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23 March 2005
Ms. Bodenmiller (My English Teacher)
English 8- 6th hour
The epic movie Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott, expresses the seven characteristics of Joseph Campbell’s archetype of the ‘Hero’ in the main character, Maximus Decimus Meridius. To have a better understanding of the movie Gladiator, one would have to know more about the time period in which it is set and about the main characters themselves: Maximus Meridius and his enemy, Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus (Commodus for short). Joseph Campbell has pointed out seven distinct characteristics of ‘the hero’ story. No matter what, the hero has it’s origin as an ordinary person who’s life suddenly changes and the hero takes a journey into a dark world. In this journey, the hero will find a teacher that will give him or her a new skill to continue their journey. Near the end of this adventure, the hero will be challenged to his or her very limit and ultimately will have to face a villain in, what Campbell calls, ‘The Supreme Ordeal’. Once the antagonist is defeated, the hero is rewarded in some way. Almost all literature and movies around the world involving a hero will follow these seven themes with their own added twist in the plot. The movie Gladiator has a historical Roman twist to Campbell ‘Hero’ archetype.
The movie Gladiator can be better understood if one knows more about the time period in which it is set in and more about the main characters: Maximus Meridius and Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus. Gladiator is set in the late first century in the Roman Empire during the end of the reign of ‘The Five Good Emperors’ of Rome. In real life, these five emperors ruled the Empire extremely well. Under the 84 year reign of the five emperors, Rome had many military successes which increased the empire by leaps and bounds, almost making the empire too large to manage. Many public works were built during the time, the welfare payments for the people were increased and the government was made more efficient. But, that was before the time of the movie Gladiator which takes place directly after the last of the five good Emperors died and the beginning of the decline of the empire. Maximus Meridius, a completely fictional character, was a general in the Roman army and had many victories for Rome. In Gladiator, the character Commodus was only based on the actual Emperor Commodus, who was a major aspect in the decline of the empire. In the movie, many of the facts about him were true, according to the Omniknow online encyclopedia. Commodus was truly obsessed with gladiatorial combat and had often fought in the arena himself against defenseless men and children. He was a very odd emperor and the people did not find him very popular. In both the movie and in real life, Commodus wanted to dismantle the Senate of Rome, which would have destroyed The Roman Republic, making it a dictatorship. Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus was the villain that Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’, Maximus Decimus Meridius, an ordinary man, had to defeat.
Joseph Campbell has pointed out seven distinct characteristics of the archetypal hero story. The first aspect is the hero’s origin. “Campbell showed that the story always began with an ‘Everyman’ just living his hum-drum life. . .” (Boeree) This is very true in the movie Gladiator. According to the Omniknow encyclopedia, the fictional character Maximus was born in 152 AD in Hispania and was the son of a governor. At age 17, Maximus joined the Roman army and became very successful in battle against various peoples such as the Celts and the Parthians. Maximus moved up in the army very quicky until he was made a general in 176 AD, the youngest general in Roman history. Before Maximus became a general, he married and had a son. They bought a large plot of land in the countryside and started a farm. Here, Maximus farmed alongside his family in peace. When he was appointed general, he had to leave his family for a long time to fight in Germania. Up until this point, Maximus Decimus Meridius lived an average ‘hum-drum’ life as any successful Roman general would. It wasn’t until after his success in Germania that Maximus’ life change from being ordinary to extraordinary.
Campbell’s next aspect of ‘The Hero’ story archetype is that the hero’s life changes dramatically. “Suddenly and unexpectedly, either by chance or by choice, Everyman is either pulled out of his ordinary life or chooses to leave his ordinary life . . .” (Boeree). After Maximus’ victory in Germania near the Danube River, the Emperor of Rome congratulates Maximus. Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor, has a grudge against his son, Commodus, who is next in line to be Emperor of Rome and does not trust his son’s judgment. In the privacy of the Emperor’s private quarters, Marcus Aurelius dubs Maximus as the Emperor of Rome and calls him “. . . the son I should have had.” (Gladiator DVD Ridley). Commodus later hears of his father’s decision and goes into the Emperor’s chamber and kills him by suffocation before the news of the new Emperor of Rome. Commodus then calls in Maximus and has him carried away to be executed. He is stripped of his title as both Emperor and General of the Roman army and is taken to the forest to be killed. Commodus also orders that his family be crucified and his farm burned. Maximus, being a strong man, escapes and kills the two guards and runs to his family. It is a long trip and he doesn’t make it in time. His family and his home is destroyed. At this point, he is defeated in spirt and wishes to be with his family one more time and he collapses next to the body of his wife. This has really changed Maximus’s life. When he wakes up, he is being drug away by a slave master and becomes a slave. This is where Maximus, the hero, begins his journey.
According to Campbell, the next aspect of ‘the Hero’ story archetype is that the hero will journey into a dark world. “The adventure . . . then goes through several specified stages. The hero will journey into a dark world where he meets various forces or entities which he has to deal with” (Boeree). Maximus goes from being a general to being the Emperor of Rome to being a slave. Maximus is bought by a wealthy man named Proximo, who forces his slaves to fight as gladiators in the battle arenas. Maximus is the only slave who does not need training since he is the only one who has killed dozens of men in war. This fact makes him one of Proximo’s favorites. Maximus quickly adjust to the dark world of being a slave and a gladiator. Maximus fights in many gladiatorial battles and gains fame in the gladiator world which does not go unnoticed by Commodus who is a big fan of the gladiator fights. At this time, Commodus is highly unpopular as the new Emperor since he is nothing like his good natured father. He has plans on dismantling the Senate which would go against his father’s dying wish of making Rome into a better republic, which he told Maximus as he dubbed him Emperor. While in this dark world of being a slave and a gladiator, Maximus gained a teacher.
The fourth aspect of the ‘hero’ story archetype is that the hero will gain a teacher. “Along the way he [the hero] encounters a teacher who gives him the instruction in new skills he will need to learn to successfully achieve his goal. No later than this part of the journey the hero becomes consciously aware of what that very specific goal is.”(Boeree). With Maximus’ new success, Proximo, his master, tells him that he was once a slave and a gladiator like Maximus is now. Proximo says he won his freedom from his master and later killed him. Proximo decides to personally train Maximus for the Gladiatorial battle in Rome. He teaches him everything he knew which was helpful since Proximo was undefeated when he was a gladiator. Maximus’ battle in Rome was the most important battle he was ever to be involved in. After his intense training, Maximus fights in the battle and wins and the crowd cheers his name. Due to his helmet he wears in all of him battles, no one has ever seen his face and the people call him ‘The Spaniard’. After his win, Commodus, being the enthusiastic gladiator fan he is, goes down to congratulate the winner for his accomplishment and demands to see his face. With much debate, Maximus finally takes off his mask and reveals he face to the man who killed his family. Commodus is surprised since maximus was supposed to be dead. He does not kill Maximus, who is now the crowd favorite and Maximus turns his back to the Emperor of Rome and walks away, which is a great sign of disrespect. Commodus is not liked by the people and if he were to have killed Maximus there in the arena, there most likely would have been a uprising of the people. At this point, Maximus, a gladiator, has more power than the emperor and must kill Commodus to not only avenge his family, but to become emperor and make Rome a better republic. He is ‘ The general who became a slave, the slave who became a gladiator, [and] the gladiator who became more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.” (Gladiator). With the hero realizing his true objective, he must challenge the antagonist, Commodus, in what Campbell calls, ‘ The Supreme Ordeal’.
“Striving for his goal, the hero is challenged to his limit, reaching a peak culminating experience, what Campbell calls a "supreme ordeal.’” (Boeree). This si the fifth part of the Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’. In Gladiator, Maximus collaborates with Commodus’ sister, Proximo and a senator to plot against the Emperor. They all put their best effort into this plot but, Commodus finds out about it and threatens his sister’s life. The plot fails and Commodus has his guards sent to Proximo’s compound and has him killed as they search for Maximus. When the finally find him, they bring him Commodus who has a plan to win the people’s respect and kill the people’s hero. He challenges Maximus to a battle for the title of Emperor of Rome, but before the battle, Commodus stabs Maximus in his back and pads him with armor. This fight against Commodus is the ‘Supreme ordeal’ pushing Maximus to the limit of his strength and muscular endurance. Maximus sways and stubbles because of his stab wound. In the end, Maximus kills Commodus, becoming the Emperor of Rome and avenging his family, but due to his stab wound from earlier, he dies shortly after winning the ‘Supreme Ordeal’. The hero has gained a reward for his achievement.
With the ‘Supreme Ordeal’ done and Maximus victorious, Joseph Campbell’s hero gains his reward. “The result [of the ‘Supreme Ordeal] is that the hero ‘gains his reward’ and is forever changed by the experience.”(Boeree) Maximus has a mere five minutes of life left, but in those five minutes, he announced to the crowd, which was appalled by his victory, that all of Commodus’ new rules and laws were to be undid and that until they find a new Emperor, the Senate was to reign over the Roman Empire thereby fulfilling the old Emperor’s dream of a better Rome. He then collapses to the ground and is carried away honorably while Commodus’ body lays in the middle of the arena in shame. Maximus is awarded by being able to be with his family in the afterlife and restoring Rome to how it should have been before Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus rule which had forever, in the movie world, changed Rome.
The movie Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe is a brilliant example of Joseph Campbell’s Hero story archetype. Maximus is the hero of Rome, a man who started out as a general was forced into slavery after the crucifixion of his wife and son, then made into a gladiator, eventually becoming more powerful than the Emperor of the Roman Empire. Maximus, along with almost any other hero in any other story around the world, followed the seven aspect of Campbell’s archetypal hero as said by Dr. Boeree: “Campbell's cross-cultural studies of the myths of ancient peoples brought him to the conclusion that these diverse stories were all telling the same small number of myths but in slightly different language. He further concluded that there was an archetypal plot line within these myths which remained constant from one culture to the next. . . . Campbell recounts in his book [The Hero with a Thousand Faces] dozens and dozens of ancient hero myths from unrelated cultures around the world to come up with a common denominator for a plot line, the archetypal hero story.”
The events in the movie Gladiator clearly express what Campbell’s research had found. The movie had the same hero plot line but it had a historical Roman twist to it, which was loosely based on the true story of Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus who caused the decline of the Roman Empire and was killed by an athlete.
