Andrew Sexton Essays - NervaAntonine Dynasty, Aurelii, Films

Andrew Sexton Core-100 Yandell 2-9-2017 Hero's Journey Analysis Maximus: The Journey of a True Hero Often in movies, novels and other stories, there are tales of a hero and all his adventures. This common use of story-telling is known as the hero's journey. The hero's journey was first created by a man named Christopher Vogler, who condensed the journey into twelve simple stages. In the movie Gladiator, the main character, Maximus, portrays this hero's journey and the twelve stages as he starts off as a general for the Roman Legion. However, not all tales completely follow the hero's journey exactly. The director of Gladiator, Ridley Scott, uses creative twists in the hero's journey to create a unique and different type of hero's journey. To summarize the film, Maximus is a general for the Roman Legion under the rule of Caesar Marcus Aurelias. The legion is faced by a long-standing war with Germania rebels. The legion quickly take care of the rebels and achieve victory. The caesar however, knows that will die soon, so he requests that Maximus be the next caser once he passes, but Maximus respectfully declines. Angered, because he was not loved by his father, Aurelia's' son Commodus, vengefully kills his father so that he would be named the next Caesar. Commodus asks Maximus for his allegiance, but once again, Maximus declines. Angered once again, Commodus sentences Maximus to be executed, as well as his family back home. Maximus escapes his sentence and flees back home, only to see his wife and son murdered, crisped, and hung. Maximus stays at his home, where later a slave caravan takes him in to test him out to be a gladiator. His owner, Proximal throws him into the gladiator ring, where Maximus and his comrades are victorious on multiple accounts. While Maximus continues to fight, the new Caesar, Commodus tries to make Rome great again, and he introduces games back into Rome. With Maximus' and his gladiator comrades' previous victories, Proximal takes them to Rome where they will fight in the big stage as gladiators. Ultimately, Proximal knows that Maximus is great fighter, and that with his help, he may be able to earn his freedom from fighting. In the gladiator's first fight in Rome, the warriors achieve victory in what was supposed to be certain death. Impressed, Commodus visits the winners, and is surprised to see Maximus as one of the warriors. Maximus then declares revenge on Commodus, but he cannot kill Maximus because the crowd loves the warrior and it would be considered political suicide. In the ring, Maximus continues to win fights, which angers Commodus greatly. Maximus also continues to plan his revenge, where he will escape from the gladiator keeps and kill Commodus, so that ther e may be proper reign in Rome again. With the help of Proximal and the rest of the fighters, Maximus escapes, but is shortly captured by the guards since Commodus had knowledge of his plans. Maximus is taken back in and is forced to have one last fight, but this time against Commodus. In his last fight in the ring, Commodus greets Maximus and tells him that he himself will fight Maximus, but in an unjust way. Commodus wounds Maximus shortly before their fight so that he could have the advantage. Maximus and Commodus fight to the death, where Maximus ends up killing Commodus, but also ends up dying due to his wounds. Once dead, Maximus ends up in the afterlife with his wife and son, his true home. Per Vogler, there are three different acts that the hero's journey partakes on. The first part of act one is the ordinary world. Per Vogler, the purpose of the ordinary world is to "take the hero out of the ordinary, mundane world and into a special world." This is not the case for the gladiator Maximus. To the common viewer, the ordinary world for Maximus is the real world, where Maximus is a general for the Roman Legion. However, after analysis of the movie, the viewer can conclude that the ordinary world to Maximus is not reality. This is the most important aspect to where Scott adds his own little twist to the hero's journey. Everything Maximus does in the