speaker 1: He just went mad, If.
Speaker 2: You've never seen the movie Caligula, there was a recent
Speaker 2: four K re released very good.
Speaker 1: Caligula tried to, according to a probably a Procerpal story,
Speaker 1: tried to elevate his horse in status to senatorial ring.
Speaker 2: I gotta say that's hilarious, though, thanks for the jokes
Speaker 2: on that one. I mean, not sensible, but.
Speaker 1: Hilarious praturing guards and other power players assassinated him and
Speaker 1: proclaimed Claudius, yes, the next emperor. Claudius was sidelined. Watch
Speaker 1: I Claudius for another great movie about this. Was sidelined
Speaker 1: and underestimated for most of his life because he had
Speaker 1: a lisp and a limp, and these physical disabilities basically
Speaker 1: made him look weak in everybody's mind. This is probably
Speaker 1: why he survived as long as he did. The Praetorian Guard,
Speaker 1: according to legend, found him hiding behind a drape after
Speaker 1: they killed Caligula, and as the last surviving member of
Speaker 1: the Julia Claudian family, they immediately were like, okay him,
Speaker 1: Harry is the emperor and they proclaimed emperor, probably thinking
Speaker 1: this guy's going to be very controllable. Claudius, it turned out,
Speaker 1: was good at the job, but he had a lot
Speaker 1: of enemies. The Senate was always on his ass, and
Speaker 1: his wife Agrippina the Younger uh uh also somehow a
Speaker 1: granddaughter of Augustus, who is one of the most influential
Speaker 1: women of the age. Apparently, according to legend Lanny contemporarious sources,
Speaker 1: allegedly poisoned him so that her son stepson Nero could
Speaker 1: take over Nero. You probably know that, Pela.
Speaker 2: That's why I was gonna say, you're getting into some
Speaker 2: famous empress head. I feel like people will recognize you.
Speaker 1: Probably know Nero. Nero gradually turned the empire against him
Speaker 1: because he became insane and created an extreme personality cult
Speaker 1: around himself.
Speaker 2: Well, he is the one who was very famous that
Speaker 2: when the Great Fire Room happened, they say he was
Speaker 2: like playing a fiddle.
Speaker 1: That's right. The Great Fire Rome happened on his watch,
Speaker 1: burned a huge portion of the city. The fiddle, by
Speaker 1: the way, was not invented during this time. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it was apar Yeah, but it gives you an idea
Speaker 1: of how people viewed him, which is like this tyrant
Speaker 1: who didn't care.
Speaker 2: He was like a pan style like chaos mango.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Eventually he turned everyone against him to such a
Speaker 1: degree that the senate sentenced him to death, and everybody
Speaker 1: abandoned him, and he realized the end was near, but
Speaker 1: he didn't have the courage to take his own life,
Speaker 1: so he ordered like his servant to kill him, and
Speaker 1: they stabbed him, and then he bled out and died.
Speaker 1: That led to the chaos known as the Year of
Speaker 1: the Four Emperors from sixty eight to sixty nine, when
Speaker 1: four different emperors reigned for a few months each. First
Speaker 1: there was Galba, who's too old, too passive. He was
Speaker 1: murdered by Atho. Then there was Atho, who committed suicide
Speaker 1: after losing to Vitellius in battle. Then there was Vitellius,
Speaker 1: whoigs executed by a Vespasian after getting into a war
Speaker 1: with Vespasian. And then there was vespace And who ran
Speaker 1: things for a while. Vespatian was a soldier. He was
Speaker 1: one of these rags richest stories that kind of became
Speaker 1: more common. He was a late comer to public life.
Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of records of his time
Speaker 1: as emperor. Reigned for ten years, but he's best known
Speaker 1: for beginning the construction of the famed Colisseum of Room.
Speaker 1: Then came his son Titus, He was ruler during the
Speaker 1: eruption of Mauna Vesuvius, which you've probably seen on the
Speaker 1: television series Loki.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely where I not from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is best known for finishing the Coliseum. You're
Speaker 1: not only ruled for two years before dying at forty one.
Speaker 1: I think a stroke or something I forget. Then came
Speaker 1: to a mission, also Vespatian's son. He was like a
Speaker 1: hardcore dictator and artocrat. He effectively sidelined the Senate, took
Speaker 1: all of its traditional and at that point the accouterments
Speaker 1: of their position that didn't really have any real power
Speaker 1: but still were like culturally important. He stripped those things
Speaker 1: away as well, and that led to his assassination by
Speaker 1: a conspiracy of senators and other artificials.
Speaker 2: So many assassinations, many many manuyes. This was a society
Speaker 2: that loved an assassination, loved it.
Speaker 1: There's no other way to get the person out. Then
Speaker 1: came Nerva. This is the revenge of the Senate. So
Speaker 1: after the Senate had its power stripped away, the Senate went, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: watch this, we proclaim this guy Emperor Nerva. Nerva then
Speaker 1: dutifully promised to return to the Senate all of its
Speaker 1: traditional stuff, its power, and its influence. He was forced
Speaker 1: by the military, who did not trust him at all,
Speaker 1: to adopt an air from the military who adopted Trajan
Speaker 1: young general, who turned out to be his probably his
Speaker 1: best decision, because when Nerva died of a stroke less
Speaker 1: than two years later, Trajan ascended, and along with Nerva,
Speaker 1: Trajan became part of this era known as the Five
Speaker 1: Good Emperors, when they got five solid emperors in a row,
Speaker 1: who all except for Nerva, ruled for a long time.
Speaker 1: So Trajan was considered by his contemporary and by historians
Speaker 1: of the age to be the goat. Like this guy's
Speaker 1: the greatest, Like oh, my god, Trajan. This is how
Speaker 1: he used to say of emperors that followed Trajan. May
Speaker 1: he be as lucky as Augustus and as good as Trajan.
Speaker 1: Because Trajan was so good. W Trajan grew the empire
Speaker 1: to its greatest geographical limit, and the Pax Romana, the
Speaker 1: fame Pox Romana, which is probably something you learned in school, begins,
Speaker 1: which is this piece of Rome that lasted like a
Speaker 1: century plus. Then came Hadrian, Trajan's cousin basically said, okay,
Speaker 1: enough with the expanding. We're huge, We're a huge empire.
Speaker 1: Let's just defend these borders and solidify them. This gives
Speaker 1: us Hadrian's wall in northern England famous wall.
Speaker 2: I've been the legendary.
Speaker 1: He was a very active ruler. He visited almost every
Speaker 1: Roman province except we think the ones in Spain and
Speaker 1: then Dacia, which they had to give up and they
Speaker 1: died after twenty years in office. Wow, He's got that
Speaker 1: famous column which you can go see in Rome, which
Speaker 1: has a bunch of his feats and famously shows the
Speaker 1: sack of the Temple of Jerusalem. That gives Us Antoninus Pious,
Speaker 1: Adrian's adopted son, husband to his niece Faustina. He was
Speaker 1: an efficient ruler. He left the emperor rich. He died
Speaker 1: after twenty two years in office. Everybody was happy. He
Speaker 1: was succeeded by his adopted sons, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius
Speaker 1: Verus as co emperors. Oh interesting, Lucius Verus dies after
Speaker 1: nine years of co empering, and this allows Marcus Riis
Speaker 1: to become the sole emperor. As we see in this film,
Speaker 1: Marcus Aurelius the last of the five good emperors. We
Speaker 1: kind of forget about Lucius Verus as one of the
Speaker 1: five good Emperors, and it's really about Marcus Aurelius. Of course,
Speaker 1: we see him in Gladiator, the wonderful Richard Harris in
Speaker 1: one of his final roles. He's just fantastic as Marcus.
Speaker 1: And Marcus Relius was a student of philosophy of the
Speaker 1: Greek school of Stoicism. He kept a journal of notes
Speaker 1: to himself, kind of like advice about how to rule
Speaker 1: and live wisely and honorably and with restraint, and these
Speaker 1: became collective in a book called the Meditations Marcus Relis's Meditations,
Speaker 1: and there's still people that follow his philosophy today. It
Speaker 1: remains in circulation. He died after a very long ill illness,
Speaker 1: probably of natural causes, but there was some speculation at
Speaker 1: the time that he might have been killed by his
Speaker 1: son Communists, and it was cyinar a pax romana after that,
Speaker 1: because he was the last of.
Speaker 2: The fires, was crazy.
Speaker 1: He was crazy, and everybody after that was bad. So
Speaker 1: then comes Communists. He was co emperor for three years
Speaker 1: under his father, but then as his father died, he
Speaker 1: became the sole ruler and immediately became paranoid, dictatorial, increasingly megamoniacal,
Speaker 1: drunk on power of fame, he created a personality cult
Speaker 1: around himself which basically said that he was like the
Speaker 1: source of everything Roman. He was the epitome of pure Rome, and.
Speaker 2: Everything that happened from Rome was from him.
Speaker 1: All good things in Rome spraying from him. And this
Speaker 1: culminated in a slate of games for the public, the
Speaker 1: plebeing games during which in the mornings commonists would slay
Speaker 1: animals with arrows, and in the afternoon he would fight
Speaker 1: rigged gladiator man, which he always won.
Speaker 2: Like we start in the movie.
Speaker 1: That's all right, His mistress Marcia probably killed him with poison,
Speaker 1: we think, after she discovered the communists had like a
Speaker 1: death list at his desk, and.
Speaker 2: Her name was on it, making like a death though,
Speaker 2: and he was like putting my wife on the end.
Speaker 1: Put her on it. When the poison didn't take, Marsha's
Speaker 1: co conspirators sent Narcissus, the Emperor's wrestling coach, in to
Speaker 1: kill him.
Speaker 2: Oh, incredibly, he died that.
Speaker 1: Way, General Maximus, he's not a real guy, not a
Speaker 1: real guy. But let's talk about how long it would
Speaker 1: have taken him to ride that horse from Germaania. Okay,
Speaker 1: so according to what we know about Marcus Relius, historically
Speaker 1: he died in Vindebona, Germania, which they mentioned in the
Speaker 1: film several times. And you hear in that fight in
Speaker 1: the arena one of the soldier who says, I fought
Speaker 1: with you at Vinda Bona. That's that battle we see.
Speaker 1: Vinda Bona is basically around modern day Vienna. And Maximus
Speaker 1: says at one point, I am Maximus Meridith. And he
Speaker 1: also tells Marcus that his home is in the hills
Speaker 1: above Truchillo, and that early scene, which is about fifty
Speaker 1: five kilometers about an hour driving distance from Mereda in Spain.
Speaker 1: So assuming that the farm homestead is like somewhere in
Speaker 1: that area Truhuilo Mereda, that's about a twenty six hour
Speaker 1: drive by car or a six day bike ride according
Speaker 1: to Google a map. So if we say that a
Speaker 1: bike is about the same as riding a horse, which
Speaker 1: gets tired, and we can say that Maximus was going
Speaker 1: with great haste. So let's say I don't know four
Speaker 1: or five days, I'm sure the horse died right after this, I.
Speaker 2: Would say that the horse is definitely dying. I would
Speaker 2: say maybe closer to a week because I don't know
Speaker 2: if the horse could keep it going at high speed
Speaker 2: the whole.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. The course, I guess we could
Speaker 1: assume like he stole horses. Whatever the case.
Speaker 2: Multiple it was dated several days time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Vienna to Spain. That's a long time last Gladator fact. Wow,
Speaker 1: as we get ready for Gladiator two, thank you famously,
Speaker 1: Now you're talking about stuff I know about. Yes famously
Speaker 1: made script famously. Australian rock musician Nick Cave, best known
Speaker 1: for his group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, mentioned
Speaker 1: on the Mark Marin podcast back in twenty thirteen that, apparently,
Speaker 1: at the personal request of his countryman Russell Crowe, he
Speaker 1: wrote a spec script for Gladiator two titled Gladiator two
Speaker 1: Gladiator two.
Speaker 2: Christ Killer Yes, and it would have focused on I'm
Speaker 2: obsessed with this script. I've actually read some versions that
Speaker 2: are online of this script. It is based on the
Speaker 2: idea that Maximus would have to like fight his way
Speaker 2: out of hell, yes, to find a space where he
Speaker 2: could then kill like a god. And it's because he
Speaker 2: has to get his family out of hell or something
Speaker 2: I think was the general like.
Speaker 1: Well, what happens is apparently what he says in this interview,
Speaker 1: is that the old gods are impressed with Maximus's death
Speaker 1: and the way he took on power, and so they go, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're the guy that we have hand picked for a
Speaker 1: mission that we have specifically for you. You will return
Speaker 1: to life, you will fight your way out of hell,
Speaker 1: take over the body of apparently an old man, and
Speaker 1: then go and kill this guy named Hephestos, who is
Speaker 1: apparently like a messiah like christ like figure who the
Speaker 1: old guys were very threatened by, and they wanted Maximus
Speaker 1: to go kill that guy.
Speaker 2: And so that's so good.
Speaker 1: What a crazy story.
Speaker 2: I have to tell you something, guys, that's even crazier, right.
Speaker 2: I actually thought that was the version of Gladiata two
Speaker 2: we were getting until the trailer came out. It has
Speaker 2: been such a big part of my life, this insane,
Speaker 2: unmade gladiat sequel. I thought, well, why would they make
Speaker 2: any other version? Now I will say something that makes
Speaker 2: it a little bit less crazy, And if you haven't
Speaker 2: seen this movie, go watch it. Nick Cave is actually
Speaker 2: a fantastic film writer. In two thousand and five, he
Speaker 2: wrote this movie called The Proposition with Guy Piss and
Speaker 2: Ray Winston and Danny Houston, and it's about a guy
Speaker 2: who is a notorious outlaw and he gets caught by
Speaker 2: a law man and they say, okay, we'll let you
Speaker 2: go if you go and find your brother and kill
Speaker 2: him because he is a really bad guy. And if
Speaker 2: you don't do it, we'll execute your younger brother. And
Speaker 2: it is so interesting. It's such a weird Western. I
Speaker 2: used to watch it all the time. But yeah, Nick Cave,
Speaker 2: He's written interesting, weird, dark films, so I definitely thought
Speaker 2: there was a world where somebody would want to make
Speaker 2: Gladiator to Christ Killer. Alas that is not the movie.
Speaker 2: We're getting there. I have to say, at this point
Speaker 2: in Russell Crowe's career, I believe he would be in
Speaker 2: that movie. Have you seen The Pope's Exorcist? I believe
Speaker 2: Russell Crowe would fight his way out of hell in
Speaker 2: the gladiat But yeah, Jason, thank you for this incredible
Speaker 2: ride through Roman history.
Speaker 1: Well thank you, And on the next couple of episodes
Speaker 1: of Export Vision, we're diving into our Kane season two,
Speaker 1: Act two and doing prophecy on HBO Max. That's it
Speaker 1: through this episode. Thanks for listening, folks. Bite x Ray
Speaker 1: Vision is hosted by Jason Kencepcion and Rosie Knight and
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a
Speaker 1: Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
Speaker 2: and Heidi A disco moderata