Gladiator
Topics
Gladiator
Quotations
Quotations
Gladiator is a 2000 film about a Roman general who became a slave and then rose to challenge an emperor.
What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity. taglines
- Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson.
Maximus
- Fratres! Three weeks from now I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line. Stay with me. If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled; for you are in Elysium, and you're already dead! [The soldiers laugh] Brothers, what we do in life, echoes in eternity.
- 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.
Proximo
- I am Proximo! I will be closer to you in these next few days, which will be the last days of your miserable lives, than that bitch of a mother who first brought you screaming into this world! I did not pay good money for your company, I paid it so I could profit from your deaths! And just as your mother was there at your beginning, so I shall be there at your end. And when you die – and die you shall – your transition will be to the sound of … [claps his hands] Gladiators, I salute you.
- Some of you are thinking you won't fight. Others, that you can't fight. They all say that until they're out there. [Picks up a sword] Thrust this into another man's chest, and the crowd will applaud and love you for it. In time, you may even begin to love them for that. Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how, but … we can decide how we meet that end in order that we are remembered … as men.
Gracchus
- I think he [Commodus] knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them, and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom, and still they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate. It's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll bring them death … and they will love him for it.
- [To Falco] I don't pretend to be a man of the people, senator. But I do try to be a man for the people.
Dialogue
- Commodus: You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father. Ambition. That can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness. Courage. Perhaps not on the battlefield, but … there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family and to you. But none of my virtues were on your list. Even then it was as if you didn't want me for your son.
- Marcus Aurelius: Oh, Commodus. You go too far.
- Commodus: I search the faces of the gods … for ways to please you, to make you proud. One kind word, one full hug … where you pressed me to your chest and held me tight … would have been like the sun on my heart for a thousand years. What is it in me that you hate so much?
- Marcus Aurelius: Shh, Commodus.
- Commodus: All I've ever wanted was to live up to you, Caesar, father.
- Marcus Aurelius: [gets down on his knees] Commodus, your faults as a son is my failure as a father. Come.
- [They hug]
- Commodus: Father. I would have butchered the whole world … if you would only love me!
- [Commodus presses Marcus against his breast and asphyxiates him]
- Gracchus: But the Senate is the people, sire. Chosen from among the people, to speak for the people.
- Commodus: I doubt if any of the people eat so well as you do, Gracchus. Or have such splendid mistresses, Gaius. I think I understand my own people.
- Gracchus: Then perhaps Caesar will be so good as to teach us … out of his own, extensive experience.
- [The Senate laughs]
- Commodus: I call it love. I am their father, the people are my children. I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly –
- Gracchus: Have you ever embraced someone dying of plague, sire?
- Commodus: No. But if you interrupt me again, I assure you that you shall.
- Maximus: You ask me what I want. I, too, want to stand before the Emperor as you did.
- Proximo: Then listen to me. Learn from me. I wasn't the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd, and you will win your freedom.
- Maximus: I will win the crowd. I will give them something they have never seen before.
- Juba: It's somewhere out there. My country. My home. My wife is preparing food. My daughers carry water from the river. Will I ever see them again? I think not.
- Maximus: Do you believe you'll see them again when you die?
- Juba: I think so. But then, I will die soon. They will not die for many years. I'll have to wait.
- Maximus: But you would … wait?
- Juba: Of course.
- Maximus: You see, my wife and my son are already waiting for me.
- Juba: You'll meet them again. But not yet. Not yet.
- [They shake hands]
- Maximus: Not yet. … Not yet.
- Juba: Can they hear you?
- Maximus: Who?
- Juba: Your family, in the afterlife.
- Maximus: Oh yes.
- Juba: What do you say to them?
- Maximus: To my son, I tell him I will see him again soon. To keep his heels down while riding his horse. To my wife – that is not your business.
- [They laugh]
- Commodus: The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story! But now, the people want to know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. And what could be more glorious than to challenge the Emperor himself in the great arena?
- Maximus: You would fight me?
- Commodus: Why not? Do you think I am afraid?
- Maximus: I think you've been afraid all your life.
- Commodus: Unlike Maximus the invincible, who knows no fear?
- Maximus: I knew a man who once said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."
- Commodus: I wonder, did your friend smile at his own death?
- Maximus: You must know. He was your father.
- Commodus: You loved my father, I know. But so did I. That makes us brothers, doesn't it? [stabs Maximus in the side] Smile for me now, brother!
Taglines
- What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity.
- A Hero Will Rise.
- The Gladiator Who Defied An Empire.
- The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor.
- Strength and Honor.
Cast
- Russell Crowe – Maximus
- Joaquin Phoenix – Commodus
- Connie Nielsen – Lucilla
- Oliver Reed – Proximo
- Richard Harris – Marcus Aurelius
- Derek Jacobi – senator Gracchus
- Djimon Hounsou – Juba
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