Gladiator II Trailer is Attacked by the Alt-right

[seth77]

This type of ideological drivel is actually what a lot of movie producers count on to boost the publicity for their productions. Be they far right or far left, these wannabe "reviews" that push the indignation/controversy buttons for something as bland as who plays which role in any production work for the movie industry regardless.

[robinjojo]

The criticism of Gladiator II is just plain silly, but not unusual.  In the realm of theater and movies there have been innumerable variations of historical events, and at the level of fictional or quasi-fictional works, changes in time setting, sex reversals (think Romeo and Juliet), racial/ethnic reversals (think King Lear), to name a few.  It's really all part of the creative process to update and make these subjects more relevant at the contemporary level, and while I do favor more traditional productions, where Richard III is set in the late 15th century, I do think that these "out of the box" creations are an essential part of the performing arts.  

I haven't seen any of the Gladiator movies, but I certainly think an argument that Emperor Macrinus, being of North African descent, could very well have had solid African roots.  Who knows?  Would Ancestry.com help?  I doubt it.  If anything else Ancestry.com and other platforms are proving just what a jumble of racial/ethic backgrounds we humans are genetically.

Edited July 11 by robinjojo

[MrMonkeySwag96]

The director certainly picked the wrong actor to portray Caracalla. Both Paul Mescal (who plays the protagonist) and Pedro Pascal (who plays a Roman general) physically resemble Caracalla. Both actors have that scruffy, threatening look I see in Caracalla’s portraits.
 

Paul Mescal:

 

Pedro Pascal:

 

My silver denarius of Caracalla:

 

Caracalla’s marble bust:

 

The director picked some fem boy to be Caracalla. Historically, Caracalla was a ruthless soldier-emperor. This fem boy certainly is no soldier…..

Edited July 11 by MrMonkeySwag96

[Al Kowsky]

The movie trailer has officially been shortened & that silly Rap song was replaced by music from the original Gladiator 😄.

https://www.cbr.com/gladiator-2-trailer-replaced-hans-zimmer-score/

 

 

[ominus1]

Author Information

In February of 2001, Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics, commenting on the near-completion of the human genome project, said that “we are all essentially identical twins.” A news headline at the time made a similar point: Are We All One Race? Modern Science Says So. In the article that followed, the author quoted geneticist Kenneth Kidd: “Race is not biologically definable, we are far too similar.”

Venter and Kidd are eminent scientists, so these statements must be reasonable. Based on an examination of our DNA, any two human beings are 99.9 percent identical. The genetic differences between different groups of human beings are similarly minute.

[kirispupis]

Interestingly, I just learned that Denzel Washington will also be playing Hannibal in an upcoming Netflix film. I'm sure that trailer's going to go over well when it comes out. 🙂 

Of course, that's revealed a major spoiler for Gladiator II. From history, we know he was killed when escaping from Elagabalus (who will be in Gladiator III). However, in this Hollywood version, the Romans uncover that he is, in fact, Hannibal, so they kill him. It's a very impressive scene, complete with CGI elephants and lots of explosions.

[Hrefn]

The exploding elephants are my favorite part.  The Romans feed the elephants fava beans and then shoot them with flaming arrows.  

[Roman Collector]

[ominus1]

On 7/11/2024 at 11:01 AM, ominus1 said:

well, i really don't watch gladiator movies anyway   😛

gladiators.jfif 10.61 kB · 3 downloads

...haha    Great Minds @Roman Collector ....^^

[Ryro]

Old white dudes that grew up watching the Duke dress like this...

cannot, with a straight face, be upset about Denzel playing a Roman emperor. 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

The thread that won't quit. 

I have no problem with Denzel as Macrinus. I do have a problem with the casting of Geta and especially Caracalla. Would it have been so hard to find an actor that actually looked like him from busts and coins? No. 

I find Lucius becoming a Gladiator very unrealistic. Even more unrealistic than Maximus, a top general, becoming a Gladiator. 

Actually the character Lucius the young boy was supposed to be the son of Lucius Verus and Lucilla. He actually tells Maximus in the film that his father was Lucius Verus. So I don't see why there is any confusion here.

If you look at some of the earlier script ideas including Russell Crowe reprised as sort of a ghost who visits other characters like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, they were quite off the wall. That version of the film was shelved at the script stage and a new screenwriter was brought in to write the present script. Covid and the Hollywood writer's strike impacted the production. Also the rights to Gladiator were sold by DreamWorks SKG and Universal to Paramount, who earmarked over $300 million for the production of the movie. I'm assuming they hope the gross at the box office will exceed $600 million. The film opens in the U.K. the week before it does in the U.S.

Another character who reprises his role as senator Gracchus is the always entertaining Derek Jacobi (Claudius in I, Claudius). Djimon Honsu was set to reprise his role as Juba the slave and gladiator but talks over his compensation and work schedule turned south so he turned the role down. Connie Nielsen returns as a middle-aged Lucilla.

 

 

[Salomons Cat]

The production cost was a staggering $310 million. The primary goal for the filmmakers is to recoup this investment, which means the movie has to be entertaining.
And I believe that entertainment is all we should expect from it. The villain often plays a crucial role in this regard. While Caracalla was historically brutal and psychopathic, the movie exaggerated his character further, portraying him as an absurd, effeminate figure with a gold tooth. 
Of course, there is nothing wrong with being effeminate.
But was it really necessary to make this part of history more "entertaining"? I think not... They would have just needed a really good script and they could have made it historically accurate. But this is rare nowadays. Most movies prefer GCI and explosions over a good story line.

Edited July 14 by Salomons Cat

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Didn't some contemporary historians describe Macrinus as a "Moor" (and also Aemilian), an old-timey word for black? 

It shows you how far out of the entertainment loop I am.  This thread was the first clue I had there was an imminent Gladiator film.