Just a year after the release of Napoleon, Ridley Scott is back with another historical epic, Gladiator II, the sequel to arguably his magnum opus. The original Gladiator had a lot of things going for it—compelling performances from Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, action-packed combat, a rousing score from Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard—but enough time has passed that we can admit historical accuracy was not one of them. The wild fudging of facts didn’t really matter at the time—certainly not in the eyes of the Academy, which awarded Gladiator Best Picture in 2001. Who cares if everyone refers to Maximus as “Spaniard” despite the term not existing until the 15th century? Did you not see his “I will have my vengeance” speech?!
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