MOVIE NEWS – Ridley Scott, one of today’s most successful directors, always appreciates criticism of his works, but he doesn’t like it. So far, he has fought back hard when people have linked him to one of the moments of one of his films, and this has happened quite often, considering that he handles historical facts quite freely.

Gladiator II, being a costume opus, is already being heavily criticized online, saying that things in ancient Rome were not the way Scott imagined them to be. portrays them in a film. The self-proclaimed critics were already on their feet when they saw the trailer: they were complaining that they couldn’t even fill the Roman Colosseum with water and let sharks into it to stage a bloody sea battle for the audience’s pleasure. Scott replied that the sorcerers don’t pocket it. Warning, explicit content follows!

“You’re dead wrong. The Colosseum could indeed be filled with water and there were water battles. My brother, if you can build a Coliseum, you can also get that fucking water in there. Are you having fun with me? And what does it cost to catch a couple of sharks with a net and bring them there? What are we talking about?”

Scott’s argument is undoubtedly supported by historical facts, as the naumachia, i.e. battle with ships, was a popular attraction in the Roman Empire for centuries, when carefully planned water battles were staged as a circus spectacle. It is true that it is in open water, but from here it is only a small step if one imagines: all this can be done in a huge arena filled with water. Scott did nothing but raise the historical fact to a higher level, as he is entitled to this freedom as an artist. It is also within the scope of artistic freedom that he even sprinkled his watery arena with a couple of sharks, so that the people of the multiplexes could rejoice, as their ancient predecessors did in the Colosseum.

(Gladiator II – domestic release: November 14, 2024.)