Gladiator

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The fights staged in Gladiator are masterful set pieces; stylized and captured gloriously. However, the fighting in Gladiator is not unrealistic; it's graphic and bloody. The warriors who battle each other are not super-men, they are normal men, real fighters, who get bashed and beat up at every turn. These soldiers combat in a truly gritty way, they are warriors who need to smell and rub their hands in the earth they battle upon. Chief amongst these mortal combatants is Russell Crowe's, a hero of mythological stance, whose raw aggression on the battlefront, coupled with his powerful expressions (combating and not combating, his silent moments from his execution to his first brawl in the arena are his best) and compelling heroics earned him a well earned Oscar. I've always been intrigued by gladiators and the story of Spartacus, so when I saw this YA series I thought I'd give it a read just out of curiosity. Wow! Am I happy I did.

The novel is widely assumed to have been an inspiration for Superman due to similarities between Danner and the earliest versions of Superman who debuted in 1938, [1] [2] though no confirmation exists that Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were directly influenced by Wylie's work. [3] Publication history [ edit ] For the rest of it, "Gladiator" finds Wylie exhibiting a love affair with the English language, and his book really does feel as if it were aspiring to be placed in the pantheon of Great American Novels. Wylie's patent love of language is akin to the great Mark Helprin's today; this is one sci-fi novel that can truly be deemed great literature, as well. So many beautifully written passages practically cry out to be underlined or highlighted. Take, for example, this throwaway description of the ocean off the coast of Panama, as Hugo gazes at it: This is neither a history of grand events, nor an academic discourse or comprehensive review of evidence. If you've learned all you know about gladiatorial life from movies such as Gladiator - be prepared to be challenged with actual historical details. My favorite quote from the book was said by Brixus (a lieutenant) of the Famous Spartacus) who said to Marcus "you carry the mark of the rebellion, you carry the mark of Spartacus!" i fond this interesting because he said in a slave house and nearly yelled it. Saying this would have gotten him and Marcus killed if Someone had heard them.

After that, the story changes, with Danner treating his unborn child. The remainder of the novel is about Hugo's upbringing and the challenges with the use (and curse) of his abilities. The most poignant of these is World War I. Marcus en zijn familie wonen op een boerderij alles is perfect. Totdat Decimus komt en zijn vader vermoord. Marcus en zijn moeder worden meegenomen en worden slaven, maar Marcus ontsnapt. Voor een korte tij was hij vrij, totdat hij weer werd gevangen door een gladiatorenhandelaar. Hij komt bij een school terecht en leert daar te vechten, maar dan is er nog Ferax. Die alles van Marcus zou afnemen als hij kon. Ook zijn leven. Zal Marcus het ooit overleven? En kan hij zijn moeder ooit nog redden van het slavenwerk? The story start with a scientist, Abednego Danner, who was a professor of biology in a small college in the town of Indian Creek. He was interested in the fact that “An ant can carry a large spider—yet an ant is tissue and fiber, like a man. If a man could be given the same sinews—he could walk off with his own house”, “Consider the grasshoppers. Make a man as strong as a grasshopper—and he'll be able to leap over a church. I tell you, there is something that determines the quality of every muscle and nerve”. Compare this with an early description published in Action Comics #1 that also compared Superman’s great strength to an ant’s ability to carry hundreds of times its own weight and a grasshopper’s ability to leap great distances. Even the insects used for the comparison are the same!

The story surrounds Marcus a ten-year-old Roman who lives with his mother and father, a retired Centurion, on a remote farm. The description of the book says Marcus was "recruited" as a gladiator. It's a much sadder story than that. Seriously, considering they were all slaves, was anyone actually "recruited" as a gladiator? The writing, in particular during the lengthy sequence set in WW1, is of unexpectedly high quality. This was pretty stunning. I knew that Superman took some elements from Doc Savage but it stole even more liberally from this, however i also saw elements of Spider-Man and many other superhero stories, there's even a little Teen Wolf too. Hugo never seems to find himself, and feels he's cursed to live apart from humanity, who fear and hate him for his unusual abilities. I kept expecting, since I've heard this referred to as an influence to superheroes and Doc Savage, that Hugo would turn to crime-fighting, but that never happens.Het feit dat Marcus de zoon van Spartacus is zat er al heel lang aan te komen, maar het is een interessante wending. De vijandigheid tussen Ferax en Marcus is interessant, maar al vaak gedaan. Net als de vriendschap tussen Brixus en Marcus. Maar toch... ik ben geïntrigeerd door dit boek. En ik ben benieuwd of het volgende boek, waarin Marcus de lijfwacht wordt van Caesars nichtje, ervoor zorgt dat Marcus minder naïef en slinkser wordt. Attitudes have also changed. There is a casual sexism towards women that really stands out nearly a century later, but it's not intentionally cruel. Wylie also shows that the lower caste is casually racist as they use phrases like, "That's sure white of you." (The first time I heard a similar phrase, "That's mighty white of you," was from Burgess Meredith in some old movie and I did a double-take.) The stronger, the greater, you are, the harder life is for you. And you're the strongest of them all, Hugo." I decided to read 'Fight for Freedom by Simon Scarrow because I enjoy learning about ancient Greece and so since Rome is Right next to Greece I decided to read this book. i also had a read of the blurb and saw that his father was murdered as a centurion which high rank in the Roman Military so i wanted to find out more.