The Machine has no loyalities: The story of Gladiator

*SPOILER ALERT*

The movie Gladiator is a good action movie and it is great for testing out home theater systems but story-wise it's a little weak. There is little character growth, few twists and not much deeper meaning. Well maybe there is a deeper meaning and that meaning is told in the opening scene.

Two sides line up for battle: on one side there is the Roman Army bent on conquest, well funded, strictly hierarchy with an omnipotent emperor, who while not always seen is always in charge. The Roman Army is a military machine, each soldier has a role, a class and a superior. The army moves in formation, mowing down all that lay before them, a bloody lawn mower. In charge of the army is Maximus, the army makes him powerful but the army can exist without him.

On the other side are German barbarians defending their homes in what is now Austria. These man are not organized, not rich, they did not seek out conflict but conflict found them. They do not fight in formation as soldiers but stand as warriors. There is no clear king, no clear class structure. These man are not part of a military machine.

In this sense, the Roman military machine represents the political machine and the German warriors represent individuals not part of a political system or machine.

At the peak of this battle there are two things going on of importance: first Maximus is fighting back to back with another soldier and he almost stabs him because he executing his role in the army mindlessly. Maximus would never murder a fellow Roman but caught up in the batle he is a different person. Second we see a barbarian champion, a hero like figure, fighting off many Romans, outnumbered but he stands above them undefeated. He is an individual fighting to preserving his way of life but he is soon devoured by the army, dead and defeated.

The machine cannot permit an individual to triumph not matter how worthy his cause, any success against the machine will be inevitably be destroyed.

Maximus does change throughout the movie, he a family man who fights for his livelihood and what is just (justice for his murdered family). He doesn't learn a lesson, he doesn't grow, he doesn't display any trait later in the movie that he didn't have in the beginning of the movie.

So how does he go from the powerful head of a very strong army to a lifeless corpse bleeding in the sand of the arena? It happens because he ended up on the wrong side of the machine. His friends crushed and betrayed him because they are loyal to the machine, he stood up to the machine and the machine crushed him because he dared to be an individual who challenged the machine.

The lesson? Where you stand is more important than who you are. Don't betray the machine.