Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Russell Crowe (add more)
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
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
Before one of the gladiatorial fights in the Colosseum, there are chariots with men throwing free bread to the crowd. The camera angle changes and they have moved further away from the crowd. [What we see are chariots on each side of the Colosseum. On one side the chariots are closer to the crowd than the other chariots.]
Corrected by Mortug
In the scene where Maximus is escaping, and he sees his friend Cicero on his horse, Cicero shouts "Maximus." as he tries to warn him. The horse is startled and runs off, but the noose around Cicero's neck pulls him and flings him backwards. As he swings backwards, he hits the tree. In the next shot, Cicero is alive. But someone that had been alive, even with a noose around their neck, would have twitched, or made some indication of trying to pull away from the tree. [He broke his neck and was paralyzed.]
Corrected by Mortug
When Maximus is being taken to be executed we see the hands of a hung, dead roman soldier. At the last second just before the camera changes you can see the man flick his thumb. [Those are Maximus' tied hands we are seeing.]
Corrected by Mortug
In the first battle against the Germanians, after the Roman army shoots their arrows, if you look hard enough, you'll notice all the soldiers aren't "real" people. Some of them are obviously mannequins and they just stand there. [I have looked but I can see no evidence that they have used mannequins, or see any soldiers that look like mannequins in the battle.]
Corrected by Mortug
At the very end of the film, Juba is burying Maximus' figurines on the floor of the Colosseum. He digs a deep enough hole to bury the bag but as he's covering it up with dirt, he totally messes up and hardly any of the bag would actually be covered if the shot lasted long enough for us to see his hand move away. [It's a part of a ritual where he holds his hand over the buried figures and prays for Maximus and his family.]
Corrected by Mortug
There seems to be a mystery surrounding Hagen. Although he dies by being shot and stabbed at Proximo's home, when Maximus dies, we see someone looking suspiciously like him come forward to carry Maximus. Does he have a long-lost twin, or is he immortal? [He certainly looks like Hagen, but it isn't him.]
Corrected by Mortug
When Maximus is walking to the Colosseum and his friend uses a black-haired woman to pass him the message (his carvings), she grabs his chest plate and almost pulls off the metal horse. A second later the metal is back on his chest guard undamaged. [She isn't even near his chest plate.]
Corrected by Mortug
In the first fight in Morocco, Maximus pulls those two swords out of the warrior and slices his head off. Watch the section where the camera is behind the warrior as his head is chopped off. If you look carefully you can see that he has a dark stick supporting the head. [Not even in slow motion can the stick be seen that you mention.]
Corrected by Mortug
In the scene in the beginning of the film, Marcus Araelius is in his tent working on a document. The writing utensil he's using looks suspiciously like a number two pencil. This is seen again just after the Battle of Carthage; Commodus repeats the scene, working on some document with, obviously, a number two pencil. [You really don't think the director is stupid enough to use a number two pencil? Twice? That is an ink pen.]
Corrected by Mortug
In the very first scene, after the battle is done, Maximus shouts 'Roman Victor' If you watch very closely, his lips are not moving to what he says. [They match perfectly. Also the scene is played in slightly slow motion for dramatic purpose. It would sound silly if the voice would be in slow motion as well, wouldn't it?]
Corrected by Mortug
In one of the first scenes of the movie, when Maximus is first taken from his room to be executed, all of the guards grab him and he begins to struggle. If you watch behind him, a guard raises his sword (unsheathed) and apparently strikes him in the back of the head. A strike like that should have killed Maximus, or at least left some sort of gash in the back of his head, yet when we see him later, there is no mark. [The Praetorian struck Maximus with the hilt, not the blade.]
In the very first scene, when the Roman army is moving towards the Germanians, the way they attack is incorrect. As they first start to attack, they attack in rows, which is what any army should have done. But as soon as the armies clash, the Romans completely scatter. Had these soldiers done this, they would have been completely slaughtered. [This isn't a film mistake, it is your opinion of how the Romans handled themselves in this particular battle. In fact on the outskirts of their Empire the Roman Army was constantly troubled by undisciplined local conscripts reverting to their usual, chaotic style of skirmish fighting.]
In the scene where Maximus is pounced on by the tiger while fighting Tigris, if you look close enough you notice that the tiger lurches for Maximus's hand. If you look even closer, you can see Maximus holding food in his hand so the tiger would jump on him. [This is not true, Maximus may be holding something that looks like food, but there would be no reason to. Using real tigers, and allowing them to pounce on the actor would be extremely dangerous, so they used model tigers. If you have the DVD, look at the 'still picture' gallery, and you can see a few shots of 'Maximus' with model tigers on top of him.]
In the restaurants outside the Colosseum you see glass bottles on the table and the senators drinking from glasses. But glass was much too expensive in that time to be used in such ordinary restaurants. [Not so. The Romans were masters of mass production and had learned how to mass produce glass years before Commodus became emperor. Therefore, glass objects were also available to the lower classes.]
At the start of the "Battle of Carthage", a man shouts: "Far away, in Zarma." Zarma is not the name for the land. It's Zama. [ The long a (ar) as opposed to the short a (ah) is entirely due to the speaker's accent. Unless he is carrying around a sign with the name misspelled, this is not a film mistake.]
The throne on which Commodus sits at his palace looks like an 18th century "Empire" style chair typical of Napoleon's period, (I believe the Romans used marble thrones with cushions). Also it is situated in front of an opening that looks like a balcony. Not considering the fact that the Emperor could catch his death of cold, it would have been extremely easy to murder him. Also where was his Praetorian Guard (the only army allowed in the city of Roman who acted as the Emperor's bodyguards) when he moved in the Palace? [The only imperial thrones made out of marble (or any other type of stone) stood in the senate or in the abs of the basilica. Any other roman furniture was almost always made out of wood. The throne we see in the movie probably resembles something close to the real thing. In fact, there are numerous roman reliefs' that show almost identical chairs. As Archaeologists of the 18th century "discovered" ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the designers and craftsmen of the time based there designs on these reliefs.]
The upper part of the Colosseum was made out of wood and was not replaced with stone until 223 AD. Marcus Aurelius died in the year 180. In the movie you can see that the upper portion is made of stone. [This is true, but there is evidence that suggests the Romans used stucco and plaster to conceal the wooden construction and make it look real. This was done for various reasons such as a lack of money or just a lack of time.]
The use of cavalry in the opening battle is wildly inaccurate, and not reflective of Roman cavalry practice. [This depends on both the type of battle and the era. In the Aurelian era cavalry were used in all of the Germanic battles. The battle conditions also made a surprise cavalry attack the ideal option.]
Although many like to quote it, few have apparently read "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by British historian Edward Gibbons. For it clearly describes a Roman general named Maximus Quintillian. He may or may not be the person portrayed in the movie, but there was a Roman general named Maximus who defeated the Germanians and was a favourite of Marcus Aurelius. He was killed by Commodus. [Actually, if you watch the documentary on the VHS called 'Blood, Sand and Celuloid', it clearly states that Maximus was the only fictitious character in the film. If you read 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' and other related texts properly, it is quite clear that Maximus Quintillian was a favourite of Marcus Antonius Aurelius, not Marcus Aurelius. It is true that Quintillian was killed by Marcus Antonius Aurelius' son, but he was called Antonius Commodus. As such, this was an entirely different father and son, though the names are similar. There is no record of a general called Maximus at the time of the early Aurelians, the time of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.]
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