You’ll have no trouble understanding the movie, but it’s very historically inaccurate, fyi.

Yeah for sure, it’s not very historically accurate, it’s just a damn good movie. I knew virtually nothing aside from knowing who Marcus Aurelius was (didn’t know anything about him other than that he was a leader of Rome at some point) and I loved it.

It's one of my favorite films in years. Absolute masterclass in subtlety and minimalistic filmmaking. Love that it also released in the same year as EEOAA, which is also great but pretty much the exact opposite in pretty much every way.

It's probably my favourite film this side of Moonlight.

Is that, like, all of them?

I think Mescal performance is deserving of his Oscar nod, just a quick glance and body movement tells you all you need to know on that character.

I could be totally out of my depth here. It always felt looking at Calum , that Sophie's mum probably dumped him and that his family was everything to him. When he's in conservation with her on the phone, you just tell the man's heartbroken to see that she's moved on to someone else. You see moments of recklessness from him that shows that he's on the edge.

That Sophie is probably the only person he has left that keeps him hanging on, and that once he sees that she's growing up and growing apart from him throughout the holiday, that it's the end for him. And not knowing it's clearly effected Sophie that she needed him as much as he needed her. That's what I read into it and it's really heartbreaking.

HAHA, yeah, you'll do fine. It's in no way a representation of reality.

All you really need to know is that the Roman Empire was a big deal a long long time ago.
And the opening crawl has you covered anyway.

Yes

You snooze you lose.

I was lost in that movie. The whole time I thought they were in Florida.

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It's a fictional film set during a real era, so it's not based on a true story as such. You'll be fine. It might be worse the more knowledge you have.

We like to think crass commercialism is a modern invention.

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It seems like over half of people who saw it had roughly the same response, which is kind of amazing.

Don’t worry about it, it’s an excellent movie and one of my favourites. You don’t need to know how WW2 started to enjoy Saving Private Ryan, so you’ll be fine. Wish I could watch Gladiator for the first time again! Enjoy!

I was surprised it was nominated and won an Oscar for Best Picture. At the time it seemed to be out of left field for a summer movie to win.

Your missing the point of a movie it's not a documentary or a history lesson I've seen it 20 times one of my favs

I own a Gladiator and the user manual is fairly straightforward.

It's the kind of movie that could have been set on an alien planet with laser swords and giant space insects instead of lions and horses and it would pretty much have been 99% the same movie.

It's a Blockbuster movie that doesnt expect a PhD to be entertaining. Have fun, it explains everything important.

The filmmakers didn’t know anything either and it worked out fine.

Believe in yourself

Yes, it's just a well-made blockbuster. It bears little relation to history or reality.

The less you know, the more you will understand it.

Take into account that it's a very realistic movie. Crowe rides a horse from Germany to central Spain like nothing.