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A truth: Sadly for people with a good education and/or good taste, other people watch G I and G II for the sight of Russell Crowe or Pedro Pascal in a "miniskirt"..😉 I may or may not be one such person, but I do know they are about as historically accurate as a romance novel is an accurate description of a regular relationship...😂😂😂
But what I wanted to know is about the first ten minutes of the movie. How realistic is it that the wife in Numidia would be an archer? And not just a random archer, but have a leading role as an archer in the military? And I don't get it... Okay, Lucius wasn't a native; he was white, his wife had more of an olive skin tone, and the king was black. What did they look like in Numidia? Were they all black? Or were there different skin colors?
I'm imagining a movie made a thousand years in the future where Barak Obama commands a battle against Napoleon and the writers are like "close enough".
Marine Biologist here (although really you don't have to be one to realise this, just thought I'd point it out) but the single biggest problem with having sharks in the Colosseaum is that you would have to fill it with saltwater to put sharks in it, and there's no conceivable way they would have gone to that effort to transport that amount of seawater up the Tiber to fill the Colosseaum with. Crocodiles or Hippos absolutely, but not sharks
@@Swaguley Not at all - there's plenty of instances of large aquariums keeping sharks alive for many years (sand tiger sharks, reef sharks etc do fine if the tank is big enough). The problem is that certain species need to be actively swimming forwards in order to breathe because of the way their gills function, which makes both housing and transporting them extremely difficult. Great Whites are an example of the latter. It's hard to imagine one making it to Rome inside an amphora or something, strapped to back of a cart....
That was exactly what my dad said when I gave him a look as soon as we saw the fins. And the worst part is that they could've just replace them with crocodile, which was what they actually did in real life
I hate how much they wasted Caracalla. He was basically a Caligula 2.0., when in real life he was a very different tyrant. Not all evil emperors have to be portrayed as extravagant femboys
I feel like they wanted twin emperors but wanted them to behave like a Caligula or Nero. They grabbed the real twin emperors and twisted their personalities to fit the mold they really wanted. I get it and it’s a bit frustrating they didn’t handle it differently, but I liked the performances of the characters and found them interesting despite being inspired by people other than who they were named after.
ya he was a totally different flavor . I'd say he was much more modern, like a Stalin or PolPot, that type. Not a hedonistic psychopath but a resentful paranoid statist type.
Honestly, the first Gladiator was FAR from accurate as well, and for all matters, it was historical fiction. However, I always felt it as something more grounded and subdued. Riding rhinos was never even a possibility in the first film, and consequently it felt more serious and mature as well.
Now, we should keep in mind that it was Rome, full of bored, poor people waiting for their free loaf of bread and arena games. If there was a rhino, someone probably tried to ride it or was paid to try, just because it would be really funny. And we don't see it mentioned anywhere just because nobody succeeded, I'd be willing to stretch my suspension of disbelief to the level of having one unusually friendly rhino. That said, the biggest problem of this movie is that it looks like just a dumb spectacle, the first one was more than that. Similar to the way the jurassic park sequels devolved to just dinos eating people.
STILL more accurate than Gladiator II lol (i mean at least the comics are a great introduction for the time - Perhaps the metatron can talk about that!)
The strangest inaccuracy to me was the announcer saying that the battle of Salamis was fought between the Trojans and the Persians, who the hell was the advisor on this lmao
Well, the Trojans were Greeks also. Vergilius wrote Aeneida in 19 bce. There was an entire legendarium on how the Romans came from Trojans, so it is believable for a roman guy to mention trojans only at Salamis.
@@oscarberolla9910 first of all: not greek but Danaoi as Homer calls them. Second, Trojans had "greek" names, worshipped the dodecatheon and were a settelement of a metropolitical "greek" city state. The spoke a "greek" dialect also. The problem is you seem to confuse the timelines. The term "Greek" is from the early roman times. In the dark ages, when the Iliad takes place, we have tribes in the greek word. Also, these big "greek" cities consider everyone else a "barbarian".
Numidia, historically located in what is now modern Algeria, was ruled by King Jugurtha, an Amazigh (Berber) leader. It is inaccurate to depict him as a Black man, as this misrepresentation disregards the historical and cultural identity of the Amazigh people. Such portrayals could be interpreted as a form of propaganda, distorting historical facts for specific agendas.
It’s a shame they continue to ignore indigenous North African people when they do these films. I don’t want to see a black Numidian, they could have added Nubian characters if they wanted black characters.
Braveheart actually has a sequel, made by Netflix. It was reviewed by either Metatron or Shad, I don't remember which of them, and I don't remember the title either. Regardless, it has decent historical accuracy (compared to Braveheart it's not difficult), but otherwise a painfully OK film.
Caracalla built the famous baths, defeated the Germanic tribes and extended citizenship to the entire empire, in addition to being mean and brutal. Considering the number of Roman emperors that were murdered, his behavior was not all that different than any other emperor. Ridley did Napoleon dirty also, he seems to take a delight in defaming historical figures.
“His behavior was no different from any other emperor” Disagree. The fact that we know his name and is brutal reputation means that he wasn’t your standard emperor. Sure there are exaggerations from the contemporary sources but there usually a glimmer of truth in such claims. But it’s nowhere near as bad as Ridely Scott whose idea of what the Romans are seems entirely based on the infamous movie, Caligula.
@@jawalczak At least the directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven was a fun watch. Early 2000's Ridley Scott was mostly able to portray characters without them behaving completely illogical at some point during the movie. (Notice how i said mostly)
He was my favourite director. Pro brexit patriotic and hard nosed and successful. Unfortunately, he's being influenced by woke. You can't get everything bang on, but Hollywood has stopped trying.
Movies in the year 3000s: “In the year 1980, The Nazi germany went to war with napoleon to conquer the ottoman empire. After Ottoman Empire failed, Putin showed up and restored the Russian empire to fight the Soviet Union.” - The 2000s World War
Ridley Scott really said in an interview regarding historical accuracy "Where you there?" which is a shockingly stupid thing to say when you have written records and also people who studied these things for hundreds of years. With this attitude it's really no wonder that historical movies basically become Fantasy movies. Honestly really disappointing for someone who used to make great historical movies
It's litterally what Answers In Genesis trains its alumni to say when proven wrong on history. Ridley may be hiding some real skeletons in his closet...
given Ridley Scott's vile rant at any historian who criticized his abortion of a film misnamed Napoleon, namely "YOU WEREN'T THERE," it stands to reason that he would double down on his contempt for truth. IF he really wants to do fantasy let him confine himself to the likes of Alien, and not presume to venture into history you have watched this SO I DON'T HAVE TO for that you have my thanks
I watched Napoleon, Godzilla Minus One and Big Shark in the same week. Godzilla was more historically accurate than Scott's film. Big Shark - which was clearly mostly ad lib - had a more consistent story arc than Scott's film.. Scott needs to take the L and retire with his money.
I don't get why he doesn't just say it's historical fiction and for entertainment purposes. There is nothing wrong with that but instead he decides to not only pretend that his movies are historically accurate but also insult actual historians as if they don't know what they are talking about.
"IF he really wants to do fantasy let him confine himself to the likes of Alien, and not presume to venture into history" Oh god no I don't want him destroying alien again. He should stick to making work in new IPs
Colosseum naval battles ended in 107AD, and this film is set around 211AD. There's no way they could have flooded the arena during the Gladiator 2 time-line as the basement was dug out after 107AD to cater for all the theatrics, underground tunnels, elevators etc...
Isn't it set in 200AD? Also, the first one was set in 180, while they state (if I remember correctly) that the main guy, Lucius Verus Aurelius spent 16 years away. The movie couldn't get its own dates right.
@RileySH I heard it was 211AD originally, then I saw it was 16yrs when I saw the film, I'm not sure of the passage of time is during the film? 211AD keeps coming up here and there, but you're right, the dates are all over the place. I still really enjoyed this film, despite all of the flaws. I'm planning on seeing it again.
Yeah I disagree with Metatron that the movie is 'great' if you disregard history (and the first movie). Even on its own, as a pure fantasy, it's mediocre.
@@stevecooper7883 Recent studies have established that fact as a myth as bodies have been studied in England with syphilitics symptoms before the Americas were discovered. Also Italian armies had syphillis epidemics prior to Columbus voyage.
@@giosim69 I'm inclined to believe it still came from the Americas to Britain via the fishermen who would seasonally visit Nova Scotia but keep their fishing grounds a secret. The discoveries of the Vikings didn't just disappear...
@@stevecooper7883makes way more sense to have come through trade routes during the height of renaissance than from the messily 9 years of the 15th century where America was discovered by europeans
@@stevecooper7883 the native Americans literally got wiped out by Eurasian strains of syphilis.... So claiming that the native Americans had it originally is beyond ignorance in immunology terms
In Pirates of the Caribbean, there's a quote: "The rules are more like guidelines than actual rules." Ridley Scott applies this to history whenever he makes a historical epic.
You have a very unpopular opinion. He will go down as one of the greatest movie makers in history. Your opinion doesn’t make it factual. His box office number, awards, legacy does louder than your comment.
@@bladerunner3314 he shouldn't do scripts. If you go back and look at all of his best movies, they were written by other people. Good director. God awful writer.
I didn’t go see Gladiator thinking it was a documentary on Rome or the Colosseum. I wanted to see Russell Crowe in an epic where the good guy beats the bad guy. I went to see Denzel Washington play a Roman aristocrat and watch a good guy beat a bad guy. I didn’t go to get a history lesson. Denzel did not disappoint, he played the villain.
There's also something hilarious in the first scene, because the Numidian soldiers using the catapults were ordering the troops in Arabic with an Egyptian dialect/accent. Not to mention there's another scene in Egypt where the children were playing soccer with a single goal too XD
*Fun fact:* The first Gladiator movie is heavily inspired by the 1964 film "The Fall of the Roman Empire," in which Alec Guinness plays Marcus Aurelius and Christopher Plummer plays Commodus, with the protagonist being another fictional Roman general who loses by Commodus the title of Emperor. It is one of the most unjustly underrated epic films in history, not to mention that its ending is much more accurate to what Commodus' death meant for the Empire.
The fictional general in that one was Stephen Boyd who played Massala in Ben Hur , Sophia Loren was in it as well. Well done ,entertaining, again ,not history.
@@Raximus3000 No, he dies in a public fight with the protagonist like in "Gladiator". However, the final scene depicts Didius Julianus buying the Empire, showing us that things will just get worse and worse for Rome with the end of the Antonines, unlike the false happy ending of Gladiator
From carthage let me highlight that casting a Black man as a North african thinking that all Africans are black is not ok. if you check the coins and status, you will see the orth african features not western or soth afrian. Plus the armor at 2:57 is carthaginian armor and the owner is not identified yet. this is really annoying. so not only Cleopatra, Hannibal Barca are blackwashed from the North , now they add Yugurta. I am really sick of nowadays movies where they shove their agenda down to our throats in the name of diversity. what happened to respecting history and the dead ?!
Anyone who expected Gladiator 2 to be historically accurate didn't watch Gladiator. Neither film has much to do with history except a few names of people.
At least chronology wasn’t messed up . Why on earth would one mess up chronology so badly when it is the easiest thing to do for a movie to appeal more to the people ?
Not only the difference between the emperors, but imagine the difference between the strong military sadist, and the strong military hero and have them be opposites. This movie is a bag of mistakes, hubris, and missed opportunity.
Producers should start hiring you as a consultant on these shows, I hope the next Roman show on HBO or Peacock etc... will reach out to you. I have a feeling HBO will reboot ROME.
@@V4zz33no, they aren't. Just look at what they produced the last few years. 75% is just prequels and sequels, reboots or stolen from other movies. Inferior to what they copy, but infested with ideology. Just look f.e. at Star Wars or all Disney live action adaptations. For Star Wars, they would have had so much material from "legends", and the life action adaptations are inferior to the originals and changed for DEI. In general, now they make life action adaptation for cartoons, or for games, and most of it is bad. Nothing new. No creativity 🤷♂️
I highly doubt Macrinus was black. Wouldn't it have been made abundantly clear if he was? I mean, he would have been the only black emperor. I find it highly difficult to believe no source would have drawn attention to that.
@wambokodavid7109 Hey small brained dude? Zidane is from Jurjura mountains called Kabily region? he's pure Numidian .. he has nothing to do with Arabs and French and Othomans?
Ridley Scott: you know all those great movies I made a while back? Well, I want to ruin them because it’s problematic and I also hate fans of my old movies
I think it's the money mate. To make a movie requires money and lots of it. If the investors dictate certain conditions you don't get to make movies. Even if he paid for it himself, he's still got to get distribution.
@@michaeldoolan7595he didn't have to accept the contract, and for sure they didn't tell him to destroy his legacy. In general, why would they hire a director, If not to give him the freedom to do his job? The movie sucks, compared to the first one, and it's his fault 🤷♂️
My Berber friend is furious at how they had Macrinus played by Denzel Washington. Hollywood gets a chance of actually portrait a forgotten and discriminated ethnicity and blows it lol.
@@Luna-dh6yt I think the fact that Jurgutha is literally centuries apart from his real counterpart is enough to make him less insulting than Macrinus. The fact that Jurgutha is still alive by the third century AD is so bizzarre it's not even offensive, just dumb.
@@Luna-dh6ytAre you Algerian?? Please stop saying you r Berber cuz Algerians are Numidians;.... We have our own history we don't share our history with the neighboring countries?
@@djamelbouch3670 Numidia/Numidian is a dynasty /former name of a citizen of this dynasty, some of them were even Punic! and Amazigh is the modern word for North African natives and Berber was the historical word used by our colonisers
Metatron, I agree with you that it was quite inaccurate, I applaud my brother for having the courage to invite me (a historian) to watch this with him. In the cinema I practically had to repeat the mantra (in my head) “loosely based on history.” Certainly that made it less infuriating, but no less painful.
Does your brother love you? To inflict this torture upon you! I only did my minor in Greek & Roman studies and I’m still reeling from the first Gladiator. You are stronger than me! 😊
Did they really depict the Numidians as black? 🤦🏾♂️ Hollywood never shows any love to the Amazigh/Berbers and also real black Africans. It’s such a shame I hope the Amazigh/Berbers like us black Africans begin to make their own films and stuff based around history. Hollywood clearly can’t be trusted with the continent’s stories and histories.
After Napoléon, who else would have thought Ridley Scott would do movie that would not be absolutely anti-historic ? He don't give a f.. about accuracy. He use history as a fantasy backdrop to tell the story he imagines. It's Game of Throne without dragons.
3 small nit picks. It really annoyed me how they bypassed the class system in Rome by allowing the idea that a slave( Denzel Washington’s) could become Consul and potentially Emperor. Also another nitpick is how Pedro’s character mentioned the bravery of Women in the battle field, pure fiction. Women did not serve in the Roman army. Finally they portrayed the senate to be about 20 members when the senate was 400-600 members.
ill mention more nitpicks that nobody is talking about: in the first scene pumpkins can be seen in hannos garden, also the doctor later mentions using "'devils breath'' Both plants come from the americas
@@burningghidorah7294 it's just that Tarantino's movies are easier to understand as fantasy, since we know hitler didn't die that way or sharon tate wasn't saved. with the roman empire, you need to know history to recognize it. it could be argued that it should be made clear by the filmmakers that this is fantasy, in order to not distort people's understanding of actual history.
@@frankiesomeoneah..spare us your Rome romantic mastabations bub.so if I make a movie about zombies in Rome I'm supposed to make it historical accurate???? gtfoh, y'all realists are killing entertainment
@@wambokodavid7109 I never said all movies must be historically accurate. Historical fantasy is really fun in my opinion. I said that if you're making a movie that people might interpret as historically accurate, one could make an argument that it would be responsible to advertise it as a product of fantasy.
"probably a reference to syphilis", but syphilis would also be anachronistic, it is a rather recent disease in the old world (known only from the 15e century), and thought to have its origins in the Americas
Good to hear that bit of history ---- it is like the Americas paying back the European settlers for small pox. I glad the disease vector went both ways --- I never heard about that before your comment. I will trade you one small pox epidemic for one bout of syphilis.
I thought this too… there is some archaeological evidence that there was a syphilis victim in the British isles pre the discovery of the Americas, but zero support that is was present in the first millennium AD.
Historians today assume this “disease” Caracalla had was a reference to a mental one, because he’s written to be physically fine. He was dying of a disease his whole life is what it sounded like
Come on Metatron, you didn't think for one nanosecond that this film was going to bear the slightest resemblance to accuracy; you know you didn't. This is all just to give the rest of us a good laugh. Carry on lad and good for you.
At least in the first one, what took place could have actually happened unlike salt water sharks in the Coliseum 100+ years AFTER they dugout the below ground areas for the animals and mechanical lifts.
Salve! I enjoyed your program very much!👍 As soon as I seen the Gladiator riding the Rhino in the preview, I was like, nope! Ill wait till it comes out on Netflix.. 😊
Not only that, but they made them very pale with light hair to emphasize that they were from Gaul, even though his father was Roman and their mother Arab. Also, his name wasn't actually Caracalla, that was a nickname he got from always wearing a gaulish caracalla tunic.
Isn't having an effeminate villain of ambiguous sexuality when the emperor he is representing was Very masculine, not Very progressive from Ridley Scott? I though we had moved on from the "Queer coded" villains already?
Also I don’t get the casting for Jugurtha, it seems Hollywood wants to DELETE North African history. Numidians and Mauretanians were Amazigh/Berber peoples (from Mauri > Mori > Moors, those who invaded Sicily and Spain in the Middle Ages). They could’ve casted some amazing Amazigh or Maghrebi actors instead of Bantu Subsaharian Africans for those roles.
@@mrclean29 Most of the members of Tinariwen would score more “sub-Saharan” ancestry than Denzel Washington would and they’re Amazigh. Mdou Moctar is also Amazigh. I can go on. You can be both Amazigh and “black”. Amazigh people are and have always been mixed.
Well it was more of a combination because the ones who invaded Sicily and Spain were mostly Muslim Arabs who controlled North Africa for hundreds of years by that point.
@@joalvarado8506 Do you refer to the musicians from a very specific place in Southern Algeria? They may have more in common - in terms of genetics - with sub Saharan Africans than Denzel but they look mostly Northern Africans, that includes their culture and their visuals. When referring to Jugurtha, he wasn't a black man based on existing historic portrayal of him and his own history.
@ still Arabs of Northern African (Maghrebi) ethnicity. Plus, I recal that as close as last century Amazigh speakers were majority in Morocco. Amazigh language fell out of fashion, it’s not a case of ethnic substitution but of the people adopting a new language (resulting in the Maghrebi Arab dialects, very difficult to understand and almost a different language compared to Middle Eastern Arabs). Also I saw a document of Middle Ages Sicily where it counts “Saracens” and “Moors” as two different ethnicities. I’m sorry that I can’t really provide it now as it was shown to me by a friend with a similar interest in cultures and languages.
@@rpgadventurer32 Let’s be real. Had they cast a blonde and blue-eyed Swede to play Macrinus there wouldn’t this much backlash. Both white and black Amazigh are a minority. The majority are in between. No one seems to care that Caracalla and Geta were portrayed by white actors when they were of Punic and Arab descent.
I love the passion for actual historical integrity that Metatron portraits. I'm the same way where I can't suspend my disbelief. History is already interesting in it's own right, we don't have to build a narrative or change major details
Hi Metatron, I really enjoy your channel, and I have a suggestion. It would be helpful if you could include more images or pictures when discussing topics like helmets or the armor at 21:31. Please keep in mind that some of us might not be familiar with what these armor pieces and helmets look like. Additionally, it would be great if you could highlight the hooks that secure the shoulder reinforcements with an image. Also, adding time periods or dates on screen while talking about them would make it much easier for us to understand and remember. Thank you, Fellow subscriber.
The geographic spread of Numidia varies depending on the period as I did mention. Also when did I say that Jugurtha was Black? Unless you were responding to mr. Scott with that one rather than me.
@@metatronytOf course, it was against Mr. Scott, but I thought you were going to mention it! Also, that is a Macaque not a capucin! don't get me wrong Metatron but I agree with everything else, I love your critiques, i learned a lot!
@@metatronyt dude Still, it wasn’t in Libya, most of its territory was in the western part of North Africa/Carthage, not in Libya! It was not a Libyan dynasty
Considering they're making a 3rd Gladiator movie I think it would've made more sense to have Macrinus become Emperor then have him be the villain for the 3rd movie
Fantastic review. Loved the historic accuracy. I just found you by chance, I am energized to find such an erudit in Roman history, to which I am totally addicted, so hèlas, you have a new subscriber!
First time I came across you was last week on FNT. Really appreciate your insight and historical knowledge / intelligence. Very enjoyable to watch. Subbed. 👍
@@dasparadomaybe merchants from Kush or merchants that crossed the Shara to go north but yeah Hollywood takes DEI more seriously than historical accuracy
Americans can't tell the difference between North Africans and Latinos, so if you want them to understand that this character is an African you have to cast him the shade of Wesley Snipes. To them it's white for Europe, a ton of brown-ish people of vague origins and black for Africa; see the explicitly Berber themed girlfriend being played by an Israeli and the also rather berber-y medic played by a Swedish Ugandan.
@@mnk9073 To be honest Amazigh from North Africa were ruled for long time by Semitic Phoenicians and the medic - Ravi was clearly south-Asian character in the movie, which would not be impossible, knowing that South Asians monks travelled to Northern Africa as long as in the time of Alexander the great.
Seeing a rhinoceros being ridden in the trailers removed all desire to see the movie. There was, and may still be, in the main library of UC San Diego, a book called Animal trainers of the Roman Arena. It explains how animals about to kill and, in the case of carnivores, eat people, could be moved into position, and then, before they were f 26:28 inished, returned to their cages. On a tight schedule. Rhinocerii were mentioned as being particularly hard to handle. By the way, real unicorns did fight in the arena. Spiral horned Antelope, probably Kudu had their horns trained to spiral around each other with wires. I am a retired circus performer with personal experience with Bears, racoons, hawks, dogs, a llama, and a house cat. I have observed from close-up just about every animal trained by anyone. Hippopotomi can be trained and some can be quite gentle. I met one pigmy hippo that was allowed to roam free. Rhinocerii are different. I know of two Rhinos being trained. Riding one would be out of the question. Both trained Rhinocerii, I am familiar with, were much more of a problem to their trainers than lions and tigers. One was part of a mixed arena act. It came to the ring in a cage wagon with a guillotine door. The door was placed adjacent to a door into the performing cage. Two workers (cage boys) on top of the rhino cage pulled the door up to let the rhino into the arena to work. The rhino didn't like them up there. It would slam it's horn into the cage roof knocking the men off their feet, at least once to the ground. Rhinos are not friendly and not rideable.
Those of us that know a little about Roman history know that Carracalla was a bruiser. I think the director knew that the vast majority of people haven't even heard of him let alone know what he looked like, so he could represent him how he liked. Also Metatron it amazes me the distance people travelled to get hippos, hundreds and hundreds of miles, knowing where they live that's pretty extraordinary. Did they really go that far and how long did it take tham. Really enjoyed this.
True, but at least it used to be good stories with a great movie a`la the original. If you're going to flub the history, you've got to at least make a good film. They failed on both fronts.
I completely agree with your analysis. Too little quality for a production that expensive. One might additionally mention a lot more flaws in the movie, just one here: Almost all of the armours are (as in so many "historical" flicks) easily pierced by arrows, spears and blades (starting with Hanno's girlfriend and continuing throughout the story). The only armour that withstands stabbing is magically Lucius' (or Maximus') lorica during the final fight in the river. Literally, a plot armour.
"Are you not entertained?" Nope.... I am not! If you must cgi, then do it at least in such a way that it is not obviously, cartoonish cgi. Or just make a cartoon.
At this point in time nobody assassinates prominent historical characters like Ridley Scott. I'm just grateful he didn't get his wrinkled claws on Hannibal.
North Africa was predominantly populated by the Mediterranean race (while black Africans were mostly isolated by the Sahara desert down to the south), so Macrinus with 99 % probability looked the same as Greeks, Italians, Egyptians (Copts), Algerians or Spaniards. For example, Zinedine Zidane who is a Berber, would have been called ''Maurus' by Romans.
Historical inaccuracy aside, I actually really enjoyed the movie. Nothing close to the first one but the movie itself was fun. I think Scott set out to make an epic battle movie with quite a simple stereotypical hollywood plot and he achieved that 100%. All the scenes in the arena were FUN as fuck, altough unrealistic.
NOOOOOI! I’m too late! I’ve literally just come out of the cinema watching this atrocity! I wanted to contact the Metatron straight away to warn, for your own mental health, and memory of the actual Gladiator movie, please DO NOT watch this film. It’s worse than we ever imagined. From a historical point of view it’s outrageously bad, but even if you went in imagining it as a fantasy world setting, the writing, dialogue, timeline, acting and action are some of the worst Ive ever seen in a movie that was not straight to DVD. I’m convinced it’s Scott trolling the fans, unless he has dementia. I’m so sorry you had to watch that.
What is an Amazigh nose? Kader Tarhanine has a different nose than Karim Benzema. Mbappe has a different nose than Mouloud Mammeri. Amazigh people are and have always been mixed.
@@samiman5606 What? His mother is Kabyle from Algeria(Amazigh/berber) and his father is from Cameroon, not Nigeria. You’re all over the place with your inaccuracies.
@@joalvarado8506 there is a type of nose in Algeria that we call it Kabyle/Berber nose and many Algerian men have it and Jurgutha had this type of nose in his coin
@@joalvarado8506 yeah and his mother is not black or mixed race, so I don't know why you're talking about Mbappe lol he doesn’t even claim himself Algerian
Highly unlikely any Roman had syphilis, since it is concidered to be transfered to Europe from the Americas after Colombus. However, there is some debate about this fact, due to some pre-columbian skeleton finds on the British Isles indicating a possible syphilis contraction.
The British brought it from the Americas too most likely. Prior to Columbus' expedition fishermen had been sailing to Nova Scotia for centuries. The discoveries of the Vikings didn't just absolutely disappear, they simply were kept hush by certain coastal towns keeping a trade secret.
I am from Rome and i am well acquainted with the image of Caracalla, mostly because of the way he is portrayed in statues. One thing that you know if you have ever seen some imagery of him, is how tough, built and kind of unsophisticated badass he looks like. He really is completely different physically than what you see in the movie. Then of course, historical accuracy is neither Ridley Scott's specialty, nor Hollywood's.
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Spread those cheeks Rafael
A truth: Sadly for people with a good education and/or good taste, other people watch G I and G II for the sight of Russell Crowe or Pedro Pascal in a "miniskirt"..😉 I may or may not be one such person, but I do know they are about as historically accurate as a romance novel is an accurate description of a regular relationship...😂😂😂
I saw nothing Rong with this movie great All around
But what I wanted to know is about the first ten minutes of the movie. How realistic is it that the wife in Numidia would be an archer?
And not just a random archer, but have a leading role as an archer in the military?
And I don't get it... Okay, Lucius wasn't a native; he was white, his wife had more of an olive skin tone, and the king was black.
What did they look like in Numidia? Were they all black? Or were there different skin colors?
I've been waiting for this. I knew you would have a field day with this the moment I heard the advertisement. Immediate historical inaccuracies.
I'm imagining a movie made a thousand years in the future where Barak Obama commands a battle against Napoleon and the writers are like "close enough".
While his wife fights racism at home. Barak: these people, I fight their wars and yet they disrespect my very essence.
Do not give them any more crazy ideas, please.
Do you know how dumb you sound so it’s ok when white people do it
I mean you all are taught Abe Lincoln wanted to Free the Slaves and the south JUST wanted to keep slaves that's all. Same thing really.
Napoleon 2
This pretty much guarantees that Gladiator 3 will be a musical.
Nice comment😊😊.
To be honest... if it was the right kind of trainwreck, that would be awesome.
Oh my God, please spare this world of that abomination!
If Ridley does it, it will likely be another 💉🥃 dog turd
maybe not a musical, but if Bollywood makes Gladiator 3 it would surely be interesting to see.
I wanted Gladiator, but I walked away feeling Sadiator
underrated comment
😞
How fucking dare you OP...
It wasn't that great.
Gold! 😂😂😂
It's weird, because Pedro Pascal looks way more like historical Caracalla. They had the right man for the job RIGHT THERE.
Haha I thought the same thing
Omg you’re right!!!! Woah they totally fumbled
Agree totally
Marine Biologist here (although really you don't have to be one to realise this, just thought I'd point it out) but the single biggest problem with having sharks in the Colosseaum is that you would have to fill it with saltwater to put sharks in it, and there's no conceivable way they would have gone to that effort to transport that amount of seawater up the Tiber to fill the Colosseaum with. Crocodiles or Hippos absolutely, but not sharks
And every attempt to house sharks in an aquarium (as far as I know) has failed in the shark dying within a few days
@@Swaguley Not at all - there's plenty of instances of large aquariums keeping sharks alive for many years (sand tiger sharks, reef sharks etc do fine if the tank is big enough). The problem is that certain species need to be actively swimming forwards in order to breathe because of the way their gills function, which makes both housing and transporting them extremely difficult. Great Whites are an example of the latter. It's hard to imagine one making it to Rome inside an amphora or something, strapped to back of a cart....
How they hold the water from leaking out of the stadium? Lol 😂
That was exactly what my dad said when I gave him a look as soon as we saw the fins. And the worst part is that they could've just replace them with crocodile, which was what they actually did in real life
I remember visitiing the great aquarium of Rome with great whites. 70 sesterces. A bit pricy but they had a good audiobook.
I hate how much they wasted Caracalla. He was basically a Caligula 2.0., when in real life he was a very different tyrant. Not all evil emperors have to be portrayed as extravagant femboys
Are you suuuuurrrree?
I feel like they wanted twin emperors but wanted them to behave like a Caligula or Nero. They grabbed the real twin emperors and twisted their personalities to fit the mold they really wanted.
I get it and it’s a bit frustrating they didn’t handle it differently, but I liked the performances of the characters and found them interesting despite being inspired by people other than who they were named after.
ya he was a totally different flavor . I'd say he was much more modern, like a Stalin or PolPot, that type. Not a hedonistic psychopath but a resentful paranoid statist type.
Neither of them were tyrants.
@@HeliodromusScorpioCaracalla purged 20,000 of Getas supporters or affiliates and sacked Alexandria. He was certainly tyrannical.
"He's just a black man that used to be a slave."
Doesn't get any more Hollywood than that.
right??? 😂😂😂
The problem is a lot of them play D&D and only take a shallow skimm of history
Never a black slave owned by arabs, oh no....they won't dare
@@dragoninthewest1Hey what did DnD do to you?
@@HappyCatholicDane this is criticism from a lover of the game towards fellow players.
When I saw a Gladiator riding a Rhino in the trailer, I knew this was basically a fantasy movie and should be watched as one.
Warhammer Fantasy: Border Prince XD
I was literally going to say the same thing. I'll enjoy it as a fantasy
Honestly, the first Gladiator was FAR from accurate as well, and for all matters, it was historical fiction. However, I always felt it as something more grounded and subdued. Riding rhinos was never even a possibility in the first film, and consequently it felt more serious and mature as well.
And plus it does didn’t look real! It was horrible
Now, we should keep in mind that it was Rome, full of bored, poor people waiting for their free loaf of bread and arena games. If there was a rhino, someone probably tried to ride it or was paid to try, just because it would be really funny. And we don't see it mentioned anywhere just because nobody succeeded, I'd be willing to stretch my suspension of disbelief to the level of having one unusually friendly rhino.
That said, the biggest problem of this movie is that it looks like just a dumb spectacle, the first one was more than that. Similar to the way the jurassic park sequels devolved to just dinos eating people.
"The year is 50 BC, and all Gaul is occupied. Only one small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders"....
Ah, nostalgia…
Asterix!
Z L A T A N -.-
I'd watch that, get Ridley Scott onto it, the empire sends its best man Biggus Dickus to subdue the wuffians!.
STILL more accurate than Gladiator II lol (i mean at least the comics are a great introduction for the time - Perhaps the metatron can talk about that!)
The strangest inaccuracy to me was the announcer saying that the battle of Salamis was fought between the Trojans and the Persians, who the hell was the advisor on this lmao
The Greeks fell out of fashion in history. Now, anything goes----just plug in names, dates, places----or, better yet, rewrite history to your needs.
Well, the Trojans were Greeks also. Vergilius wrote Aeneida in 19 bce. There was an entire legendarium on how the Romans came from Trojans, so it is believable for a roman guy to mention trojans only at Salamis.
@@adalbertredthat is one of the stupidest comments I’ve ever read, I’m sorry but I couldn’t just scroll on without letting you know
@@adalbertred In The Iliad there are several passages where Greeks insult the Trojans as "Asiatics."
@@oscarberolla9910 first of all: not greek but Danaoi as Homer calls them. Second, Trojans had "greek" names, worshipped the dodecatheon and were a settelement of a metropolitical "greek" city state. The spoke a "greek" dialect also. The problem is you seem to confuse the timelines. The term "Greek" is from the early roman times. In the dark ages, when the Iliad takes place, we have tribes in the greek word. Also, these big "greek" cities consider everyone else a "barbarian".
Numidia, historically located in what is now modern Algeria, was ruled by King Jugurtha, an Amazigh (Berber) leader. It is inaccurate to depict him as a Black man, as this misrepresentation disregards the historical and cultural identity of the Amazigh people. Such portrayals could be interpreted as a form of propaganda, distorting historical facts for specific agendas.
Yeah, but apparently the dude that was in Spartacus has a monopoly when it comes to any non white person in an ancient setting production.
It's exactly what it is...western media just can't help themselves though
I'm an Algerian Numidian stop calling me Amazigh? I have no shared history with the neighboring countries 🎉.... Numidian that's all
It’s a shame they continue to ignore indigenous North African people when they do these films. I don’t want to see a black Numidian, they could have added Nubian characters if they wanted black characters.
Its actually inaccurate to depict Jugurtha at all in this movie since he'd been dead for about 200 years by the time the story takes place
I can't wait for Braveheart 2: Brave hearter.
Haha or Brave: Harder.
Braveheart actually has a sequel, made by Netflix. It was reviewed by either Metatron or Shad, I don't remember which of them, and I don't remember the title either. Regardless, it has decent historical accuracy (compared to Braveheart it's not difficult), but otherwise a painfully OK film.
😂 hahaha. I would love to know more about his family. His nephew started my clan so we are related.
Braver. Hearter.
@@kangirigungi outlaw king with Chris Pine? I liked the final battle but thats it
Caracalla built the famous baths, defeated the Germanic tribes and extended citizenship to the entire empire, in addition to being mean and brutal. Considering the number of Roman emperors that were murdered, his behavior was not all that different than any other emperor. Ridley did Napoleon dirty also, he seems to take a delight in defaming historical figures.
He also did Kingdom of Heaven, where of course Christians were mostly evil, and Muslims noble and righteous.
“His behavior was no different from any other emperor”
Disagree. The fact that we know his name and is brutal reputation means that he wasn’t your standard emperor. Sure there are exaggerations from the contemporary sources but there usually a glimmer of truth in such claims.
But it’s nowhere near as bad as Ridely Scott whose idea of what the Romans are seems entirely based on the infamous movie, Caligula.
@@jawalczak At least the directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven was a fun watch. Early 2000's Ridley Scott was mostly able to portray characters without them behaving completely illogical at some point during the movie. (Notice how i said mostly)
He was my favourite director.
Pro brexit patriotic and hard nosed and successful.
Unfortunately, he's being influenced by woke.
You can't get everything bang on, but Hollywood has stopped trying.
@@NathanCassidy721 excellent points, I view Caracalla in the same way as Tiberius and Domitian, brutal and even evil but not incompetent.
Movies in the year 3000s: “In the year 1980, The Nazi germany went to war with napoleon to conquer the ottoman empire. After Ottoman Empire failed, Putin showed up and restored the Russian empire to fight the Soviet Union.” - The 2000s World War
The irony of "If you like this video...... thumbs up!" 😂
Love all your videos, this one especially!
Ridley Scott really said in an interview regarding historical accuracy "Where you there?" which is a shockingly stupid thing to say when you have written records and also people who studied these things for hundreds of years. With this attitude it's really no wonder that historical movies basically become Fantasy movies. Honestly really disappointing for someone who used to make great historical movies
To be fair, none of his movies is accurate. "1492: Conquest of Paradise", "Gladiator," "Napoleon" even "Black Hawk Down".
It's litterally what Answers In Genesis trains its alumni to say when proven wrong on history. Ridley may be hiding some real skeletons in his closet...
Grumpy, has aggressive outbursts when challenged, old... Does he have Alzheimer's?
The point of movies is fantasy you knob.
@@DJRockford83"I WANT SHARKS DAMMIT"
given Ridley Scott's vile rant at any historian who criticized his abortion of a film misnamed Napoleon, namely "YOU WEREN'T THERE," it stands to reason that he would double down on his contempt for truth.
IF he really wants to do fantasy let him confine himself to the likes of Alien, and not presume to venture into history
you have watched this SO I DON'T HAVE TO
for that you have my thanks
Please don't no, he's destroying alien too. He's been destroying it for over 10 years now.
Thank you, your comment has me laughing. I’m still bitchy about the appalling garbage that was the first Gladiator.
I watched Napoleon, Godzilla Minus One and Big Shark in the same week.
Godzilla was more historically accurate than Scott's film.
Big Shark - which was clearly mostly ad lib - had a more consistent story arc than Scott's film..
Scott needs to take the L and retire with his money.
I don't get why he doesn't just say it's historical fiction and for entertainment purposes. There is nothing wrong with that but instead he decides to not only pretend that his movies are historically accurate but also insult actual historians as if they don't know what they are talking about.
"IF he really wants to do fantasy let him confine himself to the likes of Alien, and not presume to venture into history" Oh god no I don't want him destroying alien again.
He should stick to making work in new IPs
Colosseum naval battles ended in 107AD, and this film is set around 211AD. There's no way they could have flooded the arena during the Gladiator 2 time-line as the basement was dug out after 107AD to cater for all the theatrics, underground tunnels, elevators etc...
And no sharks either too
Piazza Navona stadium, rather.
Let’s not forget how the Trojans fought the Persians at salamis
Isn't it set in 200AD? Also, the first one was set in 180, while they state (if I remember correctly) that the main guy, Lucius Verus Aurelius spent 16 years away. The movie couldn't get its own dates right.
@RileySH I heard it was 211AD originally, then I saw it was 16yrs when I saw the film, I'm not sure of the passage of time is during the film? 211AD keeps coming up here and there, but you're right, the dates are all over the place. I still really enjoyed this film, despite all of the flaws. I'm planning on seeing it again.
Gladiator 2: Let's wash money!
Denzel goes to Rome 😅
Agree....100%
Looks like a Woke joke movie
Yeah I disagree with Metatron that the movie is 'great' if you disregard history (and the first movie). Even on its own, as a pure fantasy, it's mediocre.
7:00 there's no record of Syphillis in Europe until the 15th century... So yeah...
A gift from the Native Americans no less 😅
@@stevecooper7883 Recent studies have established that fact as a myth as bodies have been studied in England with syphilitics symptoms before the Americas were discovered. Also Italian armies had syphillis epidemics prior to Columbus voyage.
@@giosim69 I'm inclined to believe it still came from the Americas to Britain via the fishermen who would seasonally visit Nova Scotia but keep their fishing grounds a secret. The discoveries of the Vikings didn't just disappear...
@@stevecooper7883makes way more sense to have come through trade routes during the height of renaissance than from the messily 9 years of the 15th century where America was discovered by europeans
@@stevecooper7883 the native Americans literally got wiped out by Eurasian strains of syphilis.... So claiming that the native Americans had it originally is beyond ignorance in immunology terms
In Pirates of the Caribbean, there's a quote: "The rules are more like guidelines than actual rules." Ridley Scott applies this to history whenever he makes a historical epic.
Can they stop giving Ridley Scott money to make movies please?
When "Getridley Scott" is being misunderstood.
You have a very unpopular opinion. He will go down as one of the greatest movie makers in history. Your opinion doesn’t make it factual. His box office number, awards, legacy does louder than your comment.
@@Teslabotjames Ridley Scott is past his prime, he damages his legacy with these movies.
@@Teslabotjames clearly you haven't seen his last few movies
@@Teslabotjamessimp harder
Gladiator 2 is just a money grab movie and it is a disgrace to both film art and history.
It is more likely to end just like the Star Wars films with Reia or the Acolyte series.
Scott just shouldn't do sequels.
@@bladerunner3314 he shouldn't do scripts. If you go back and look at all of his best movies, they were written by other people. Good director. God awful writer.
That's normal for modern movies. They have no respect for source material nor history.
Remember what they did to Napoleon?
I could not agree more with you.
If you went into a Ridley Scott movie expecting historical accuracy, you played yourself.
I didn’t go see Gladiator thinking it was a documentary on Rome or the Colosseum. I wanted to see Russell Crowe in an epic where the good guy beats the bad guy. I went to see Denzel Washington play a Roman aristocrat and watch a good guy beat a bad guy. I didn’t go to get a history lesson. Denzel did not disappoint, he played the villain.
Too bad the writing was terrible. What a strangely directed, disjointed movie Gladiator 2 is.
Caracalla should have been portrayed like a bully. Instead he's portrayed as an discount Elagabalus.
Exactly
It seems like an amalgamation of Elagabalus, Nero, and Caligula. Like the vague general idea of an eccentric hedonistic roman emperor.
They were just knock-off versions of John Hurt's Caligula.
He is Caracagalbus.
There's also something hilarious in the first scene, because the Numidian soldiers using the catapults were ordering the troops in Arabic with an Egyptian dialect/accent. Not to mention there's another scene in Egypt where the children were playing soccer with a single goal too XD
I forgot this! Yes, soccer! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
A game invented by the English is being culturally appropriated? Imagine my shock 🙄 like that doesn't happen EVERY SINGLE DAY
@@DJRockford83chinese had it before
@@beornkhan2736, and the medical scene with opium? Opium is Roman?
@@DJRockford83actually it was played by Romans already, in 1400 Italy there was also Florentine football more close to rugby though.
*Fun fact:* The first Gladiator movie is heavily inspired by the 1964 film "The Fall of the Roman Empire," in which Alec Guinness plays Marcus Aurelius and Christopher Plummer plays Commodus, with the protagonist being another fictional Roman general who loses by Commodus the title of Emperor. It is one of the most unjustly underrated epic films in history, not to mention that its ending is much more accurate to what Commodus' death meant for the Empire.
I need to watch this! Thanks good sir!
The fictional general in that one was Stephen Boyd who played Massala in Ben Hur , Sophia Loren was in it as well. Well done ,entertaining, again ,not history.
Does Commodus die in the bath in the 1964 one?
@@Raximus3000
No, he dies in a public fight with the protagonist like in "Gladiator". However, the final scene depicts Didius Julianus buying the Empire, showing us that things will just get worse and worse for Rome with the end of the Antonines, unlike the false happy ending of Gladiator
@@TetsuShima
It is what happens hstoricaly to begin with.
Scott just hates history to begin with.
From carthage let me highlight that casting a Black man as a North african thinking that all Africans are black is not ok. if you check the coins and status, you will see the orth african features not western or soth afrian. Plus the armor at 2:57 is carthaginian armor and the owner is not identified yet. this is really annoying. so not only Cleopatra, Hannibal Barca are blackwashed from the North , now they add Yugurta. I am really sick of nowadays movies where they shove their agenda down to our throats in the name of diversity. what happened to respecting history and the dead ?!
Lol your life must be really easy if this is how you choose to spend time. Sad
Anyone who expected Gladiator 2 to be historically accurate didn't watch Gladiator. Neither film has much to do with history except a few names of people.
And?
At least chronology wasn’t messed up . Why on earth would one mess up chronology so badly when it is the easiest thing to do for a movie to appeal more to the people ?
As a student of history who is also a journeyman warhammer fan… I appreciated this video in it’s entirety.
The fact that Caracalla doesn't got assassinated while taking a piss im the movie, like in actual history, is a crime!
Not only the difference between the emperors, but imagine the difference between the strong military sadist, and the strong military hero and have them be opposites. This movie is a bag of mistakes, hubris, and missed opportunity.
Producers should start hiring you as a consultant on these shows, I hope the next Roman show on HBO or Peacock etc... will reach out to you. I have a feeling HBO will reboot ROME.
Just another example of how Hollywood is sequel crazy because they've run out of ideas.
you speak as the first one was was not crazy :D
If it isn't the political grifter.
@@_Nomen_Nescio_ The first one at least was almost original.
This historical analysis shows they are full of ideas!;)))
@@V4zz33no, they aren't. Just look at what they produced the last few years. 75% is just prequels and sequels, reboots or stolen from other movies. Inferior to what they copy, but infested with ideology.
Just look f.e. at Star Wars or all Disney live action adaptations. For Star Wars, they would have had so much material from "legends", and the life action adaptations are inferior to the originals and changed for DEI.
In general, now they make life action adaptation for cartoons, or for games, and most of it is bad. Nothing new. No creativity 🤷♂️
I really lost it at the trebuchet scene. They might as well have had an Abrams tank firing from the battlements
They bothered to include the ballista but then threw in a trebuchet...it's like JJ Abrams directed this film
Thank you for saying it. I saw it in the opening battle and immediately knew no attempt was made at historical accuracy.
A JJ Abrams Tank
I highly doubt Macrinus was black. Wouldn't it have been made abundantly clear if he was? I mean, he would have been the only black emperor. I find it highly difficult to believe no source would have drawn attention to that.
Did you see all the blacks in the film? DEI strikes again.
Macrinus was Numidian just like nowadays Zidane and Benzema..... The original people of Algeria ...
@@eddiedevereoxford4995did u see the ones in the first gladiator film???yeesh u people.this ain't a history lesson.im here to turn off my brain cells
@@djamelbouch3670Algeria at the time ain't like today boss.this is before french and Arab influence so no, u zidane isn't original there
@wambokodavid7109 Hey small brained dude? Zidane is from Jurjura mountains called Kabily region? he's pure Numidian .. he has nothing to do with Arabs and French and Othomans?
The mutant monkeys were so bad I was looking for a ‘replace with actual VFX’ tag overlay
I really liked you taking part in the Nerdrotic show where you briefly started to explain all the misconceptions in this movie.
"Warhammer fantasy", I'm gonna reuse that one, it's a perfect description !
Warhammer is superior to this movie
Ridley Scott: you know all those great movies I made a while back? Well, I want to ruin them because it’s problematic and I also hate fans of my old movies
I think it's the money mate.
To make a movie requires money and lots of it.
If the investors dictate certain conditions you don't get to make movies.
Even if he paid for it himself, he's still got to get distribution.
@@michaeldoolan7595 You make it sound like it needed to be 300milliion when
@@michaeldoolan7595he didn't have to accept the contract, and for sure they didn't tell him to destroy his legacy. In general, why would they hire a director, If not to give him the freedom to do his job? The movie sucks, compared to the first one, and it's his fault 🤷♂️
Ruining his own legacy, just like Mike Tyson
@bulldowozer5858 Comparing Mike Tyson to a director who's been doing this 50 years is a bit of a false analogy.
My Berber friend is furious at how they had Macrinus played by Denzel Washington. Hollywood gets a chance of actually portrait a forgotten and discriminated ethnicity and blows it lol.
I understand him lol I’m also amazigh (Berber) but I’m more furious about Jurgutha/yurgutha than macrinus
@@Luna-dh6yt I think the fact that Jurgutha is literally centuries apart from his real counterpart is enough to make him less insulting than Macrinus. The fact that Jurgutha is still alive by the third century AD is so bizzarre it's not even offensive, just dumb.
@@Luna-dh6ytAre you Algerian?? Please stop saying you r Berber cuz Algerians are Numidians;.... We have our own history we don't share our history with the neighboring countries?
@@djamelbouch3670yes I am
@@djamelbouch3670 Numidia/Numidian is a dynasty /former name of a citizen of this dynasty, some of them were even Punic! and Amazigh is the modern word for North African natives and Berber was the historical word used by our colonisers
Not casting Pedro Pascal as Caracalla is such a missed opportunity
Metatron, I agree with you that it was quite inaccurate, I applaud my brother for having the courage to invite me (a historian) to watch this with him. In the cinema I practically had to repeat the mantra (in my head) “loosely based on history.” Certainly that made it less infuriating, but no less painful.
Does your brother love you? To inflict this torture upon you!
I only did my minor in Greek & Roman studies and I’m still reeling from the first Gladiator. You are stronger than me! 😊
Did they really depict the Numidians as black? 🤦🏾♂️ Hollywood never shows any love to the Amazigh/Berbers and also real black Africans. It’s such a shame I hope the Amazigh/Berbers like us black Africans begin to make their own films and stuff based around history. Hollywood clearly can’t be trusted with the continent’s stories and histories.
They not real africans and they know it.they only say that when Egypt is mentioned.
Historical whites always get depicted Arab, and Historical Arabs always get depicted as Blacks.
Original Berbers came from East Africa and definitely Black race..
@@etruscancivilizationno
We are just Berbers don’t bring your race woke ideology to our history
After Napoléon, who else would have thought Ridley Scott would do movie that would not be absolutely anti-historic ?
He don't give a f.. about accuracy. He use history as a fantasy backdrop to tell the story he imagines. It's Game of Throne without dragons.
Please don't give him ideas.
Don’t insult GoT. The story telling is 1000 times better than that. Dragons or not.
It's not a documentary for educational purposes, but a movie for entertainment purposes.
Finally you have done this movie. I was waiting for this.
Don't worry, Ridley Scott will surely put a japanese actor in Gladiator III LOL
Looking forward to seeing a gladiator fight between samurai and equites.
Christoper Columbus will invade Britain
Maybe it will be a female with an artificial limb...
3 small nit picks. It really annoyed me how they bypassed the class system in Rome by allowing the idea that a slave( Denzel Washington’s) could become Consul and potentially Emperor. Also another nitpick is how Pedro’s character mentioned the bravery of Women in the battle field, pure fiction. Women did not serve in the Roman army. Finally they portrayed the senate to be about 20 members when the senate was 400-600 members.
I thought Acacius was referring to women fighters among the Numidians?
@ could be, but I believe he was only referring to his own troops. Why would the general speak of the bravery of the enemy to the Roman people?
@@Moon_Mann11 Not in front of the emperors no, but they were probably on his mind when he said it.
@ perhaps
ill mention more nitpicks that nobody is talking about: in the first scene pumpkins can be seen in hannos garden, also the doctor later mentions using "'devils breath'' Both plants come from the americas
I'd just classify it as historical fantasy, like Inglorious Basterds or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Exactly people say this is historically inaccurate but the first Gladiator was also massively inaccurate
@@burningghidorah7294 it's just that Tarantino's movies are easier to understand as fantasy, since we know hitler didn't die that way or sharon tate wasn't saved. with the roman empire, you need to know history to recognize it. it could be argued that it should be made clear by the filmmakers that this is fantasy, in order to not distort people's understanding of actual history.
@@frankiesomeoneah..spare us your Rome romantic mastabations bub.so if I make a movie about zombies in Rome I'm supposed to make it historical accurate???? gtfoh, y'all realists are killing entertainment
@@wambokodavid7109 I never said all movies must be historically accurate. Historical fantasy is really fun in my opinion.
I said that if you're making a movie that people might interpret as historically accurate, one could make an argument that it would be responsible to advertise it as a product of fantasy.
@@wambokodavid7109the problem is that most nogs and tards of your generation watch movies like this and think it's real history.
You just had me cracking up with the way you spoke about the commemorative writing in English 😂😂😂😂. Pure comedy!
Wonderful video. Total enjoyment. ❤
And you didn't even mentioned the wristbands. 😮
Though I was really looking forward to it. 😂
You know Metatron is mad when his hands is very active.
You tube won't allow extremely expressive language, Karen, carries her condition. 😱😱😱💩🌬🤙
No when your see a xenomorph !
His wife must love that
@@M9l0maniac xeno-morphs when the paradigm is disturbed
Turbo, disturbed, zed is confused it bites.
When I got out of the theater after watching Gladiator 2 was when “Now We Are Free” played.
The moment I saw a gladiator riding a rhino in the trailer, I knew Gladiator II was going to be shite.
They even CGI'd some of the dogs movement when following Lucilla into her room
The Sharks was my tipping point. How does the mechanics of that even happen?
@@stevecooper7883everything was so overly cgi'd, it was all very strange. Those monkeys had me scratching me head
With all those inaccuracies, I wonder if you forced yourself to be quiet in the theatre while watching that movie. I would've gotten kicked out 😂
I would have yelled at the movie, and others would have joined my yelling ✊️
Great commentary. Always great to be in the presence of a master :)
I found you as usual educational, humorous and a must watch to get the low down on historical figures..... Bravo Sir.
"probably a reference to syphilis", but syphilis would also be anachronistic, it is a rather recent disease in the old world (known only from the 15e century), and thought to have its origins in the Americas
Good to hear that bit of history ---- it is like the Americas paying back the European settlers for small pox. I glad the disease vector went both ways --- I never heard about that before your comment. I will trade you one small pox epidemic for one bout of syphilis.
Wasn’t it hinted that he got the disease from stuffing his little monkey? That’s how I read it.
I thought this too… there is some archaeological evidence that there was a syphilis victim in the British isles pre the discovery of the Americas, but zero support that is was present in the first millennium AD.
Yeah, there is Monkey Pox going around (today.)
Historians today assume this “disease” Caracalla had was a reference to a mental one, because he’s written to be physically fine.
He was dying of a disease his whole life is what it sounded like
Come on Metatron, you didn't think for one nanosecond that this film was going to bear the slightest resemblance to accuracy; you know you didn't. This is all just to give the rest of us a good laugh. Carry on lad and good for you.
At least in the first one, what took place could have actually happened unlike salt water sharks in the Coliseum 100+ years AFTER they dugout the below ground areas for the animals and mechanical lifts.
This movie was so unnecessary. It's ridiculous! It was like a remake, but everything was worse. I am not a fan of that 🤷♂️
Salve! I enjoyed your program very much!👍 As soon as I seen the Gladiator riding the Rhino in the preview, I was like, nope! Ill wait till it comes out on Netflix.. 😊
20% of chances that Macrinus was as black as Denzel isn't low, it's high.
I can just imagine the production meeting: "I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!"
xD
I think the way they casted Caracalla is hilarious. He is described as though he is the most butch tough looking guy ever
Not only that, but they made them very pale with light hair to emphasize that they were from Gaul, even though his father was Roman and their mother Arab.
Also, his name wasn't actually Caracalla, that was a nickname he got from always wearing a gaulish caracalla tunic.
@@lasagnasux4934Their father was Punic. They should’ve been brown not white.
Isn't having an effeminate villain of ambiguous sexuality when the emperor he is representing was Very masculine, not Very progressive from Ridley Scott?
I though we had moved on from the "Queer coded" villains already?
Also I don’t get the casting for Jugurtha, it seems Hollywood wants to DELETE North African history.
Numidians and Mauretanians were Amazigh/Berber peoples (from Mauri > Mori > Moors, those who invaded Sicily and Spain in the Middle Ages).
They could’ve casted some amazing Amazigh or Maghrebi actors instead of Bantu Subsaharian Africans for those roles.
@@mrclean29 Most of the members of Tinariwen would score more “sub-Saharan” ancestry than Denzel Washington would and they’re Amazigh. Mdou Moctar is also Amazigh. I can go on. You can be both Amazigh and “black”. Amazigh people are and have always been mixed.
Well it was more of a combination because the ones who invaded Sicily and Spain were mostly Muslim Arabs who controlled North Africa for hundreds of years by that point.
@@joalvarado8506 Do you refer to the musicians from a very specific place in Southern Algeria? They may have more in common - in terms of genetics - with sub Saharan Africans than Denzel but they look mostly Northern Africans, that includes their culture and their visuals. When referring to Jugurtha, he wasn't a black man based on existing historic portrayal of him and his own history.
@ still Arabs of Northern African (Maghrebi) ethnicity. Plus, I recal that as close as last century Amazigh speakers were majority in Morocco.
Amazigh language fell out of fashion, it’s not a case of ethnic substitution but of the people adopting a new language (resulting in the Maghrebi Arab dialects, very difficult to understand and almost a different language compared to Middle Eastern Arabs).
Also I saw a document of Middle Ages Sicily where it counts “Saracens” and “Moors” as two different ethnicities. I’m sorry that I can’t really provide it now as it was shown to me by a friend with a similar interest in cultures and languages.
@@rpgadventurer32 Let’s be real. Had they cast a blonde and blue-eyed Swede to play Macrinus there wouldn’t this much backlash. Both white and black Amazigh are a minority. The majority are in between. No one seems to care that Caracalla and Geta were portrayed by white actors when they were of Punic and Arab descent.
I love the passion for actual historical integrity that Metatron portraits. I'm the same way where I can't suspend my disbelief. History is already interesting in it's own right, we don't have to build a narrative or change major details
Hi Metatron,
I really enjoy your channel, and I have a suggestion. It would be helpful if you could include more images or pictures when discussing topics like helmets or the armor at 21:31. Please keep in mind that some of us might not be familiar with what these armor pieces and helmets look like. Additionally, it would be great if you could highlight the hooks that secure the shoulder reinforcements with an image. Also, adding time periods or dates on screen while talking about them would make it much easier for us to understand and remember.
Thank you,
Fellow subscriber.
Numidia was mainly Algeria NOT Lybia! also Jugurtha was NOT black!!!!!!!!!
The geographic spread of Numidia varies depending on the period as I did mention. Also when did I say that Jugurtha was Black? Unless you were responding to mr. Scott with that one rather than me.
@@metatronytOf course, it was against Mr. Scott, but I thought you were going to mention it! Also, that is a Macaque not a capucin! don't get me wrong Metatron but I agree with everything else, I love your critiques, i learned a lot!
@@metatronyt dude Still, it wasn’t in Libya, most of its territory was in the western part of North Africa/Carthage, not in Libya! It was not a Libyan dynasty
@@Luna-dh6yt Yep and Macrinus, Juguryha, Massinia, Syfax are all from modern day Algeria!
@@Luna-dh6yt Libya Is an ancient term for ale the northern Africa West from Cyrenaica, not todays fallen state
Considering they're making a 3rd Gladiator movie I think it would've made more sense to have Macrinus become Emperor then have him be the villain for the 3rd movie
But hhe was already the villain for this one…
They are ?
Personally what bothered me the most was the absence of colors on the sculptures. I was like, WHY?
Also the literal plot armor of the protagonist in the river scene. Couldn't strike the head, eh Macrinus?
Fantastic review. Loved the historic accuracy. I just found you by chance, I am energized to find such an erudit in Roman history, to which I am totally addicted, so hèlas, you have a new subscriber!
First time I came across you was last week on FNT. Really appreciate your insight and historical knowledge / intelligence. Very enjoyable to watch. Subbed. 👍
Jugurtha was not black. Macrinus was not black. Caracalla was not a redhead.
No one was saharan black in the Roman Empire.
@@dasparadomaybe merchants from Kush or merchants that crossed the Shara to go north but yeah Hollywood takes DEI more seriously than historical accuracy
Americans can't tell the difference between North Africans and Latinos, so if you want them to understand that this character is an African you have to cast him the shade of Wesley Snipes. To them it's white for Europe, a ton of brown-ish people of vague origins and black for Africa; see the explicitly Berber themed girlfriend being played by an Israeli and the also rather berber-y medic played by a Swedish Ugandan.
@@mnk9073 Lord have mercy !
@@mnk9073 To be honest Amazigh from North Africa were ruled for long time by Semitic Phoenicians and the medic - Ravi was clearly south-Asian character in the movie, which would not be impossible, knowing that South Asians monks travelled to Northern Africa as long as in the time of Alexander the great.
Seeing a rhinoceros being ridden in the trailers removed all desire to see the movie. There was, and may still be, in the main library of UC San Diego, a book called Animal trainers of the Roman Arena. It explains how animals about to kill and, in the case of carnivores, eat people, could be moved into position, and then, before they were f 26:28 inished, returned to their cages. On a tight schedule. Rhinocerii were mentioned as being particularly hard to handle.
By the way, real unicorns did fight in the arena. Spiral horned Antelope, probably Kudu had their horns trained to spiral around each other with wires.
I am a retired circus performer with personal experience with Bears, racoons, hawks, dogs, a llama, and a house cat. I have observed from close-up just about every animal trained by anyone. Hippopotomi can be trained and some can be quite gentle. I met one pigmy hippo that was allowed to roam free. Rhinocerii are different. I know of two Rhinos being trained. Riding one would be out of the question. Both trained Rhinocerii, I am familiar with, were much more of a problem to their trainers than lions and tigers. One was part of a mixed arena act. It came to the ring in a cage wagon with a guillotine door. The door was placed adjacent to a door into the performing cage. Two workers (cage boys) on top of the rhino cage pulled the door up to let the rhino into the arena to work. The rhino didn't like them up there. It would slam it's horn into the cage roof knocking the men off their feet, at least once to the ground. Rhinos are not friendly and not rideable.
WTF. Imagine (if you will) being "horned" by a rude rhino!
300 years off? Next upload Metatron reviews the recently published US declaration of Independence.
What about the portrayal of the emperors? They should have been more olive complexion considering their father’s heritage.
Had bad mood. Came home. Browsed TH-cam. Metatron roasting Gladiator 2 appeared on my feed advising to grab some popcorn. Me:"Brilliant 😎"
Those of us that know a little about Roman history know that Carracalla was a bruiser. I think the director knew that the vast majority of people haven't even heard of him let alone know what he looked like, so he could represent him how he liked.
Also Metatron it amazes me the distance people travelled to get hippos, hundreds and hundreds of miles, knowing where they live that's pretty extraordinary. Did they really go that far and how long did it take tham. Really enjoyed this.
I mean lets be real, Hollywood isn't exactly a fan of historical accuracy these days. It gets in the way of their agendas and ideologies.
Never was
True, but at least it used to be good stories with a great movie a`la the original. If you're going to flub the history, you've got to at least make a good film. They failed on both fronts.
it never was
Never was, 🤡
It's not even that. This is 100% corporate thinking: cowardly, uninspired, soulless garbage designed to separate us from our money.
I completely agree with your analysis. Too little quality for a production that expensive. One might additionally mention a lot more flaws in the movie, just one here: Almost all of the armours are (as in so many "historical" flicks) easily pierced by arrows, spears and blades (starting with Hanno's girlfriend and continuing throughout the story). The only armour that withstands stabbing is magically Lucius' (or Maximus') lorica during the final fight in the river. Literally, a plot armour.
The emperors should have been played by the Paul brothers.
4:19 you mistaken here Numidia is modern day Algeria not Lybia it was located in the west of Carthage not the east ⬅️⬅️
No one is going to Gladiator for its historical accuracy, it's just entertainment.
As is this video
"Are you not entertained?"
Nope.... I am not!
If you must cgi, then do it at least in such a way that it is not obviously, cartoonish cgi. Or just make a cartoon.
Pedro Pascal should have been Caracalla
At this point in time nobody assassinates prominent historical characters like Ridley Scott. I'm just grateful he didn't get his wrinkled claws on Hannibal.
Don’t give him ideas 🤫 He’s still alive and active.
North Africa was predominantly populated by the Mediterranean race (while black Africans were mostly isolated by the Sahara desert down to the south), so Macrinus with 99 % probability looked the same as Greeks, Italians, Egyptians (Copts), Algerians or Spaniards. For example, Zinedine Zidane who is a Berber, would have been called ''Maurus' by Romans.
So how do you explain Sudan using your 'logic'?
Maurus? Zidane is a Numidian he has nothing to do with Maurus! Benzema . Zidane... are Numidians
@@AnikenSkiwalker Sudan is what should be the nubians.
@@AnikenSkiwalker What does Sudan have to do with the Mediterranean Sea? Also which one of two Sudans do you mean?
You are right but, black people were not isolated. There were some black populations in some areas of North Africa.
Historical inaccuracy aside, I actually really enjoyed the movie. Nothing close to the first one but the movie itself was fun. I think Scott set out to make an epic battle movie with quite a simple stereotypical hollywood plot and he achieved that 100%. All the scenes in the arena were FUN as fuck, altough unrealistic.
Another great video. I've been subbed for years and cannot wait to see you finally hit that well-deserved 1 million subscribers. You deserve it man.
The origin of the Numidian kingdoms is closer to Algeria and Tunis than Lybia.
NOOOOOI! I’m too late! I’ve literally just come out of the cinema watching this atrocity! I wanted to contact the Metatron straight away to warn, for your own mental health, and memory of the actual Gladiator movie, please DO NOT watch this film. It’s worse than we ever imagined. From a historical point of view it’s outrageously bad, but even if you went in imagining it as a fantasy world setting, the writing, dialogue, timeline, acting and action are some of the worst Ive ever seen in a movie that was not straight to DVD. I’m convinced it’s Scott trolling the fans, unless he has dementia. I’m so sorry you had to watch that.
Id hate to be the guy who catches hippos for the games
Probably one of Pablo Escobar's ancestors according to Ridley Scott
3:46, thank you for acknowledging me good sir!
Yes, another great, informative video. I learn something every time I watch your presentations. Thank you.
Jurgutha wasn’t black too…we still have his face in a Numidian coin with his (our) famous amazigh nose 👃.
What is an Amazigh nose? Kader Tarhanine has a different nose than Karim Benzema. Mbappe has a different nose than Mouloud Mammeri. Amazigh people are and have always been mixed.
Mbappe is a Nigerian because his father is Nigerian not a light skin native indigenous Amazigh of Algéria
@@samiman5606 What? His mother is Kabyle from Algeria(Amazigh/berber) and his father is from Cameroon, not Nigeria. You’re all over the place with your inaccuracies.
@@joalvarado8506 there is a type of nose in Algeria that we call it Kabyle/Berber nose and many Algerian men have it and Jurgutha had this type of nose in his coin
@@joalvarado8506 yeah and his mother is not black or mixed race, so I don't know why you're talking about Mbappe lol he doesn’t even claim himself Algerian
The Russel Crowe version is good enough. But this second one yeah Im not going to bother.
Highly unlikely any Roman had syphilis, since it is concidered to be transfered to Europe from the Americas after Colombus.
However, there is some debate about this fact, due to some pre-columbian skeleton finds on the British Isles indicating a possible syphilis contraction.
The British brought it from the Americas too most likely. Prior to Columbus' expedition fishermen had been sailing to Nova Scotia for centuries. The discoveries of the Vikings didn't just absolutely disappear, they simply were kept hush by certain coastal towns keeping a trade secret.
Even I noticed that crossbow and immediately had me thinking that you’re going to have a field day with everything else 😂
Greeks invented crossbows in the 300s BC.. Gastrophetes?
I am from Rome and i am well acquainted with the image of Caracalla, mostly because of the way he is portrayed in statues. One thing that you know if you have ever seen some imagery of him, is how tough, built and kind of unsophisticated badass he looks like. He really is completely different physically than what you see in the movie. Then of course, historical accuracy is neither Ridley Scott's specialty, nor Hollywood's.