Tell about Gladiator ?

Willing gladiators worked under contract, while unwilling gladiators (usually slaves) were either bought by a ludus gladiatorum or condemned by the Roman courts to fight in the arena.

The wounds on Russell Crowe’s face after the opening battle scene are real, caused when his horse startled and backed him into tree branches. The stitches in his cheek are clearly visible when he’s telling Commodus he intends to return home.

Five tigers were brought in for the scene in the arena where Maximus fights Tigris the Gaul. A veterinarian armed with tranquilizer darts was there the entire time. For safety’s sake, Russell Crowe was kept at least 15 feet away from the tigers.

There was a sequence in the original script that called for a fight between Maximus and a rhino.

Over the course of the gladiatorial scenes, Russell Crowe lost all feeling in his right forefinger for two years after a sword fight, aggravated an Achilles tendon injury, broke a foot bone, cracked a hip bone, and popped a few bicep tendons out of their sockets

Death was an acceptable outcome, but not an inevitable result, of gladiatorial shows.

Most depictions of gladiatorial combat often portray fights as a bloody free-for-all that usually ends with one participant brutally maiming the other, but that was not always the case.

The rhino, however, turned out to be too difficult to train and the CGI rhino wasn’t realistic enough, so they scrapped the idea.

Connie Nielsen found the 2,000 year old signet ring she wears in the movie in an antique store.

Since gladiators were skilled professionals, it would be a devastating economic blow to managers if they lost a member of their gladiatorial stock.

Maximus’ family wasn’t originally planned to be killed off, but the subplot was added during the rewrite by John Logan in order to give Maximus’ character more reason to fight.

The opening battle scene was filmed in Bourne Woods, Surrey, England. The Royal Forestry Commission had originally slated the area for deforestation, so Ridley Scott offered them his facilities to burn the woods to the ground. The Commission accepted.

The gladiatorial games were officially banned by Constantine in 325 CE. Constantine, considered the first “Christian” emperor, banned the games on the vague grounds that they had no place “in a time of civil and domestic peace” (Cod. Theod. 15.12.1).

The movie makes it seem like almost every gladiatorial match was a fight to the death.

Mel Gibson was offered the lead role, but he turned it down. At 43, he felt he was too old to play Maximus.

In Ancient Rome, that wasn’t the case: most gladiatorial fights didn’t end in a fatality, but that’s not to say it wasn’t a risky profession.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that the ban was implemented for humanitarian reasons.

Ridley Scott resisted any suggestion that Maximus and Lucilla should have a sexual relationship, because it would decrease his need to be with his murdered wife and son. Russell Crowe was also against it, feeling that it wasn’t in character.

All the film’s props, sets, and costumes were manufactured specifically for the film as the items they needed were either too costly or unavailable.

In fact, the would-be gladiators were sent instead to the mines to ensure a steady stream of labor.

Russell Crowe became friends with Sir Richard Harris during filming. However, Oliver Reed took an instant dislike to Crowe and, at one point, challenged him to a fight.

Further evidence suggests that the games had simply become too expensive and that the recent “Christianizing” of the empire had resulted in fewer combatants.

One hundred suits of armor were made of steel, and another five hundred and fifty were made out of polyurethane.

Gladiator is Russell Crowe’s favorite American film that he has done. He also cites Maximus as his favorite character that he’s played so far.

All the scenes involving slavery, desert travel, and gladiatorial combat training were shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco, which has also been used for scenes in Lawrence of Arabia, The Living Daylights, The Last Temptation of Christ, the Mummy, and Game of Thrones.