The forest in the opening battle scenes is man-made and not the natural, wild forest that would have covered Germania at this time. The trees are all in nice straight lines, there are no low hanging branches and no tangled growth on the forest floor. If this were a natural forest the Roman cavalry would not be able to gallop through it and weave effortlessly between the trees as is depicted. [We can't fairly say what a given stretch of forest in that part of Europe 2000 years ago would look like. It could even be second growth forest, the original, denser primordial forest having been heavily cut by the tribes that obviously live there, and likely have for centuries.]
Gladiator (2000) - 78 corrections
Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Russell Crowe
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The forest in the opening battle scenes is man-made and not the natural, wild forest that would have covered Germania at this time. The trees are all in nice straight lines, there are no low hanging branches and no tangled growth on the forest floor. If this were a natural forest the Roman cavalry would not be able to gallop through it and weave effortlessly between the trees as is depicted. [We can't fairly say what a given stretch of forest in that part of Europe 2000 years ago would look like. It could even be second growth forest, the original, denser primordial forest having been heavily cut by the tribes that obviously live there, and likely have for centuries.] Just after Lucilla slaps Commodus while their father is lying dead in front of them, you can see Richard Harris (the "corpse") breathing. [Mistake already listed.] Corrected by Mortug In the scenes of the Colosseum the shade of the arena is wrong. There would be two types of tickets: shade or sun. One half of the Colosseum would be shade and the other sun. This is still practiced in Spain at bullfights. The shade tickets are much more expensive of course. In the movie it looks more like closer to noon than four or five o'clock. [Games in the Colosseum sometimes lasted a week. Each day, there was a full schedule of events so ,obviously, one of the events would have to be around noon.] When Maximus is walking through the parted crowed of other gladiators, all of them are yelling, " Spaniard" except one guy right in front. [So, the guy doesn't yell. It could be a character choice, maybe he does not like Maximus, or maybe he is mute or a million things.] Commodus' white armor is made to resemble marble statuary. However, Romans painted their statues in brilliant colors and never left them pristine white. [Perhaps Commodus' armour was not yet completed, thus not painted. Besides, as pointed out in other corrections, Gladiator was never intended to be a historical epic, as such, artistic license applies.] At the beginning of the film when the soldiers get told to "ignite" as in light their arrows, for a second before it cuts away you can actually see some aren't lit, and the camera quickly goes to a far away shot. [I don't see why this is a mistake. It's perfectly realistic that some arrows just won't ignite. The archers will then fire them unlit, because they don't have all day to wait for them to catch the fire.] Probably no big deal for the purposes of the movie, but Commodus ruled for 12 years after Marcus Aurelius' death (180-192 AD), not the one or two years that was portrayed in the movie. [This is not a documentary. The filmmakers merely took names from Roman history and made up a story using those names for the characters.] Rome was not on its peak during Marcus Aurelius as the film claims, but during emperor Trajanus. [Rome is generally considered to be at its peak during the reigns of what were referred to as the Five Good Emperors, of which Trajan was the second, who did indeed extend the Empire to its greatest size. Marcus Aurelius was the last of these 'Good Emperors' and thus is still considered to have presided over Rome during its peak period.] Corrected by Tailkinker Maximus cuts out his military tattoo, which would have definitely been a scar for life, but in the rest of the movie, his arm is fine. [I have looked for this scar as well, but there are no scenes that show that portion of his arm after he cuts out the tatoo. All the scenes either show his right arm only or the left arm covered with armor.] Cicero lived at the same time as Julius Caesar (the 1st century BC), not during the 2nd century AD as the film claims. [There is never any suggestion that the Cicero who appears in the film is intended to be the historical individual of the same name.] Corrected by Tailkinker In the scene where the two senators are quarreling about the note about the gladiators, we can read: "gladiatores violentia". This is an encroachment on the latin grammar. Since gladiator is a male word, the corresponding adjective should be male too. So violentia should have been violentes or violenti. Besides violentia is an adverb. [That's true for formal Latin rules, but these men are insulting the gladiators by slighting their masculinity, accusing them of an effeminate form of fighting. An equivalent in English might be to accuse a boxer of 'bitch-slapping' his opponent.] In the very last scene involving Proximo, where he is freeing Maximus, notice that the late Oliver Reed (Proximo) appears to be "glowing." This is because he died (from a massive heart attack in 1999) while filming the movie, and had to be added into the film using CGI. [Actually, Oliver Read in that scene is not CGI. It is footage taken from earlier in the film and reused and inserted into the shot with some minor changes added.] Throughout the movie, Commodus is obviously right-handed. He writes with his right hand, uses his sword in his right hand, etc. The real Emperor Commodus was left-handed, and he is the only Roman Emperor about whom we can say this for sure. [The movie is not an historical biography. The only thing borrowed from history are some names.] Corrected by Rlvlk The tattoo Maximus has, the so-called 'mark of the legion', is wrong. In the time of Marcus Aurelius, the legionnaires were given an identification tag made of bronze or lead. The tattoo was introduced decades later. [There was also at no point in Roman history a general called Maximus Decimus Meridius, nor was Emperor Commodus killed during a gladiator battle in front of a crowd (in reality he was strangled in his sleep by a man named Narcissus). Rome did not return to a period of republicanism as it does at the end of the film, either, nor was there a senator Gracchus to lead the new Roman regime. The film script purposefully adds or alters certain elements of Roman history whenever it suits the plot, as the tattoo's presence decades before being introduced did.] In the middle after the gladiator match in the Roman province arena, Maximus and Proximo are talking in Proximo's place. Maximus starts laughing, and Proximo's position in the room changes dramatically between shots. [He stands on the exact same point in front of the table throughout the shots until we see him walk away from the table.] Corrected by Mortug
In the scene near the beginning when we see Maximus and Lucilla talking for the first time, after Lucilla says " Maximus stop" for the second time, in one shot Maximus is not facing Lucilla, yet in the following shot he is fully facing Lucilla. [You are being fooled by the camera angle. If you watch closely you can see Lucilla standing in the same spot on the side of Maximus and he is never facing her between the shots.] Corrected by Mortug When Commodus walks up the steps in Rome to meet the other men, on the far away shot, there are a lot of steps to go up, yet when we see Commodus pass Lucilla after a few steps, he is suddenly at the top with greetings from the men in white clothing. [Well, we could have watched Commodus climb up a lot of steps, but it would have been a bit boring. This is a standard editing technique to speed things up a bit - by no means a mistake.] Corrected by Tailkinker When Proximo is testing each slave, by giving them a wooden sword, they practice with a bigger slave. After each fight, Proximo says either yellow or red. The black guy who fights gets a red mark, so does Maximus, yet in the Roman Province scene in the small arena, someone says put red with yellow, yet when Maximus and the black guy come out, they are both "red". [Maximus is never given a red mark - he refuses to fight in the testing, which (although we don't actually see Proximo state a colour) would certainly earn him a yellow mark, allowing him to be paired with the red-marked Juba. The yellow mark on his tunic can be seen very clearly on multiple occasions during the arena fight.] Corrected by Tailkinker When Commodus is speaking to Maximus at the end just before the fight you can see Maximus's hand slipping out of the cuffs holding him to the wall. [After watching the scene it is obvious that his hands would never slip entirely off the cuffs. His wrist is too big to get through.] Corrected by Mortug At the end of the first battle sequence there is a brief "victory" shot of the Roman army celebrating. Towards the bottom of the screen you can see an obviously dressed Germanian warrior cheering alongside some Roman soldiers. Wonder what he has to be happy about, except for maybe being alive in the middle of that bunch. [There are no Germanian warriors anywhere near the cheering Roman crowd.] Corrected by Mortug