Gladiator 2: Make Rome "Great Again"

My observations after seeing the long-awaited sequel to a great film

I got a chance to see Gladiator 2 a couple of days ago. It’s a pretty good film.

Anyone who says that it’s wack, didn’t really understand what they watched. If you’ve enjoyed my writings on North Africa, the Moors, and Southern Europe, I think you’ll appreciate Gladiator 2.

But just know this: until I get involved in a full-length feature film production as a writer and/or consultant, you’re not going to see a film that fully captures the Moorish legacy in Europe with a killer story and orgasmic visuals.

I think Ridley Scott did a great job of capturing what ancient Rome actually looked like as far as who lived there in the second and third centuries.

Real scholars of “classical” European civilization acknowledge that Rome was a cosmopolitan society with people of different races and ethnic groups occupying the city. Conceptually, Rome wasn’t much different from New York City even if it didn’t have the percentage of Black people that New York City does today.

People who would treat the film as if it’s a historical account of real events must understand that Gladiator 2 is purely historical fiction. It’s a made up story about some characters who existed in real life.

In the actual history of ancient Rome, the two brothers Geta and Caracalla are the sons of Septimus Severus who was the North African-born emperor of ancient Rome. Many credible Roman historians have been of the opinion that Severus was a Black man with a white wife, therefore his sons Geta and Caracalla were of a mixed racial heritage.

The costume team for Gladiator 2 did an excellent job of making the historically aware viewer really contemplate the true essence and  cultural origins of Roman culture through the fashion. We know that the Romans inherited a lot from the Hellenes, who have been rebranded by historians since the Great Enlightenment as the ancient “Greeks.” However, Rome was culturally eclectic, so the truth is, they pulled from a lot of people besides the Hellenes.

 For instance, only the emperor was allowed to wear purple in ancient Rome, but this comes directly out of Mauretanien culture. Look into the story of the Mauretanien ruler known as Ptolemy (not to be confused with the Hellenic general for Alexander of Macedonia who lived centuries earlier). Mauretania  was at one time a Roman province that made up parts of what we now call Algeria and Morocco.

Did Rome INITIALLY start out as an outpost of North Africa? If we observe how Black people set trends that the entire world follows today, it would be insanely naive to think that this wasn’t also the case in ancient times. Humanity is what it has always been. The cultural dynamics of the modern world that you know today aren’t completely alien to the ancient world.

When you see Emperors Geta and Caracalla at the Diddy Party in the film, pay very close attention to their drip. It looks like a regional variation of traditional West African male attire down to the jewelry adornments. In the movie, Caracalla has a gold tooth. Many historians believe that wearing gold teeth started with the Etruscans of pre-Roman Italy, but why aren’t Italians the poster children for gold teeth today? It’s conceivable that the Etruscans were not ethnically and culturally the same as the modern Italian. Denzel Washington’s character, Macrinus, was rocking the small hoop earrings in both ears which is something we repeatedly see in artistic depictions of Moors in old European art.

Geta and Caracalla did not have orange hair in really life, but the filmmakers were brilliantly  superimposing the likeness of Donald Trump over the film characters so that the viewer would automatically have an aversion to them at first sight without relying entirely on the script. This is very interesting, because although Donald Trump won the popular vote this past election, it is hard to say that he is well-liked and admired as a human being by the majority of Americans who voted for him. What a paradox!

The co-rulership of Geta and Caracalla represent the split and divided status of the United States of America (red and blue states), which is relying on an outmoded political dichotomy of a Democratic and Republican Party. Both parties are corrupt and value the reach of American empire more than the needs of the American people. There are influential people in government who do not like this and would like an executive branch that serves U.S. citizens.

“Make America Great Again” has been a political rallying cry for the better part of a decade now. However, there are millions of dissatisfied Americans who believe that America has NEVER been great, and therefore has no greatness to return to. These are the descendants of enflamed ancestors who received broken promises upon being freed from enslavement. Indigenous lands were stolen from denationalized people. The dissatisfied live on in the blood of their children who will inevitably spark the fire next time.

Denzel Washington’s character, Macrinus, is creatively refashioned as a charismatic, but cold and calculating Black Identity Extremist. In many ways he’s what white America fears most: a calculating Black man who knows how to smile and pretend as if he’s harmless and well integrated into the “American Dream” but in his heart, he is more like Hannibal Barca patiently waiting for vengeance.

Denzel captures Barak Obama mannerisms and Kyrie Irving facial expressions throughout the film. It’s so subtle, it’s masterful. The more that I watch Denzel movies the more I feel like he is giving us peaks into who he is in real life with every role he plays. There are very subtle things he does and says that doesn’t look or feel like merely “good acting.” Perhaps the great actors are the ones who find the character that they are playing within themselves and project that outward.

I can say so much more on this good film, but I’d rather answer your questions about it, or just hear your thoughts about it if you’ve already seen it.