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).