Gladiator II: Not as homophobic as you think, and there are musclemen

 

Tonight's movie night movie was Gladiator II, the sequel to Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) -- 25 years later.  I didn't want to see it because I heard it was extremely homophobic, but actually it wasn't bad.  Well, it was jingoistic and very violent, but the homophobia and heterosexism weren't too bad.

The wife of Numidian soldier Hanno (Paul Mescal) is killed during a Roman invasion around 200 AD, and he cries, screams, tries to prevent her from crossing the River Lethe for about five minutes, but then he rarely mentions her again, and he doesn't get a new girlfriend.  

He concentrates on getting revenge on the leader of the invading force, General Acacius (Pedro Pascal, left), which he will accomplish by becoming a gladiator under the scheming Macrinus (Denzel Washington).  

These aren't the hand-to-hand combat gladiators of sword-and-sandal movies.  The spectacles in the Coliseum include fights with baboons and a rhinocerous, and a sea-battle with full-size ships in a shark-infested tank

Guess what: Hanno discovers that he is actually the grandson of Marcus Aurelius, and therefore the true heir of the Roman Empire.  Plus his mother is now married to General Acacius -- he wants revenge on his stepfather!  Anybody up for an Oedipal conflict?

The only other heteronormative moment occurs when Hanno asks gladiator physician Ravi (Alexander Karim) why he traveled from India to Rome: "I met a woman."

Hanno grins: "There's always a woman."  Not always, heteronormative jerk. Gay men exist.

Homophobia: Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal have both played gay characters. Macrinus, who is plotting to take over the Empire, has a "twinkle of bisexuality," according to Ridley Scott. 

 I've published a lot about gay subtexts, and I didn't notice anything. A scene where he kisses a guy was cut, "but not due to homophobia."  Of course not, due to the belief that this is 1973, and audiences will rush from the theater.   All that is left is a statement that he "doesn't like women" some days. Dude is closeted to the point of invisibility.

The decadent (that is, acting like women) twin Emperors Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger) are oozing with homophobic villain stereotypes, except one is gay and the other is straight (we can tell because they are each fondling a consort during a depraved-party scene).

The gay one, Caracalla, actually seems to be a little more stable (which is not saying much: he installs his pet monkey his chief advisor).  

They just need to be swishy stereotypes to counterbalance the hard straightness of their rival Hanno.

More after the break.

Left: Joseph Quinn without the white powder and swsihy mannerisms.  We don't know what Geta looked like in real life, as all of the busts were destroyed after his death.

Spoiler alert: after a long, boring "Freedom!!!!!" speech, Hanno takes over as Emperor.

In real life, Geta was named emperor in 209, and his brother Caracella  (left) joined him as co-emperor in 2011.  They were not close, and rarely occupied the same room.  There is no evidence that they were gay-coded decadents.  

After  few months, Geta was murdered by Praetorian Guard, and Caracella became sole emperor until 217, when he was murdered by Macrimus.

Macrimus, who doesn't have any "twinkle of bisexuality in the historical records," lasted for about a year before being killed.  

14-year old Elagabalus took over: his reign is known for "sexual debauchery," which means dressing in women's clothes and having sex with men and women, but "is known" means "written by homophobic historians," so maybe he wasn't "decadent," just genderqueer.

And why are some of the inscriptions in Latin, some in English?

So historical accuracy is minimal.  But at least there's a lot of beefcake.  Many of the gladiators don't own shirts.

Left: Lior Raz, the no-nonsense gladiator trainer.

See also: Does Paul Mescal appear in anything good?  Is it ok to show d*ck pics?

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