The movie Gladiator II entertains hugely. However, it does not educate people about how vengeance came to be the ruling principle of civic and international life in ancient Rome. That rogue philosophy resulted from the drying up of Rome’s system of civics education and from the unregulated accumulation of money and power.
Yes, characters in the two Gladiator movies have a “dream of Rome” as it once was, but there is no hint of how or why democracy happens in the real world of history. The two movies are full of throat-slashing violence, man-eating mutated baboons, and man-eating sharks, … the kind of stuff that makes rich producers richer and poor people poorer.
Gladiator II put in a modern context is about a young Muslim in Gaza whose family is killed, thus radicalizing him during America’s puppet-war there. He comes to America to exact revenge on the political establishment that harmed his family.
Because we are so busy being entertained with the low-life elements of an ancient culture, we are learning nothing about how to avoid reliving Rome’s history in America.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
This article appears in Jan 2-12, 2025.