Gladiator and The Fall of The Roman Empire

I finally saw Gladiator, it was a passable revenge fantasy action film.  What's interesting is it's lineage.

1964's The Fall of The Roman Empire is a movie inspired by Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, in particular his thesis that the reign of Commodus was the beginning of the end.  It's a heavily fictionalized account, streamlining things to work as a Shakespearean Tragedy.  But what would be interesting for someone better at this kind of analysis then me to do in a Video Essay is break down how even what it changes is done to serve Gibbon's overall premise.

Gibbon's book is probably the most influential history book of it's era.  Many later history books about other empires ape the name, yes he pretty much invented the entire trend of saying "decline and fall of ____" in and of itself.

Actual historical fiction isn't the only fiction inspired by it, it was part of the inspiration for Isaac Asimov's Foundation series which in turn influenced Star Wars making it important to the development of Science Fiction.  And one of the many ambitious ideas in my head I'll probably never get to realize is an alternate history where Rome doesn't fall because Commodus was successfully overthrown by his sister, the present narrative I imagined for that project had perhaps a little too much direct inspiration from Code Geass.

It shows what a unique kind of nerd I am that I'd read a good deal of Gibbon before I saw any fiction depicting Commodus.  Currently I no longer remember most of the specifics of what he said.  But it also says something about me that I was born in 1985 and yet saw the 1964 movie a long time ago while only got to Gladiator within the last week.

I like TFOTRE, it's got a darker vibe then most of the old Historical Epics, yet still feels like an epic in a way most of these modern mostly Gladiator inspired gritty ancient history films do not.  One scene that sticks with me is where after Commodus becomes Emperor these representatives of the Eastern Provinces come to ask him for relief and he in turn says he's going to be even harsher on them.  I remember it because of how it echos Rehoboam in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles and why the Northern Kingdom seceded.

Gladiator is clearly on some level inspired by the 1964 film.  It is historically inaccurate in a lot of the exact same ways, and doesn't mention barely any historical facts or ideas you can't get from it or Spartacus.  But is clearly much more interested in being a comic book superhero origin story set in Rome then it is in communicating with what that movie was actually about.  There is some lip service given to Roman politics but it feels mostly hollow and the film ends with the impression that Rome is going to be better now, which whether you agree with Gibbon's thesis or not clearly didn't happen.

I'm by no means against something having a happier ending then it's source material.  But Gladiator doesn't feel much like it earned anything about it's ending.

The year before Gladiator came out another movie drew inspiration from 1964's The Fall of The Roman Empire.  There is a clear homage to it at the end of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  I've been a fan of both these movies for years yet it took someone else to point out their connection to me.  But in this case it's a reference being made with the intent of referencing what that movie is about, in this case it's the beginning of the end of the Republic, but it echos the same idea.

I'm mostly just annoyed we have two major Hollywood films about Commodus but Marcia is in neither...... wait....... that Wikipedia page has been changed to now saying she had Christian "sympathies", are the conservatives uncomfortable with counting someone like her as one of us finally noticing she exists?