“My house is in the hills above Trujillo, a very simple place. Pink stones that warm in the sun, a kitchen garden that smells of herbs in the day, Jasmine in the evening. Through the gate is a giant poplar, figs, apples, pears. The soil, Marcus, black, black like my wife's hair; grapes on the south slopes, olives on the north; wild ponies play near my house; they tease my son. He...he wants to be one of them…”
This is how Maximus, when asked by Marcus Aurelius, describes his house in Spain, as we are shown a landscape of winding hills, fields and small roads: a paradise, Campi Elisi, where his wife and son, who he hasn’t seen for two years, live. Maximus’ house is actually the small farm of Poggio Manzuoli in Terrapille, between San Quirico and Pienza, in the Orcia Valley in the province of Siena.
As soon as he says “On my signal, unleash hell”, Maximus’ army conquers the last of the Germanic tribes. The ferocious battle was reconstructed for the film in Bourne Forest near Farnham, in the English county of Surrey.
Betrayed by Commodus, left to die and his family killed, Maximus is captured and saved by a slave trader who takes him to Africa: the scenes depicting his incarceration and first fights as a gladiator were filmed in Aït Ben Haddou in Morocco.
Last but not least, Rome was reconstructed at Fort Ricasoli in Malta. The film is famous for its grandiose representation of the Colosseum, of which only the first row of stalls was actually built on set, with the rest created digitally.
“My house is in the hills above Trujillo, a very simple place. Pink stones that warm in the sun, a kitchen garden that smells of herbs in the day, Jasmine in the evening. Through the gate is a giant poplar, figs, apples, pears. The soil, Marcus, black, black like my wife's hair; grapes on the south slopes, olives on the north; wild ponies play near my house; they tease my son. He...he wants to be one of them…”
This is how Maximus, when asked by Marcus Aurelius, describes his house in Spain, as we are shown a landscape of winding hills, fields and small roads: a paradise, Campi Elisi, where his wife and son, who he hasn’t seen for two years, live. Maximus’ house is actually the small farm of Poggio Manzuoli in Terrapille, between San Quirico and Pienza, in the Orcia Valley in the province of Siena.
As soon as he says “On my signal, unleash hell”, Maximus’ army conquers the last of the Germanic tribes. The ferocious battle was reconstructed for the film in Bourne Forest near Farnham, in the English county of Surrey.
Betrayed by Commodus, left to die and his family killed, Maximus is captured and saved by a slave trader who takes him to Africa: the scenes depicting his incarceration and first fights as a gladiator were filmed in Aït Ben Haddou in Morocco.
Last but not least, Rome was reconstructed at Fort Ricasoli in Malta. The film is famous for its grandiose representation of the Colosseum, of which only the first row of stalls was actually built on set, with the rest created digitally.
Scott Free Productions, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures
General Maximus Decimus Meridius is the son that Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius always hoped for, and he appoints him as his successor instead of his son Commodus. But the latter kills his father and Maximus’s family. Captured by a slave trader and taken to Africa, Maximus becomes a popular gladiator known by the name of ‘the Spaniard’. Years later, in Rome, he once again comes face to face with Commodus, who has meanwhile become emperor.
