Gladiator, a historic drama film, directed by Ridley Scott, is a tragedy in many ways because it comprises many plots throughout the movie. A tragedy is a movie in which one characters actions lead to their downfall or death. In the movie Gladiator, tragedy is shown through Commodus' (Joaquin Phoenix) actions to become emperor, the fall of Maximus (Russell Crowe) and the pain that he goes through in order to get revenge and the death of both Commodus and Maximus at the end of the movie. Though Maximus is the hero of the film but the character of Commodus is equally important and powerful that is why their characters as tragic heroes are analyzed in this paper.
Discussion
Gladiator's argument has plenty in common with the movie, 1964: Tenth Maximum Roman general, commander of the Roman legions in Germania, is appointed by the old Emperor Marcus Aurelius as his successor, to the detriment of Commodus, his own son. Comfortable, jealous of the preference that both his sister Lucilla as shown towards his father Max, murders Marcus Aurelius and orders to kill the general and his wife and son, after which he proclaimed new emperor. The general's family dies, but he manages to survive, at the expense of serious injuries. Captured by slave traders, Maximus is sold to lanista East, who convinces the former general to fight as a gladiator, allowing you to win favor with the public and carry out his desire for revenge. After successive battles, in which Max reveals his skill as a warrior, became a folk hero to the point of which is claimed in Rome to fight in the Coliseum?
This synopsis could suggest a typical protagonist of modern action movies, passed through the filters of history on film. However, the character of Maximus is very different from one-dimensional to those heroes that Hollywood usually does, since it brings together very diverse and evocative nuances: before a relentless warrior beset by revenge, is a chief responsible, a loyal comrade, and, above all, a man devoted to his family, who wants to return to his estate of Hispania to harvest their crops. Certain features of the character of Max, as his religion, his modesty, his capacity for tenderness, even stoic fatalism with which endures the pain for the cruel loss of their loved ones, they are rarer in film consumption in recent time.
Amidst the classic Hollywood epic which is filled with muscular heroes and their sentimental martyrdoms and sacrifices, Gladiator is a harshly tragic movie. The details of the plot bind Maximus and Commodus together dedicating life for the destruction of each other. The whole story of the film presents a deadly logic of enmity which intertwined their tragic destinies. The movie is consisted of two tragic plots. One is of Commodus' and other is of Maximus'. Commodus tragedy is of evil and tyrant character and then there is Maximus whose tragedy falls under the heroic one. The tragedy of Commodus is quickly shown in the movie when he kills his own father upon hearing the news that he is not going to get the throne. On the other hand he falls in love with his sister who also knew his reality and the murder of his father he committed. The conflict between Commodus and Maximus arises when he tried to control the Rome the way he wishes for many years.
Here the tragedy of Maximus begins when Commodus kills his family and arrests him, making him fall from the rank of general to a prisoner. Maximus, raged and grieved with the death of his family decided to take revenge from Commodus who not only killed his family but also the Emperor, whom Maximus regarded as a father. The tragedy of Maximus is obvious when he says: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” This is when Maximus becomes our tragic hero, because he immediately switches from being on top of the world with having a family he loved and an army who fully supported him to becoming an isolated outlaw who has nothing to his name. Maximus eventually makes his way into the gladiator fights and quickly becomes popular by killing anyone he fights, the crowd falls in love with him and he is known as the Spaniard.
The tragic theme of the story goes on from Maximus' arrest towards his death. Oscar Mandel has suggested such predictability with the definition of tragedy that is “the sine qua non of tragedy" which means that the tragedy resides in a fatal and original imperfection in the relation between something with out or within and a purpose. The tragic narrative of Maximus, filled with grief, bereavement, revenge and anger, leads the story towards the final confrontation of the Maximus and Commodus in the Coliseum. Mandel also notes that the tragic fall is a certain result of a given reason in a given world, which is internal or external to protagonist. Te consequences of taking revenge from the Roman emperor could only be destructive for himself but the tragic hero cannot prevail by the definition. His life and family was doomed with his own firm rebelliousness towards the powerful enemy.
Lastly, the movie is a tragedy because both Commodus and Maximus die tragically in the end. In the end of the movie the plots of Maximus and Commodus meet together and they have their tragic battle. The plot of Commodus has been more of a tyrant route. After killing his father, thinking he killed Maximus and his family, and becoming emperor of Rome, he thinks everything has worked out for the best for him, but he is going to learn that you cannot kill to gain power because someone will always be out to make sure justice will happen.
Maximus is regarded as a tragic hero not only because he lost his family, his rank and father like emperor but also because he had also his earlier love Lucilla (sister of Commodus). They get parted with each other and married to someone else years ago. On the other hand, the audience also feels sympathetic with Maximus because not only lost his rank but also become a white slave among the blacks. For Europeans, it must have been a tragedy that a white man becomes a slave among the people of other race and also trained by one of them while losing his honorable rank of military and government.
Almost all of the climactic scenes of the film are set in the Coliseum and trench Maximus against several opponents. The film also shows the tragedy of other gladiators who were dehumanized by heavy amours. They have to battle against each other just for the entertainment of the crowd and had to play the game of death for their amusement. Their helplessness and rage is depicted when Maximus asked the crowd, after dispatching a gladiator: “Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?”
The closing sequence of the film is also attributed as tragic one in which both the characters of the movie faced biggest tragedies of their lives. In the last scene, both Commodus and Maximus have their lethal fight in an arena before the enthusiastic and excited crowd. This final event of the movie is a said to be a multi-lateral theatrical event which plays out the tragic structure of the film as a sight for the audience. It displays the ritual slaughter of the defiant hero who was already wounded even before entering the fight; on the other hand the stage foe Commodus was already set to perform his heroic performance which was written for him but he could not understand. Though the fight could not save Maximus from death, but he was honored as a soldier of that very empire which destroyed his family, his life and his career as a general. On the other hand, sense of failure also prevail within Commodus who learns that killing everyone cannot keep the justice as someone may rise out of the crowd with the sense of vengeance and revenge just to challenge the authority and injustice.
Conclusion
Gladiator is a high mimetic tragedy that draws on conventional romantic archetypes for its two main characters, Maximus the former elite General, and Commodus the deceptive and cruel emperor. In the end, both of the main characters are tragic heroes, Maximus is a tragic hero because he falls from his power and fights to get revenge and dies after getting it, and Commodus is a tragic hero because he learns at the end of the movie that he cannot kill to gain power and he cannot manipulate the system and he dies from his own corrupt actions.
Work Cited
Mandel, O. A Definition of Tragedy. New York: New York University Press (1973).
Official Gladiator Website: http://www.gladiator-thefilm.com
